The Michigan Daily -Tuesday, December 5,1989 - Page 3
Attorney
General
orders
quiry
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh
disclosed yesterday that he had
ordered a preliminary inquiry to de-
termine whether a special prosecutor
should investigate alleged criminal
wrongdoing by former House Secre-
tary Samuel Pierce.
Justice Department spokesperson
David Runkel said a letter to
Congress delivered earlier in the day
informed lawmakers that the attorney
general had ordered the start of a pre-
liminary inquiry.
Thornburgh ordered the inquiry in
response to a request by 19 House
Democrats that he appoint a special
prosecutor, formally known as an
independent counsel, to investigate
allegations of criminal wrongdoing
by Pierce when he ran the scandal
plagued Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
Runkel said the preliminary in-
quiry, which can take as long as 90
days, began on Saturday.
A lawyer for Pierce, Robert
Plotkin, dismissed the move as in-
significant, saying he was confident
it would not result in appointment
of an independent counsel.
"Under the very low threshold the
statue requires, we aren't surprised
that a preliminary inquiry has been
undertaken," Plotkin said. "We are
confident that at the end of the 90-
day period they will find there is no
basis for appointing an independent
counsel."
CORRECTIONS
E.
Germans storm
A
i
0
police I
EAST BERLIN (AP) - East
Germans outraged by the corruption
of ousted Communist Party leaders
tried to storm secret police offices
yesterday to make certain evidence
for criminal trials is not removed.
Prosecutors blocked access by the
former officials to evidence that
could be used against them in the
widening corruption investigation.
State television showed pictures
of people joining police at luxurious
government guest houses and at
warehouses in East Berlin and Pots-
dam to block any efforts to remove
documents.
Officials appealed for calm as
people tried to force their way into
secret police offices in Erfurt.
In Leipzig, where about 200,000
be people attended a rally calling for
German unification, 30 demonstra-
tors were allowed inside the secret
police headquarters, including oppo-
sition leader Wolfgang Schnur.
East Germany's official ADN
news agency said the group was let
in "after massive demands of
demonstrators who had surrounded
headqua
the building." It said the protesters
presented their grievances and
departed but 200 other demonstrators
who refused to leave were permitted
inside later to tour the building.
Parts of the building were sealed
off to prevent documents from being
smuggled out and Schnur said citi-
zens would take part in making sure
the papers remained there.
Wolfgang Schwanitz, new chief
of national security, ordered flights
to Romania halted because of reports
that sensitive material was being
smuggled to the Warsaw Pact ally,
whose leader, Nicolae Ceausescu,
has rejected reform.
Officials said there was no proof
documents were being sent there.
Opposition sources said earlier that
important documents were taken
from party headquarters to Schoen-
feld airport for flights to Romania.
Premier Hans Modrow, who
emerged as the leading political fig-
ure one day after the entire Commu-
nist Party leadership resigned, was
not in East Germany. He led a three-
irters
member delegation to the Warsaw
Pact summit in Moscow.
At the hug Leipzig rally, the
crowd applauded and cheered as
speakers called for a united Germany'
Demonstrators waved dozens of West
German flags in front of the secret
police headquarters. One flag was
draped over a surveillance camera
mounted outside the headquarters.
Calls for German reunification
dominated last night Leipzig
protests, and the demands were more
pronounced than ever.
ADN reported 60,000 people
rallied in Karl-Marx-Stadt, 10,000 iri
Schwerin and tens of thousands in
Dresden.
President Bush indicated at
special session of NATO leaders in
Brussels that a single Germany loyal
to NATO would satisfy both the
German yearning for unity and a
nation's right to self-determination.
Later, he said to reporters: "WE
are not trying to accelerate the
process. It"s better to leat things
move on their own.
Modern pyramid
Jim Onan, owner of a gold-plated five-story pyramid house, will sell his
home for just $1 if the buyer will donate $9.9 million to a proposed pyramid-
shaped memorial dedicated to Americans who have died in combat since
the Revolutionary War.
HAC demands city council to meet about housing
by Tara Gruzen their demand for a public meeting Councilmember Larry Hunter (R- store. "This is going to be a hard win-
Daily City Reporter focusing on affordable housing, First Ward) said he intends to write ter," Hoffman said. "People are go
Two weeks after the Homeless HAC will have to force coun- to HAC, and hopes the city council The house, which has been ing to be dying, literally."
- -I - - -"11- .:1Ft - ingto edyingiterally.
Action Committee took over the
city council chambers and conducted
their own mock council meeting,
HAC members returned last night to
address the council.
Activists in the fight for more af-
fordable housing told city council
members that if they failed to meet
cilmembers to do so.
"The purpose would be for city
council members to put their posi-
tions on the issue on public record,"
said HAC member Renuka Uthappa.
Uthappa also said HAC came to
city council last night because they
were frustrated that the demands they
made to council members in No-
vember of 1988 have not been ad-
equately addressed.
"We have reached a point of frus-
tration," she said.
will agree to meet with them. We
will see if it happens. I hope so," he
said.
