77,
WE
One hundred three years of editorial freedom
AAW
Vol. CIV, No. 120
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, September 9, 1994
0 1994 The Michigan Daily
adiation
committee:
no testing
done at 'U'
By DAVID SHEPARDSON
Daily News Editor
A committee created by President
James J. Duderstadt to investigate the
University's role in the use of radia-
tion experiments in the 1940s and
1950s has not uncovered any evi-
#nce of experiments on volunteers,
members said yesterday-
At a press conference on Aug 17.,
the University announced the forma-
tion of a fact-finding committee
charged with investigating the his-
torical records detailing the use of
radiation duringthe 1950s.
The decision to name the commit-
tee was prompted in part by a White
House report naming the University
0 one of 45 institutions that had par-
ticipated with the government in con-
ducting full-body radiation experi-
ments dating back to the late 1940s.
The use of radiation experiments
during the Cold War attracted nation-
wide attention when Energy Secre-
tary Hazel O'Leary released records
showing that at least 18 people were
unknowingly injected with plutonium
* the late 1940s.
And the White House announced
that the University was one of 45
universities whose role in radiation
experiments is being investigated.
The seven-member committee,
See RADIATION, Page 2
Pilot to face court
martial f£r U.S.
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily
Ed Davis scores one of his two touchdowns against Boston College last Saturday. Davis starts his second
consecutive game, filling in for the injured Tyrone Wheatley against Notre Dame tomorrow afternoon.
Blue' clashesith Fighting Irish
copter si
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - An Air Force
F-15 pilot involved in the fatal
shootings of two Army helicopters
over northern Iraq last April was
charged by military authorities yes-
terday with two counts of dereliction
of duty and 26 counts of negligent
homicide - one for each of those
who lost their lives.
Air Force Lt. Col. Randy W. May,
who is based in Germany and was
identified as the pilot for the first
time, could be sent to prison for a year
for each of the negligent homicide
charges if he is convicted at a court
martial. Pentagon spokesmen said
they believed such a sentence would
be among the most severe ever for a
friendly-fire incident.
May admitted to investigators that
he carried through with an attack even
though he had not positively identi-
fied two helicopters that turned out to
be friendly. He and others told inves-
tigators last spring the shootdown was
an honest mistake, the result of a
tangled series of misunderstandings
and procedural breakdowns involv-
ing many different people.
But military analysts said
yesterday's charges are a clear sign
that Air Force commanders intend to
hold specific individuals directly ac-
countable.
Also charged with numerous
hooting
counts of dereliction of duty yester-
day were five crew members of an
airborne radar plane patrolling the
skies over Iraq on April 14. Investiga-
tors concluded they could have averted
the shootdowns of the two Army Black
Hawks if they had been controlling
the air space more attentively.
The charges against the Airborne
Warning and Control System
(AWACS) crew had been expected
since late last month, when a review
board made its recommendations to
Lt. Gen. Stephen Croker, commander
of the 8th Air Force.
In May's case, a similar group
made recommendations to Maj. Gen.
Eugene Santarelli, the commander of
the 17th Air Force in Germany, where
May is stationed. Santarelli is still
considering the fate of the other F-15
pilot involved in the shoot down.
Fifteen U.S. citizens and I1 for-
eign nationals were killed in the
shootings. According to transcripts
of interviews with May conducted
during the inquiry, he acknowledged
he bore blame for the tragedy but also
said others had a share.
"I accept responsibility for the role
that I played in this tragic accident,"
May said. "Knowing my actions have
caused not only needless loss of life,
but also much pain and suffering for
See SHOOTING, Page 2
By BRETT FORREST
Daily Football Writer
One utterance from Michigan foot-
ball coach Gary Moeller surely por-
trays the Wolverine outlook heading
into tomorrow's contest at No. 3 Notre
Dame (2:30 p.m., NBC).
"I'm going to leave four players in
Ann Arbor I'd like to have with me,"
he said.
A matchup that was hyped as the
game of the year just a few weeks ago
has since taken on the look of a whip-
ping in the making.
If the No. 6 Wolverines are to win
their last contest with Notre Dame (1-
0) until 1997, they will have to sur-
mount several major setbacks.
