'-
2 v~ .
OPINION
No nuclear thugs on campus.
4
ARTS
7
SPORTS
Heisman hoopla eats at Bo.
9
Author Ethan Canin intertwines thought
and action.
+' >o ","+r . . \ti\w:';yq .wi.\kfi:'r?2's\'s fi. , \'N,,'4A.".,:,,.,,' 'C... ...
1£tic toan Baily
Ninety-nine years of editorial freedom
Vol. C, No. 50 Ann Arbor, Michigan -Tuesday, November 14, 1989
Court
Employees,
opponents
react to
agreement
DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Free
Press Executive Editor Heath Meri-
weather walked out into his news-
room yesterday and looked back at
smiling faces.
Meriweather told the 70 or so
employees what they already knew,
but were waiting to hear from him:
The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 4-4
tie, had cleared the way for the Free
Press and The Detroit News to par-
tially merge their operations.
"Whoever said a tie was like kiss-
ing your sister didn't have it quite
right," said Meriweather.
Knight-Ridder Inc., owner or the
Free Press, and Gannett Co. Inc.,
owner of the News, had been seeking
to merge their business, circulation
and advertising departments since
1986. Editorial departments would
remain separate.
"We're joined at the wallet but
not at the heart," said Joe Swickard,
upholds
newspaper
merger
w a " v -
,..., 2 a_ .
" MY {ro' . , ree o
Ire
Court leaves JOAs
on 'shaky ground'
WASHINGTON (AP) - An
evenly divided Supreme Court
cleared the way yesterday for the par-
tial merger of Detroit's two daily
newspapers in its first ruling on a
1970 law aimed at saving failing
newspapers.
But opponents of the deal said the
4-4 vote suggests such joint operat-
ing agreements are on shaky ground.
They vowed to fight to restrain fu-
ture mergers in any of the remaining
two dozen or so cities with compet-
ing dailies.
~~,6' ,.R-.
~N
. ;
Justice Byron R. White removed
himself from the case for unex-
plained personal reasons. The re-
maining eight justices announced
their ruling in a terse statement that
did not disclose how each voted.
The future of such newspaper
mergers "is really on eggshells," said
a leading opponent of the Detroit
agreement, W. Edward Wendover,
publisher and editor of The Commu-
nity Crier of Plymouth in suburban
Detroit.
Supporters of the Detroit agree-
ment said the papers will remain edi-
torially, if not financially, competi-
tive.
"We're very happy that the last
hurdle has finally been crossed," said
Sheila Gibbons, a spokesperson for
Gannett Co. Inc., owner of The De-
troit News. "With the history of the
two newspapers, I'm sure you will
continue to see heavy competition."
Under a 100-year agreement, the
Detroit newspapers will combine
their business, advertising and pro-
duction departments but maintain
separate editorial staffs.
JOA TIMELINE
The' Free Press and News
ask the Justice Depart-
ment for a limited antitrust
exemption to let them cut:
costs, by combining all
parts of the papers except'
the news and editorial
departments..
The Justice'Department's
antitrust division opposes
aJOA.
The Knight-Ridder board
votes to close the Free
Press if a JOA is denied.
:Meese approves the-JOAX:
U S. District Judge Joyce
Green blocks the JOA
U .S District Judge George
Revercomb in Washing
ton, D.C., upholds Meet's
ruling Opponents appeal.
U.S. Court of Appeals up-
holds Meese'sdecision 2-
1. Opponents ask a rehear-
ing by the full court; the
coiurt votes 5-4 to deny the'
r.. .. equest ..::.....
The Supreme Court agrees
to hear the case.
The Supreme'Court splits
4-4, affirming the appeals
court ruling.
The Supreme Court of the United States approved a joint operating
agreement between the Detroit Free
yesterday.
a Free Press court reporter.
Matt Beer, vice president of the
Michigan Citizens for an Indepen-
dent Press, which had challenged the
arrangement, said the organization
would not ask the court for a rehear-
ing.
However, he said giving up this
fight didn't mean the door was wide
Press and The Detroit News
open for other newspaperst
such mergers. "We've created
thin ice that anyone else who
for a JOA will do so carefully
said.
Michigan Attorney Genera
Kelley said he was disappoin
the court didn't issue an opini
See JOA,
The high court split affirmed a
AP Photolower court ruling that former Attor-
ney General Edwin Meese acted rea-
sonably last year when he approved
plans by the Detroit Free Press and
to form The Detroit News to merge their
enough business, production, and advertising
applies staffs but maintain editorial indepen-
v " ~prdente.