Uthappa attributed the recent up-
surge in activism on housing issues
to the work at HAC's organizing
center, a house at 337 S. Ashley
Street that was first occupied by
HAC on November 13. The house is
one of three downtown houses
scheduled to be removed in the
spring to make way for a parking
structure behind Kline's department
empty for at least a year, now tas
eight permanent residents and four
other people on an emergency shelter
basis.
Susan Hoffman, a HAC member
who spoke to the city council about
being a homeless woman with mul-
tiple sclerosis, said the city should
concentrate on maintaining the con-
dition of the parking spaces it al-
ready has rather than on building
more parking.
"We will physically stop the
bulldozers if necessary," Uthappa
said.
Since the take-over of the Ashley
St. house, the make-up of HAC has
significantly changed. Whereas the
group was formerly made up of
mostly students, a majority of mem-
bers are now people from the
community, many of them home-
less.
Michelle Putnam was in town over the weekend. The Daily misreported this
information yesterday.
THE LIST
What's happening in Ann Arbor today |
Prof. speaks on African holiday, cultural unity
Meetings
Lesbian and Gay Men's Rights
Organizing Committee - 7:30
p.m. (7 to set agenda) in Union
Rm. 3100
Student Struggle for Soviet
Jewry - 6:30 p.m. at Hillel
The Yawp - The Undergraduate
English Association publication;
7 p.m. in 4000 A Union
Ann Arbor Coalition to De-
fend Abortion Rights - 5:15
for new member orientation; 5:30
for the general meeting; at the
Union
Michigan Student Assembly -
7:30 p.m. in 3909 Union
High School Tutoring Oppor-
tunities - Informational meeting
at 8 p.m. in Rm. D of the League
Greeks Recycle UM - 8:30 in
1046 of the Dana Bldg.
Special Olympics Partners Club
- Mass meeting at 7 in the
Union Wolverine Rm.
Iranian Student Cultural Club
- a non-political group; 7:30
p.m. in room C at the League
Time and Relative Dimensions
- 8 p.m. in 2439 Mason Hall
Students Concerned About
Animal Rights - 7 p.m. in East
Quad Rm. 124
German Club - 6 p.m. in MLB
2011
Speakers
"Enhancing Racial & Cultural
Sensitivity in Broadcasting"
- a WCBN-FM Community Re-
sponsibility Seminar; 8:30 p.m.
in the Union Anderson Rm.
"Narrative and the Structure
of History" - Rober Berkhofer
speaks at noon in 1524 Rackham
"Technology and Animal Al-
ternatives" - Neal Barnard
(PCRM) speaks from 3:30-5 in
1005 Dow
Rosellen Brown - The author
reads from her work at 4 p.m. in
the Rackham Amphitheater
Rudolf Steiner's "The Christ-
mas Festival in the changing
Course of Time" - Prof. Ernst
Furthermore
Holiday Pet Food Round-Up
- pet food bins for donations to
the Humane Society are set up at
local grocers
CP&P Programs - "Deciding
Your Career" from 3:10-6 in the
CP&P Conference Rm.; "Job
Serarch Issues for Students with
Disabilities: form 4:10-5 in
CP&P Rm. 1
Bachelor Fine Arts Student
Exhibition - 5 students display
their work; at the Slusser Gallery
1oam-5pm
The Student Workshop Tenth
Anniversary Show - a sampling
of student user and University af-
filiate woodworking; 9am-6pm in
Union 1209
Art and Holy Powers in the
Early Christian House - an ex-
hibition of Early Christian Arti-
facts; 9am-4pm in the Kelsey
Museum
Early Music Ensemble - 8
p.m. at the School of Music's
Moore Hall
Contemporary Directions
Ensemble - 8 p.m. in the Rack-
ham Lecture Hall
Open Auditions for Romeo &
Juliet - 8 p.m. in Rm. A-03
(basement of Anderson House) in
East Quad; for further info. call
747-4354; auditions also by ap-
pointment
Michigan Leadership Confer-
ence Registration - at the Stu-
dent Organization Development in
the 2202 Union; fee is $12
Northwalk - North campus
night-time walking service, Rm.
2333 Bursley; 8 p.m. - 1:30 a.m.
or call 763-WALK
Safewalk - the night-time walk-
ing service is open seven days a
week from 8pm-1:30am; 936-
1000
Frances Cress Welsing Video
- sponsored by BSU/Abeng;
8:30 in East Quad Rm. 126
Film Benefit for Toys-for-Tots
- "A Christmas Story" will be
shown for at 9 p.m. U-Club; $2
admission goes to Toys-for-Tots
Revolution in Russia: 1905 -
Spark Revolutionary History
Series; 7-8 p.m. in B122 MLB
Free Tutoring - for all lower-
P1 cr i nnarP mthanti am an.
by Joanna Broder
Daily Staff Writer
"African is not just an identity,
it's a destiny and a duty. We need to
reaffirm the unity of the Black fam-
ily," said Dr. Maulana Karenga in a
speech last night about Kwanzaa, an
African holiday which he introduced
to the United States in 1966.
A civil rights activist during the
'60s, Karenga was chair and senior
associate professor for the Dept. of
Black studies at California State
University at Long Beach and execu-
tive director of the Institute of Pan
African Studies in Los Angeles.
