The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 4, 1994 - 5

Stabenow makes
By LARA TAYLOR
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
When asked what her three main priorities would be if
elected governor of Michigan, State Sen. Debbie Stabenow
said she would restructure the economy, give more fund-
ing to education and revamp the welfare system.
"I plan on making a 10-year investment into retooling
our schools," said Stabenow (D-Lansing). "The average
gas station has more computer power than the average
Michigan school. We don't have the technology to be
"competitive in the future."
Sponsored by the Washtenaw Women's Political Cau-
cus, Stabenow spoke last night to 25 people about issues
important to her. She focused the beginning of her lecture
on the importance of reproductive choice.
"Right now our current governor, John Engler, gives
no respect for the individual rights of women," Stabenow
,,said. "What we need, throughout the state, is respect for
the individual right to choose."
She also criticized Engler's budget cutting and fund-

education high priority in campaign

ing priorities.
"Engler gave no funding increase to higher education,
and 14 percent to corrections facilities," Stabenow said.
"We have three times more prison beds than 10 years ago,
but I don't feel three times safer."
She said the money would be better put to education to
"prevent people from being put in prison beds in the first
place."
Stabenow added she plans to create a core academic
curriculum for elementary schools and to provide funding
for preschool programs.
When asked whether she plans on raising taxes or
cutting other programs to fund her ideas, Stabenow smiled.
"Neither. We need to restructure the government," she
said.
"I'm going to reduce paperwork positions and put
more people on the front lines. If you want more produc-
tivity, you've got to give people respect and responsibil-
ity."
Members of the audience posed questions about edu-

cation and the school system to Stabenow after her speech.
When one woman asked about how Stabenow plans to
combat violence in the schools, the gubernatorial hopeful
outlined her ideas on putting first-time offenders in edu-
cational programs as a requirement for parole. She cited
remedial reading and drug rehabilitation as possible op-
tions.
Audience members voiced their approval with nods
and dispersed applause.
"I thought she was excellent," said Matt Debnar, an
LSA junior. "Retooling is the way to go. She'll have a
tough time relating to a student just because she's not for
the average up-and-coming yuppie. But I think she has a
good chance."
Ann Arbor resident Marina Brown agreed. "She knows
what's going on so she doesn't speak in generalities,
which is a nice change."
At the end of her speech, Stabenow said, "There are
only three women governors in the country right now.
Next year, Michigan will have one."

REBECCA MARGOLIS/Daily
State Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) speaks to local
residents and University students at the MLB last night.

USA Today head
questions role of
media in oli cs

MSU telescope plan
called short-sighted

By KAREN TALASKI
DAILY NEWS EDITOR
Tom Curley is a self-professed
infomaniac. He reads four newspa-
pers a day: something local, The New
*York Times, The Washington Post
and his personal favorite, USA To-
day.
For someone who has been in jour-
-nalism since the age of 15, his leaning
toward the latter paper is surprising.
However, he has good reason.
Curley, president and publisher of
USA Today, offered his views on
mass media and its role in politics last
:night to a crowd of about 50 people in
the Michigan Union's Pendelton
Room.
Describing himself as an indepen-
dent in the political arena, Curley
berated mass media for the recent
trend toward pack journalism when
reporting politics. Instead of investi-
gating their own stories, many news-
papers will follow the crowd, he said.
"We don't have to print some-
thing just because the other fool does,"
Curley said. "(Reporting) a great re-
sponsibility and I think we've fallen

short in what we've done."
One way USA Today has tried to
avoid this problem is by doing thor-
ough investigations and refusing to
use unnamed sources in its articles.
"For us, it's to go back to the facts
and dig out the details. It's a matter of
willingness to go beyond the surface,"
Curley said.
Despite criticism from audience
members during a question-and-an-
swer session, he supported his paper's
use of polling during political elec-
tions to determine the outcomes.
"It's true, polls can be manipu-
lated. We're all getting crazed about
it now," Curley said, shrugging his
shoulders. However, he said polls have
become a "function of democracy."
Curley's speech was sponsored
by the College Republicans, who were
eager to hear his opinion on the Clinton
administration. He gave them both
good and bad news.
Without the problematic health-
care debate, Curley said the
president's chances of being re-
elected were "terrific" because of
Clinton's ability to relate to people

