Wedrnesday, June 16, 1 Wt.

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Three


Wednesday, June l~, l's*! ~y THE MfCHIGAN ~A1LY Poge Three

Petitions put bottle
ban on Nov. ballot

By BARBARA ZAHS
Following one of the most successful
petition drives ever waged in the state,
the Michigan United Conservation Club
(MUCC) has managed to place a pro-
posal on the November ballot that would
ban throwaway beverage containers.
The signatures of 212,000 people, eight
per cent of the registered voters who
voted in the last election, were required
to get the measure to appear on the
ballot, but the MUCC was able to garner
more than 400,000 names in just over a
month.
"PEOPLE IN the state have given us
overwhelming support," declared MUCC
staff assistant Rick Jameson.
If approved by a majority of voters in
November, the measure would ban the
use of non-returnable soft drink and beer
1E
Now I've heard
everything
Counselors at American University in
Washington probably thought they had
heard every excuse in the book from
students who wanted to drop classes-
until Colleen Gardner's. Gardner's rea-
son for dropping an advanced account-
ing course she had enrolled in was not
the typical excuse - she is a focus
of the widening sex scandal on Capital
Hill. She has accused her former em-
ployer, Rep. John Young (D-Texas) of
paying her a salary of $26,000 a year
in return for sexual favors. Gardner
said that dropping the course in the
third year of her effort to get an ac-
counting degree is only one indication
of how the furor and public attention
she has received have disrupted her
life.
Don't muss my hair
The 61 female police officers in San
Francisco are in a quandry about their
uniforms. As ,if the city didn't have
enough problems, the women are dis-
gruntled with the unbecoming apparel
although it has been deemed the safest
uniform an officer could wear. Accord-
ing to Sgt. Bob Bernardini, secretary
of the department's uniform committee,
the women are complaining that their
caps ruin their hairdo's and that the
shoes should have a lift on them. Ber-
nardini said the women will be allowed
to leave their caps in the locker room,
and spurned any truth to the rumor
that Dior's of Paris will design a new
uniform with matching gun holsters from
Gci's.
Happenings . .
are slim today. The People's Bi-
centennial Commission is presenting
Woody Allen's "Everything you Always
Wanted to Know About Sex", at 3:00,
7:00, and 9:00 at MLB Aud. 3.
0
Weather or not
We will get some relief from all the
heat, as things will cool down today
under cloudy skies to a mild 80 degrees.
Winds will be high, and there is a
chance of rai,. Lows tonight will-be
in the low 50's.

containers. The measure would als3
require a five cent deposit on standard a
bottles that more than one company
could reuse, and a ten cent deposit on "
non-standard bottles that could be used k'
by just one company. Finally, the law
would prohibit the use of pull tabs on
beverage cans.
The measure would go into effect in
Nuvemsber of 1978.
Jameson said that a ban on throw- - ,
aways in the state would reduce the
amount of litter that "is strewn all over r
Michigan--on roadsides, in yards, and
on our streets." He added that such a
measure would also "conserve energy
and valuable mineral resources that
these products (throwaways) consume
at an aharming rate."
THE MUCC BEGAN the petition drive
after several attempts in the state legis-
lature to pass a throwaway ban proved
unsuccessful.
"Similar legislation has been before a
the Michigan legislature for the last ten
years, but it's never gotten out of com-
mittee. It has been successfully blocked
by speciat interest groups," Jameson ex-
plained.
'Those "stpecI iterest grupsac
cording to Jameson, include container
and severage manufacturers who claim
that implementation of the measure
would leave nanny workers jobless. 4- < S -
J AMESON discounts the manufactur-
ers' criticism, insisting that the two-year
changeover period allowed between the
time the measure is passed and the r-
time it actually takes effect would min-
imize the impact that the throwaway
ba:t would have on jobs and the industry.
"It will cost them some investment
toney to change over to returnables Doilv Photo by SCOTT ECCKER
agtin," he admitted, "but in the long
run they'll profit. It costs less to wash a
bottle than to produce a new one" This man gives instruction on the art of his meticulous movements to passerby
See ABSENTEE, Page 10 on the People's Plaza.
Organization, money key to school bard results

By MICHAEL BLUMFIELD
Organization and money were respon-
sible for the re-election of two incum-
bents and one newcomer in Monday's
School Board race according to winners
and losers alike..
Terry Martin and Paul Weinhold held
on to their seats with vote totals of 3,554
and 3,731 each as Kathleen Dannemiller
grabbed a position on the board by gath-
ering 3,533 votes.
EDWARD SPITZ was a distant fourth
at 1,311 while Harvey Jahn mustered
1,122 votes. Following them came Steph-
en Liu, 1,022; Ellen Blue, 612; Robert
Tulloch, 366; and Mary Rave, 180 who
had withdrawn from the race but re-
mained on the ballot.
"The three winners were the only ones
who did much campaigning in terms of
advertising," admitted winner Wein-
hold. "Whether you like it or not, that's
the only way people in Ann Arbor recog-
nize who's running," he said.
"Ann Arbor is a very peculiar com-
munity," said Ellen Blue. "It's not a
liberal community, but is dominated,
by Republican thought, and the Repub-
lican thought is resisting change." She
added, "The rest of us are apathetic."
THOUGH THEY did not want to con-
vey a sour grapes image, many of the
losers suggested that an organized group
effort made the difference between

their vote totals and those of the win-
ners.
"I don't have any doubt that the
three winners have a tremendous back-
ing by supporters or a party or some-
thing," said Liu. "The date of the elec-
tion had something to do with it -
parents tend to forget about it"
THE 5,500 voter turn-out was the low-
est number of voters since 1962.
Weinhold theorized that holding the

election a week later than usual hin-
dered the response in terms of votes.
Nearly all of the losers said that they
would not let their defeats prevent them
from staying involved in School Board
affairs. Jahn said he would become a
"closer observer" of the board while
Spitz offered his economic advice to the
school system. Liu said he would work
for a "multicultural ethnic study" to
present to the board.

Out-of-town voters find a
solution in absentee ballots

By MIKE NORTON
So you're an Ann Arbor resident-
as concerned and involved a citizen as
there ever was-and you want to vote
in the upcoming August 3 state pri-
mary.
Ah, you say with regret, but that's
the week you're going off to visit the
folks in Kalkaska or Cleveland or wher-
ever it is. No way to get around it. Just
have to forsake your civic duty, right?
WRONG. Haven't you heard of ab-
sentee ballots?
If you're a registered voter in the city
of Ann Arbor who's going to be out of
town during the election, you can re-

quest the City Clerk to send you an
absentee ballot application. And if your
application is approved, you'll receive a
ballot in the mail at whatever address
you specify.
The City Clerk's office expects at
least three thousand applications this
summer for the August primary.
"August is a little heavier than the
other months," admitted Clerk Jerome
Weiss, "mainly because so many stu-
dents are out of town during the sum-
mer. It's a big ballot, an important bal-
lot. Everybody wants to vote-and, of
course, we want everybody to vote."
WEISS expressed some concern, how-
See PETITIONS, Page to