Michigan State hires outside firm to review Feb. 13 shooting response
DETROIT — Michigan State University has hired an outside firm to review its response to the Feb. 13 mass shooting that left three students dead and five critically injured.
Interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff said in a statement Tuesday that the school has tapped Security Risk Management Consultants to lead the review.
The Columbus, Ohio-based company will evaluate the university's immediate response to the shooting, including law enforcement action. It also will assess the school's operational response, campus support and communications protocols, she said.
The company's staff includes former law enforcement and public safety officials from large higher education institutions with expertise in emergency management and security planning, she added.
"SRMC brings decades' worth of experience in response evaluation and safety and security improvements with work spanning 40 states and 10 countries," Woodruff said.
Once its evaluation is completed, the company will make recommendations to MSU to enhance its crisis response and campus safety, officials said. They also said the recommendations will be made public.
—The Detroit News
Pennsylvania will classify xylazine as schedule III drug, governor says
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday his administration plans to schedule xylazine, the powerful veterinary sedative, as a schedule III drug.
Xylazine, also known as tranq, is legal for veterinary use to sedate large animals, such as horses. But in recent years the drug has spread into fentanyl supplies across the country, including Philadelphia.
"This drug is a serious threat," Shapiro said in the city's Kensington neighborhood, which has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic.
Making it a schedule III drug would allow the state to require tighter record keeping, require the drug to be stored in locked facilities, and give law enforcement the ability to charge people in illegal possession of the drug. What's more, manufacturers must add additional checks to ensure the person who ordered the drug is the one receiving it.
Shapiro said that as governor, he's able to reclassify substances that pose an imminent hazard to public safety through his secretary of health.
The scheduling of the drug is expected to begin in May.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton fetches over $6 million at Swiss auction
BERLIN — A rare 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton was auctioned off for 5.5 million Swiss francs ($6.1 million) in Zurich on Tuesday, according to the auctioneers.
The price includes the commission for the auction house, it said. "The skeleton remains in Europe," a spokesman for Koller auctions in Zurich said, without providing further information on the buyer's identity.
Just over half of the 293 bones in the mounted T. rex, dubbed "TRX-293 Trinity," are "original bone material" from three different specimens discovered between 2008 and 2013 in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana, according to the auction house. The auctioneers say this is a good rate.
The particularly sought-after species T. rex is considered the best-selling dinosaur given that T. rexes were long thought to have been the largest predators ever to inhabit the Earth.
The skeleton will soon be exhibited in a museum in Abu Dhabi.
—dpa
LA teachers win 21% wage increase in tentative pact with district
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles school district and the teachers union have reached a tentative agreement that provides a 21% wage increase over about three years, averting the potential of a second strike this school year.
The package also calls for additional pay increases in areas where it has been hard to recruit staff. These include an added $20,000 salary bump for nurses and $3,000 ongoing for school psychologists, psychiatric social workers, attendance counselors and other special services providers. All of these workers are represented by the United Teachers Los Angeles union.
The pact also includes an extra $2,500 ongoing increase for special education teachers and a $1,500 ongoing raise for early education teachers. There’s long been a shortage of permanent teachers for students with disabilities. The early education field is growing with the expansion of transitional kindergarten as an optional grade for all 4-year-olds.
—Los Angeles Times