Michigan (1-0) will be without
the services of its most consistent
offensive line performer from last sea-
son (Joe Marinaro), a starting wide
receiver (Walter Smith), the team's
top outside linebacker (Matt Dyson)
and one of the nation's premier
tailbacks (Tyrone Wheatley).
Junior Ed Davis will get his sec-
ond start this season at tailback in
place of Wheatley. Tshimanga
Biakabutuka, who rushed for 128
yards against Boston College last
week, should also prove to be a key
performer.
"It's going to take a total team
effort," Michigan senior quarterback
Todd Collins said. "This is just one
week of countless tests this season."
Marinaro blew out his knee in
spring practice and should be ready
for Michigan's game against Colo-
rado Sept. 24. But in a strange set of
circumstances, Moeller lost Wheatley,
Smith and Dyson within just the past
three weeks.
"If you looked at our team after
last year and you ... mentioned those
four names, you'd say 'God Al-
mighty,"' Moeller said. "That's a big
part of this football team."
See NOTRE DAME, Page 9B
Wolpe taps Stabenow asruning mate
By SCOT WOODS
Daily Staff Reporter
Democratic gubernatorial candi-
date Howard Wolpe yesterday named
primary rival Debbie Stabenow as his
choice for lieutenant governor on the
party's ticket.
Wolpe's selection of the state sena-
tor from Lansing was announced at
afternoon press conferences in Lan-
sing and Detroit.
"Mrs. Stabenow has a substantial
knowledge of state government and
complements (Wolpe's) range of ex-
pertise," said David Grey, Wolpe's
deputy campaign manager.
Stabenow's selection was ex-
pected by many. After Stabenow's
close finish in the primary, Demo-
crats and political analysts mentioned
her as the leading contender for the
second spot on the ticket. Wolpehow-
ever, had downplayed the possibility
since the primary.
Ann Arbor Democratic Party chair
t Doug Scott said yesterday, "I don't
think people should be 'surprised."
Scott said the choice makes political
sense for Wolpe because Stabenow
commands a much different constitu-
ency. Moreover, she beat him in popu-
lous Macomb and Oakland counties.
Stabenow was elected to the state
House in 1978, and to the state Senate
in 1990. She is a former chair of the
House Economic Development Com-
mittee, and is best known for her 1993
sponsorship of a Senate amendment
that eliminated property taxes as a
means of supporting public schools
in Michigan.
Grey said Wolpe had three criteria
for selecting his running mate. "First,
he wanted someone who could take
over if he were incapacitated; he
wanted someone he could work well
with and who would take a substan-
tial role in the administration; and, he
wanted someone who could help the
ticket beat (incumbent Republican
Gov.) John Engler," Grey said.
The only real obstacle fur Wolpe
in choosing Stabenow was 'lhe bitter
tone of the last few weeks of the
Democratic primary campaign. Harsh
attacks by Stabenow during the neck-
and-neck race reportedly stung Wolpe
personally. Stabenow's allegations of
check-bouncing have since been
picked up by Republicans in their
television commercials.
But Scott said Democrats will treat
the issue as a fight within a family -
a fight that has now been resolved.
Indeed, Grey said Wolpe and
Stabenow have a "wonderful" per-
sonal relationship, noting the two
were friends long before they were
rivals. Grey mentioned Stabenow
attended Wolpe's 1992 wedding,
and said they've known each other
for 20 years.
Wolpe and Stabenow will be in
Flint this weekend at the state Demo-
cratic Party convention.
Scott said local party officials will
try to get one or both of the candidates
to stump in Ann Arbor, but was not
overly optimistic.
Because Ann Arbor is a traditional
Democratic stronghold, Scott said he
expects Wolpe and Stabenow to con-
centrate on parts of the state where
Democratic support is "shakier."
ow running mates, Debbie Stabenow and Howard Wolpe, faced off during
a Democratic debate held July 26 in Southfield.
Humans survived by being all
thumbs, SUNY anatomist says
Newsday
A new look at the fossil record
suggests a facile, powerful thumb -
not a big brain - is what allowed
humanity's early ancestors to take up
the use of tools, an anatomist reported
yesterday.
