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OPINION
Page 4
Sunday, January 8, 1984
The Michigan DoilyJ
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Another arrest in the Faber
case
A CONFESSION by Ricardo Hart's girl-
friend led to his arrest Friday morning in
connection with the November 22 murder of
Nancy Faber. Machelle Pearson told a state
police trooper last month that her boyfriend
gave her a gun and forced her to trick Faber in-
to giving her a ride home from a grocery store
parking lot.,
The taped confession was played in court on
Wednesday, and Hart was there to hear the en-
tire tape. He had been questioned by police
before, but it was not until Friday that state,
county, and city officials could get a warrant
and arrest him at his parents' Superior Town-
ship home.
Police also impounded the 1974 Maverick
Hart allegedly used to follow Faber's car
during the robbery. They had impounded it on-
ce before and released it, as they had done with
Hart. Pearson first went to police in December
claiming to have information about the mur-
der, but she changed her story several days
later and confessed.
Hart was arraigned Friday afternoon and
told the judge his parents would get him a
lawyer. He was sent back to Washtenaw Coun-
ty Jail until his January 18 preliminary
hearing, and police officials said at that
hearing they would explain the complex in-
vestigation that eventually led to Hart's arrest.
Meanwhile, a second murder case was
brought to 15th District Court. Robert Lee
Williams and Lester Joiner Jr. were arraigned
for the murder of 19-year-old Brian Canter,
whose body was discovered floating in the
Huron River on Dec. 8. Police Chief William
Corbett later identified Williams and Joiner as
street people. Preliminary hearings for the
two accused in Canter's death stretched from
Wednesday to Friday. Judge S. J. Elden is ex-
pected to make a decision on whether or not to
send the case to Circuit Court Tuesday.
The Big Chill
University students were practicing some
risky business when they rambunctiously
Pearson after her testimony
rotated their thermostats before vacation. The
sudden impact of the record cold weather and
chilly interiors on pipes burst into a Christmas
story even Big Brother could not have predic-
ted.
While we were away, thinking, "It's a won-
derful life," Ann Arbor landlords, University
maintenance crews, and private heating and
plumbing contractors were displaying un-
common valor in cleaning up water damage
that left dorm rooms demolished, fraternities
floundered, and offices inoperable. "We've
been working around the clock," one frenzied
plumber said.,
One housing administrator estimates the cost
to the University could be as high as $500,000.
And, like one student who is now living in a
dorm lounge until his room can be repaired
said, "It's a pain."
University buildings which suffered the wor-
st water damage from broken pipes were the
School of Public Health, East Engineering, the
Institute for Social Research, and the Dana
building.
In these buildings, like the dorms, the ther-
mostats were not turned down, but the central
fan system was shut off, reducing the amount
of air circulated, said Russell Reister, director
of the University's plant operations.
About 100 dorm rooms were affected with
Couzens and Bursley hardest hit. David
Foulke, a University housing adminiistrator,
said most was minimal water damage to floors
and carpeting.
But such was not the case in John
Schroeder's Markley room.
"My whole room got trashed," Schroeder, an
LSA freshman, said. "I lost a stereo, a
television, an Atari (home computer game)
and a lot of little things, like carpeting," he
lamented.
Three inches of water stand in some rooms at
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, the kitchen was
flooded .out at Delta Kappa Epsilon, and a
member of Phi Delta Theta reported "swim-
ming pools in the basement."
Students have been directed to their own
private insurance companies for reimbur-
sement for the loss of personal property, but
Foulke has pledged University assistance for
students who either have no insurance, or
whose policies don't cover what one dorm
director called "an act of God."
Coming attractions include potential tenant-
landlord disputes over repairs and, of course,
utility bills which have been forcasted at 25 to
30 percent higher than last year's.
Are jaywalkers next?
You couldn't call it a big secret. Ticket
scalpers stand in front of the Michigan Union
steps on most fall days, loudly buying and
selling tickets so people can watch 250-pound
young men wearing ugly helmets run over and
through another group of oversized men. It's
against the law, but so is jaywalking, and
that's about as much attention as Ann Arbor
Police devoted to it.
But all that changed in November, when
police cracked down on Ann Arbor's ticket en-
trepreneurs just before the Ohio State game.
Three men charged with scalping in November
face a preliminary hearing Jan. 17. Mark
Gorge, a student who owns E-Z Ticket Sales
didn't understand what all the fuss was about.
When police asked him for tickets Nov. 17, a
few. days before the game, he tried to give them
away. "I give (police officers) tickets all the
time," Gorge said. Later in the day, under-
cover officers put up over $200 for four tickets.
Another student, John Houghton, was at least
as brazen. He advertised tickets in the Daily
and the Ann Arbor News, and then allegedly
sold four tickets to police for $60 apiece (the
face value was $13 apiece).
Roy Shelef didn't drive such a hard bargain,
according to police, selling four tickets for $180
in the parking lot of the Big Ten Party Store.
