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