Native Americans
cite sanctity of
Arizona mountain
EAST LANSING (AP) - Native
American students at Michigan State
University are challenging a plan for
the school to help build a $60 million
telescope atop an Arizona mountain
sacred to the Apaches.
Michigan State is considering
whether to pay $4 million for a share
in the project to build the Large Bin-
ocular Telescope.
With a 39-foot diameter, the tele-
scope would be one of the world's
largest, and backers say it would let
scientists learn hidden secrets of the
universe.
The University of Arizona is seek-
ing other schools to co-sponsor the
construction of the telescope on
10,717-foot Mount Graham.
"Scientifically, this is among the
best projects in the world," Raymond
Brock, chair of Michigan State's as-
tronomy department, told the Detroit
Free Press. "But it would take a pretty
strong administrator to support this in
the midst of shrills and screaming,
and negative, manufactured environ-
ment."
Mount Graham sits in the
Coronado National Forest, about 50
miles south of the San Carlos Indian
Reservation, where more than 10,000
Apaches live.
Apaches consider the mountain a

sacred site and worship there regu-
larly, a leading opponent says.
"The mountain spirit, our spirit,
lives in that mountain," Ola Cassadore
Davis, 71, said from the reservation.
"My father taught it to me. Our ances-
tors are buried there. I grew up with it.
It's true. You feel it."
Opponents of Michigan State's
participation say it is another insensi-
tive attack on Native American cul-
ture in the name of progress.
"We've lost enough already," said
Kathy Van De Car, a member of the
Ottawa tribe and a senior at Michigan
State. "The only thing we have left is
our religion. And now they're trying
to take that, too."
The dispute is a replay of a struggle
between Indians and non-Indians that
goes far back in American history,
said Prof. Kathleen Rout, who spe-
cializes in Native American history.
"It's an age-old question of how
much an individual group's rights
interfere with the rights and needs of
the majority population," said Rout.
The University of Arizona chose
the mountain because factors such as
weather and altitude rank it among
the top few viewing sites in the coun-
try, said the project's associate direc-
tor, Buddy Powell.
Michigan State administrators are
considering whether to submit the
plan to the board of trustees. The
University of Arizona has asked for a
commitment by June 1.

USA Today president and publisher Tom Curley discusses the role of media
in politics last night in the Pendelton Room of the Michigan Union.

and manipulate the media.
Politician Michael Christie Jr., a
candidate in the Michigan Student
Assembly's upcoming elections, said
the most important role of the media
in politics was agenda-setting.

"The issues that the papers are
going to cover have a certain impact
on MSA voters," Christie said. "You
always see a little spin doctoring in
the answers (candidates) give to the
media's questions."

Clinton moves to quell new Whitewater woes

_THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON - The Clinton
'administration yesterday moved on
three fronts to quell a new controversy
over White House contacts with Trea-
sury officials on an investigation into
the failed Madison Savings & Loan.
President Clinton said the con-
tacts should not have occurred and
had the White House issue a new
memorandum to all staffers reiterat-
ing the ban on such meetings. Offi-
cials said White House counsel Ber-
nard Nussbaum was considering re-
signing. And at the Treasury Depart-
ment, Secretary Lloyd Bentsen asked
'he independent Office of Govern-
ment Ethics to investigate the con-

.M

tacts. Clinton said no wrongdoing had
occurred in the three separate discus-
sions between White House advisers
and officials familiar with the inves-
tigation into the collapse of Madison
and its connections to the Whitewater
land venture, in which the Clintons
were partners. But, he said, "I think it
would be better if the meetings and
conversations had not occurred."
The White House has confirmed
that on three occasions from Septem-
ber to February, senior officials in-
cluding Nussbaum met with high-
level Treasury officials who had been
briefed by the Resolution Trust Corp.
on the status of its investigation and
its request to the Justice Department

to investigate possible criminal activ-
ity in connect with the collapse of the
thrift. The RTC request for a criminal
investigation included references to
the Clintons as potential beneficiaries
of illegal Madison actions, but did not
accuse them of any wrongdoing.
White House Chief of Staff Tho-
mas F. "Mack" McLarty Thursday
issued a "memorandum for the White
House staff" stating that any contact
from an executive branch or indepen-
dent agency regarding Madison, the
Whitewater Development Corp. or
related matters should be directed to
deputy White House counsel Joel
Klein. Klein has been charged with
determining whether such contacts