Some of the scalpers said police quit looking
the other way because of an article that ap-
peared in the Ann Arbor News just prior to the
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Daily Photo by DAVID FRANKEL
Broken pipes provide a testament to the power of the Christmas break cold spell. The frigid tem-
peratures wreaked havoc on many of Ann Arbor's assorted buildings, including dorms, frater
nities, and sororities.
arrests, but police refused to comment. No one
is saying if this is the beginning of the end of
Ann Arbor's favorite free enterprise system.
Not in our backyard
It's a fairly typical story.
A community recognizes the need to provide
a certain social service - a halfway house for
convicts, a home for the mentally retarded, a
low-income housing project - but when it
comes time to find a location for the project,
the neighbors closest to the spot cry, "Not in
my backyard."
Well, Ann Arbor is about to open a shelter for
the city's indigent community, and the church
which borders the shelter's proposed site is
saying just that: "Not in our backyard."
In part, members of St. Nicholas Greek Or-
thodox Church are complaining that they
weren't consulted before the city's commission
studying the problem of the homeless decided
on a Fourth Avenue location that butts up
against the church's property. But even if they
had been asked, and the commission proposed
the same site, the church would still be upset.
It's a particularly troublesome situation for
the church, which has supported aid for the
homeless in a community that hasn't always
extended its hand to street people.
But the church has some very real safety
concerns. St. Nicholas is used as a community
center for its members, and therefore must
keep its doors open for long hours all week. It's
frequented by many children who come alone
to Sunday school and other events.
While it's unfair to generalize that all street
people are a threat to others, there is no
question that a certain degree of roudiness,
drunkennessf and even violence marks a portion
of them. If nothing else, parents have
reasonable concerns that their children might
be asked for the change in their pockets - an
unfortunate intrusion even if the person poses
no threat whatsoever.
The Week in Review was compiled by
Daily staff writers Neil Chase, Sharon
Silbar, and Jim Sparks and Daily editor
Barry Witt.
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Vol. XCIV-No. 81
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinionof the Daily's Editorial Board
Poisoning the recovery
DESPITE RECENT good economic
news, no one should be lulled into a
false sense of security. It's true that
the unemployment and inflation rates
have stabilized nicely, but there
remains a dark shadow looming on the
horizon - the immense federal budget
deficit.
Much of the welcome news is a long
time coming. Unemployment fell to 8.2
percent in December, down from last
December's 10.7 percent. The yearly
drop marked the largest post-recession
employment gain since 1950.
Since Ronald Reagan has been
president, he has seen many of the
traditional economic indicators turn
for the better. But his continued exor-
bitant deficit spending - something he
campaigned against vigorously in 1980
- bodes ill for the nation's economic
future. Reagan had best take note.
A huge federal deficit could have a
profound negative effect on the current
recovery. Extravagant deficits could
destroy the positive economic gains
already seen. With the Reagan ad-
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ministration apparently about to
propose a 1985 budget $186 in the red,
the nation's economic institutions
almost certainly will be affected.
A strategy is needed, a stragey that
could start with decreased defense
spending and the examination of tax
programs aimed at increasing gover-
nment revenues. Increased military
spending and tax cuts don't make for a
balanced budget.
Voters and public opinion polls
aren't giving Reagan this bit of bad
news. The average citizen does not
worry about the deficit - he or she
worries about working to pay the bills.
Reagan is getting the word on the
menacing deficits from economists -
including his own chief economist,
Martin Feldstein - who are worried
about the long-term effects of the
deficit.
That unemployment continues to
drop is good news, but the situation is
fragile. The huge federal deficits could
poison an increasingly healthy
recovery.
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014 YOUR MARK...GET SET..'-
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Daily doesn'tpreach responsibility
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To the Daily:
I recently read an editorial
("Getting along with Geac,"
Daily, December 1) which infor-
med people that no one in the
library system, including Geac,
the library computer system,
knew which books were overdue
nor who charged the books out.
It's bad enough- that you
misrepresented the truth of the
matter, but the editorial went on
to nractieally recommend that
systems) out of the books. Or
better yet, why not suggest to
your readers that they go to the
Nat. Sci. Library, and just take
them. (They don't have any
detection system whatsoever!).
Here's an even better idea:
why not tell your readers who are
unwilling to actually pay for your
paper that they can pick up
copies absolutely free if they
simply go into the mail room to
get them. (Where's the mail
room? they may ask, why there's
even a map of the building at the
bottom of the stairs!). You could
even give them specific times as
to when no one will be around.
Here's the best idea yet. Tell
your readers that they should
learn to practice a little respon-
sibility when they act. Wait! bet-
ter still, practice it your collec-
tive selves. Anyone can be a
journalist - you seem to go out of
your way to prove that - but on
ly a few can practice "respon-
sible journalism."
- John W. Merline
December 8
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