Kwanzaa is celebrated from Dec.
26 to Jan. 1. It was traditionally held
during the first harvest, when people
came together to celebrate their cul-
ture and unity.
"[It was] a time for thanksgiving,
a time for celebration, a time for re-
membering what has brought us this
far," said Karenga.
He said Kwanzaa is based on val-
ues of family, community, and cul-
ture.
"[The] holiday is part of rescue
and reconstruction of culture that
was snatched from us." Karenga
warned Afro-Americans to root
themselves in their culture and their
origins.
Karenga said remembering and
examining African history and cul-
ture was essential to combatting op-
pression from a fundamentally racist
society. "We can overcome if we
dare hold on to the family, culture,
and community in spite of hard-
ship."
Kwanzaa came to be known as
the holiday of "first fruits" because it
occurred during the harvest. The food
from the harvest sustained the soci-
ety and represented the importance of
unity and cohesion in a community.
During Kwanzaa, people share with
each other typical cultural beliefs,
ideologies, and traditions.
'The whole thing is being
in touch with our roots,
those roots being Africa.'
- Michael Carithers
Bursley Minority Peer
Advisor
The speech at Hutchins Hall was
sponsored by the Black Student
Union.
The University's Housing Divi-
sion will sponsor programs in resi-
dence halls every night this week and
Sunday of next week in celebration
of Kwanzaa. Seven workshops, each
focusing on a different African prin-
ciple, are planned.
"The overall goal is to expose
Afro-American students to the cere-
mony," said Bursley Minority Peer
Advisor Michael Carithers, who
plans to help conduct a workshop.
Plans for the workshop include
an introductory game and the ex-
change of traditional greetings. The
exchange is known as Habari gani.
To symbolize the harvest, the room
will be decorated with fruit.
"The whole thing is being in
touch with our roots,-those roots be-
ing Africa," Carithers said.
Shelly Wilson, coordinator of
University Housing's Project Aware
ness, said the program has been
around for at least four years:
"Kwanzaa is one of the minority
programs that has managed to be-
come traditional. People do expect
[the workshops] and they do happen
every year."
Couzens plague may have been stomach virus
k
+#
by Ian Hoffman
Daily Staff Writer
After inspections of the Couzens
Hall cafeteria last weekend turned up
no likely cause for a suspected food
poisoning outbreak, housing offi-
cials have suggested the malady may
have been a stomach virus.
Between 20 and 30 Couzens Hall
residents were taken to the Univer-
sity Hospital early Sunday morning
complaining of food poisoning from
the Couzens cafeteria.
But, the University's Occupa-
tional Safety and Environmental
Health (OSEH) department have in-
spected the hall's kitchen and found
nothing to suggest a case of food
poisoning.
"I am not at all sure it was food
poisoning," said Ellen Shannon,
building director of Couzens Hall,
"In fact, I am inclined to believe it
was not."
Shannon said a number of precau-
tions have since been taken to assure
the cleanliness of the food. The
kitchen and all food contact utensils
were sterilized. Additionally, left-
overs from Saturday night have been
discarded.
The Couzens food service work-
ers were checked for sickness, cuts
and abrasions and none were found,
Shannon said.
Today, all Couzens residents will
receive an information sheet in their
mailboxes explaining treatment of
stomach viruses.
Denizens of Couzens were unsure
what to make of the new evidence.
"If it was a virus I would think it
would affect more people who live
in the same rooms," said Elizabeth
Kim, a first-year Nursing student. "It
was a strange virus."
"I would believe it was a virus,"
said Rich Martin, a first-year LSA
student, "but it must have comp
from the cafeteria. You never know
what's floating around down there."
Kevin Besey, who made the in-
spections for OSEH, was unavail-
able for comment.
HOUSING DIVISION
A unit of Student Services sponsors
The Seven Principles of Pre-Kwanza
- It's New
AS TF0.o
E ED
-t . M77-K05
nt Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area
Mexican Restaura
Ist' Gru t
~~
* Serving Lunch and Dinner
Monday-Thursday 11-10
Friday & Saturday 11-11
SIt's Here
4890 Washtenaw wanaw
1 mile east of US 23
US 23 ANorthi
MONDAY!
DECEMBER 4, 1989
Princple: UMOJA/UNITY
Guest: Lefiest Askari Galimore
8-0 p.m. - Goddard Lounge - Oxford
TUESDAY.
DECEMBER 5! 1989
Principle: KUJICHAGULIA/
SELF-DETERMINATION
Informal Rap
7:00 p.m. - Angela Davis Lounge - Markley
WEDNESDAY.
THURSDAY,
DECEMBER 7, 1989
Principle: UJAMMA/
COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS
Guest: James K. Smith
6:00 p.m. - Wedge Room - West Quad
FRIDAY
DECEMBER 8. 1989
Principle: NIA/PURPOSE
Guest: Lawrence Norris
7-00 p.m. - MLK Lounge - Bursley
SATURDAY!
DECEMBER 9! 1989
{
t
zy
i
Principle: KUUMBA/CREATIVITY
Films on Black Art & Dances, Musical
I
I