Randall Sussman, of the State Uni-
versity of New York at Stony Brook
chool of Medicine, said the fossil
ord shows at least two tool-mak-
ing prehuman species (Homo habilis
and Paranthropus robustus) existed at
the same time in ancient Africa, but
with very different brain sizes. What
they had in common were human-like
thumbs.
The findings suggest tool use "is
not related to brain size," Sussman
said. "Brain size doesn't tell you any-
*ing about whether the animal was a
tool-maker or not." What is important
is whether the creature was able to
grasp and use tools with precision.
"Today's apes are power-grasp-
ers, and the very first hominids -
Australopthicus afarensis-were also
power-graspers, but not precision-
graspers," he said. The oldest homi-
nid known, 3.5-million-year-old H.
afarensis (Lucy), was apparently not
a tool-maker, and "there are no tools
in the fossil record" at that time,
Sussman said.
The recent findings, Sussman said,
indicate that tools were likely to have
been used by early hominids at about
2 million years ago.
Even today, he said, "Apes have
hands with long, curved fingers and
diminutive thumbs. Humans and our
more advanced hominid ancestors
have relatively short, straight fingers
with broad fingertips and relatively
short, stout thumbs with broad fleshy
tips."
His findings, published in "Sci-
ence," will probably be controversial.
"There will be a lot of people who will
take a while to digest this. It goes
against the traditional dogma,"
Sussman said.
"People have a preconceived idea
that if you're a tool-user you've got to
be a hunter, stealthy, adept, and living
at the top of the food chain. But there
is no problem in my mind in seeing
chopping, pounding and digging (with
tools) in a vegetarian early hominid,"
he said.
The idea of studying thumb bones
as a guide to tool use is a "simple but
elegant analysis," Leslie Aiello, an
anthropologist at University College
in London, wrote in an accompany-
ing article in "Science."
"Sussman has given us an appar-
ently foolproof way of determining
which of our early ancestors would
have had hands that functioned in a
way similar to our own," Aiello
wrote.
SUNY's Sussman compares
two tool-making prehuman
species that lived at the same
time in his study, published in
"Science." He attempts to link
the two species' hand
structures with the existence
of tools. In the past,
researchers have said use of
tools correlates to brain size.
Both species studied' by
Sussman had varying brain
sizes, but both made and
used tools. Sussman found
that the common factor was
their human-like thumb, which
enabled their tool-making and
using abilities.
In the past, too few fossil thumb
bones had been found to allow de-
tailed analysis, Sussman said.
But because numerous bones have
been uncovered in the past 30 years,
Sussman added, "We can now exam-
ine thumb morphology (shape) in a
comparative-functional analysis to ad-
dress the question of which ... homi-
nids engaged in tool behavior."
Restroom renovation
to deter sexual activity
Mason Hall mens'
bathrooms feature
lower stall doors,
warning sign
By LISA DINES
Daily Staff Reporter
The Mason Hall men's restrooms
have a new look this fall in an effort to
deter illegal sexual activities that have
taken place there.
Last May, the University com-
pleted a series of renovations includ-
ing lower stall doors and partitions,
walls scrubbed clean of writing, and
signs that read, "People engaged in
illegal activities will be prosecuted."
Complaints by Mason Hall custo-
dians and University students of inci-
dents of sexual activity in the Mason
Hall bathrooms prompted the Uni-
versity to form a committee to study
the problem.
Sgt. Dave Betts, the Department
of Public Safety's crime prevention
coordinator, served on the committee
that suggested the modifications.
Betts said the renovations were
planned prior to articles in The Michi-
gan Daily and The Ann Arbor News
last spring about the situation.
"We're just trying to make it a
little more open so people don't have
that cloak of secrecy ... while still
allowing privacy because going to the
bathrooms is a very private act," Betts
said.
Jim Toy, then co-cordinator of the
Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Programs
Office, also served on the committee.
Toy said he does not think the renova-
tions will eliminate all activity.
"I'm hoping the changes will at
least serve as a deterrent to the behav-
ior," he said.
See CHANGES, Page 2
rN ' S'+Em: r 'o' tar y
c ,. . } , y
INSIDE
Delegates agree to un funds for nopulation stabilization