should be allowed, banned or be re-
ferred to the Clintons' personal attor-
ney. Nussbaum normally would
make such determinations. Since he
was party to all three of the contacts,
however, officials said the role was
shifted to Klein. Some administration
officials suggested Thursday that
Nussbaum's involvement in what are
seen as ethical breaches has caused
him to consider resigning.
At the Treasury Department,
Bentsen said he had no knowledge of
any of the contacts and announced he
has asked the independent Office of
Government Ethics to investigate. Trea-
sury officials said the request was made
in response to a Washington Post story
Thursday outlining the three contacts.
The largest meeting took place in
mid to late October when Nussbaum,
White House Communications Di-
rector Mark Gearan and Bruce
Lindsey, the senior aide to Clinton
who is his point man on the
Whitewater and Madison matters, met
with Bentsen's chief of staff, his press
secretary and the general counsel.

Road- trippers beware
I-94 construction delays await travelers

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS.
ROMULUS, Mich. - Plan to add
some extra time onto your vacation
itinerary next time your travel agent
routes you through Detroit Metro.
Construction on Interstate 94, the
yellow brick freeway connecting State
Street to the departures terminal, will
be underway as soon as the mercury
settles on a higher number and the salt
trucks disappear for a spell.
The scores of homeward-bound
University students may not be the
only victims of the highway's re-con-
structive surgery.
Similar work has already led to
many long delays, but a consultant for
the Southeast Michigan Council of
Governments said this year's work
should add less time to drivers' trips.
"We're suggesting 15 minutes,
particularly if you're going to be driv-

ing through there during morning or
evening rush hours," Donn Shelton
said. "Any kind of construction may
slow traffic. ... But there should be
little impact on airport traffic."
If the temperatures rise above
freezing, construction will begin this
week on the final year of the two-
year, $23 million project to improve
the freeway intersections and bridges
near the airport.
The target date for completion of
the I-94 construction and the widen-
ing of nearby Merriman Road is Sept.
1, Shelton said.
Dora Johnston, a manager for Air-
lines Parking, said there should be
inordinate delays.
"We're advising customers to
come an hour and a half before their
flight is to depart," Johnston said Mon-
day.

Correction
The music section of the Weekend List was incorrectly reported in yesterday's Daily. See page 8 for the correct listings.

Friday
U 76-GUIDE, peer counseling
phone line, call 76-GUIDE, 7
p.m.-8 a.m.
U Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info., 763-FILM.
U Caribbean Peoples Associa-
tion, Mosher Jordan Nikki,
Giovanni Lounge, 7:30 p.m.
U Federal Tax Workshop for
Internationals, International
Center, 1 p.m.
U Lutheran Campus Ministry,
foreign film festival, 801 S.
Forest, 7:30 p.m.
Q "Moral Disagreement and
Moral Relativism," sponsored
by the philosophy department,.
Mason Hall Room 1412,4 p.m.
U Ninjutsu Club, IM Building,
Room G21, 6:30-8 p.m.
Q North Campus Information
Center, North Campus Com-
mons, 763-NCIC, 7:30 a.m.-
S-In n m


sponsored by Solidarity, MLB
Room 2002, 7 p.m.
Q Safewalk, 936-1000, UGLi
lobby, 8-11:30 p.m.
Q Wensley Foundation, Lenten
study, 602 E. Huron, 5 p.m.
Saturday
Q 76-GUIDE, peer counseling
phone line, call 76-GUIDE, 7
p.m.-8 a.m.
Q Admission Deans' Panel, spon-
sored by Career Planning and
Placement, Michigan Union
Anderson Room, 12-1 p.m.
Q Architecture & Urban Plan-
ning Career Strategies Con-
ference, sponsored by Career
Planning and Placement, Art &
Architecture Building, 2nd
floor, North Campus, 9 a.m.-4
p.m.
Q Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info., 763-FILM.
F1 Chinse ilmn Series- TwIin

Sunday
Q 76-GUIDE, peer counseling
phone line, call 76-GUIDE, 7
p.m.-8 a.m.
Q Ballroom Dance Lessons and
Dancing, CCRB, main dace
room, 7-9 a.m.
Q Bi-culture Women's Group,
Michigan Union Room 2203, 8
p.m.
Q Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info., 763-FILM.
Q Guild House Students Involved
for Global Neighborhood, 802
Monroe, 5 p.m.
Q Indian American Students As-
sociation, Michigan Union
Room 4202, 7 p.m.
Q Israel Conference Day, spon-
sored by Hillel, Rackham, 9:30
a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Q Lutheran Campus Ministry,
Lenten liturgy & eucharist, 801

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