Y, Deer
al Frank
ted that
[on, and
page 2
The federal Newspaper Preserva-
tion Act of 1970 authorizes the at-
torney general to give financially
failing newspapers an exemption
from federal antitrust laws.
Student leaders
meet to discuss
harassment
policy input
by Kristine LaLonde
Daily Administration Reporter
Student leaders from almost a dozen different
campus groups met for the first time yesterday to
discuss how to solicit student input for the
University's anti-harassment policy.
The students, all members of University
President James Duderstadt's students' advisory
commission on the policy, met with him to address
the commission's objectives. Duderstadt - who
set up the commission to advise him last month-
stressed the complexity of balancing free speech and
protecting the rights of those who are harassed.
"It is clear that you cannot legislate attitudes in
the University community any more than you can
in society... but it's clear that (people) are feeling
real pain - their rights are being infringed upon,"
Duderstadt said.
Duderstadt warned the commission members to
stay on track with their discussions so as not to
lose sight of the policy. However, he said the
members had free reign to discuss whatever they
chose.
Commission members agreed they would not
likely come to a consensus on the policy.
"We have such a diverse crowd; to agree on
anything meaningful will be difficult," said
member Mike Schechter, who is vice president of
the campus American Civil Liberties Union.
At yesterday's meeting the groups concentrated
on general administrative issues rather than the
policy itself.
The members agreed to:
" discuss expanding commission membership
for an even broader spectrum of opinion;
" meet with administrators, especially members
of the University's legal counsel;
" set a flexible completion goal for the work;
" make individual presentations on personal
opinions of the policy;
" set a tentative schedule and maintain a progress
check at weekly meetings;
" meet with members of the faculty and staff
advisory commissions on the policy;
Guerrillas
attack El
Salvador-
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Rebels
held large parts of several poor neighborhoods yesterday
and battled soldiers in a third day of the worst fighting
the capital has experienced in a decade of civil war.
At least 305 had been killed and 378 wounded since
the rebels attacked Saturday night in their biggest offen-
sive since1981, according to the armed forces mortuary,
civilian morgues and hospitals and unofficial military
figures.
Rebels were holding ground in an arc of heavily
populated northern districts.
Military planes fired rockets yesterday afternoon into
the eastern neighborhoods of Venecia and Conacaste,
trying to drive out guerillas. Some rockets struck
homes, killing several civilians and wounding others.
'A bomb hit the house and killed
my mother and my little sister. A
plane dropped the bomb.'
- Ricardo Alexander Perdomo,
victim of rebel attack
Ricardo Alexander Perdomo said in a hospital: "A
bomb hit the house and killed my mother and my little
sister. A plane dropped the bomb." He said guerrillas
gave him first aid. See EL SALVADOR, page 2
Balmy days
LSA sophomore Sean Kerman takes advantage of a rare November hot spell yesterday. Kerman was fortunate
to be able to study his statistics in the fresh air of the Diag.
N.Y. doctor speaks on resident reforms
by Daniel Poux
Daily Staff Writer
"Long hours are bad medicine," said
Bertrand Bell, chair of the New York
State Health Board's Bell Commission,
which recently proposed state regulations
that would sharply limit hospital resi-
dents' working hours.
Dr. Bell spoke to the University Hos-
pital's Department of Internal Medicine
about resident physician working condi-
tions yesterday during a forum sponsored
by the University's House Officers Asso-
ciation.
The association, which serves as the
union for 750 University Hospital resi-
dents, is currently pressuring the hospital
to improve working conditions for its in-
terns and residents.
In his nnpninpo remarks- Rll c ited the
residents.
Bell spoke of the "sicker, quicker"
syndrome; in other words, patients who
would have died 30 years ago now live
because of medical technology advances,
but they require more medical attention
and are rapidly transferred from department
to department. Most of this attention and
paperwork is required from already over-
worked hospital residents, Bell said.
"Residency requirements have changed
little in the past thirty years, while hospi-
tal conditions have changed drastically.
Medical science has changed, the patients
Bell pointed to a 1986 study at the
Harvard University Student Hospital,
which concluded that medical residents
The association, which serves as the union
for 750 University Hospital residents, is cur-
rently pressuring the hospital to improve wor-
king conditions for its interns and residents.
have changed, and the sickness' have
changed, but the strenuous demands on
medical residents remain," Dr. Bell said.
suffer from abnormally high levels of
chronic depression, substance abuse, and
marital and family problems.
aU' hospital residents union
demands lighter schedules
t
l A RiAI A V
'7Cn -C I-- t _.: . . _......_.. --A 44117- ,.__ -_ '' - -'- -