News: 76-DAILY Display Ads: 764-0554 Classified Ads: 7644)557 irtsyanrs Oine hundred rseven yearsnf edzaoral freedom Wednesday September 16,1998 - ------------------ -- ---- - ----- ------ Fieger si Candidate says Ike Spahn Dat y Staff Reporter The University chapter of the College Democrats held their mass meeting for new members last night in the Modern Languages Building. Speakers and candidates passed the first hour discussing the importance of this year's elections and an increase in student activism. But most of the 200-person crowd was not there to discuss the future of the Democratic Party. They e there to see their candidate for governor, the sirise primary winner that has been traveling around the state advocating his new agenda while attacking Gov. John Engler. And as Rep. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) struggled to find more issues and questions to discuss with the increasingly restless crowd, in he walked. Geoffrey Fieger, a little late and sporting a case of laryngitis, arrived to cheers of "Fieger! Fieger" and launched into what everyone was waiting for, what they had all heard about and what they had all come to see. "I may not be as scintillating, as spell binding, as I tally am," Fieger told the crowd in MLB MSA frms suit * rin Holmes Daily Staff Reporter The Michigan Student Assembly passed a resolution last night to support the appeal attempts of two coalitions trying to intervene in the lawsuits threatening the University's admissions policies. MSA representatives said the, endorsement was not necessarily an issue of affirmative action. This is in support of an individual's t to a day in court,' said MSA Rep. Brian Reich, an LSA sophomore. "This has nothing to do with affirmative action" MSA President Trent Thompson kicked off the discussion of the pro- posed resolution by stressing the need to focus on support of student voice in a the courtroom and not affirmative action issues. "Tonight we will be debating this rjlution and not its derivatives," said 'mpson, an LSA senior. The resolution stated that "the future of affirmative action cannot be fairly decided if minority and women stu- dents ... are not represented in the courtroom." Etienne Last fall, a Washington D.C.-based Ann Arb law firm filed suits on behalf of white applicants who were denied admission to the Law School and the College of orature, Science and th Arts. After the University was hit with the two suits last year, United for Equality and Affirmative Action and the NAACP filed motions to intervene. The motions were denied by District Judges Bernard Friedman and Patrick By Niki Duggan, respectively. Daily Staff MSA Student General Counsel After David Burden said the assembly voted of attrac to support the chance for students who and blue argued for affirmative action to have a Monday e in the courtroom because, they music c those who are against it have Records already had their turn to speak out. Scho "I don't think (this support) will have doors, or much effect on the lawsuit," said Founder Burden, an Engineering senior. "But Records we're spending a great deal of time on decided it:' Arbor b At the meeting, Luke Massie of the and a gr National Women Rights Organizing After Cojmmittee asked the assembly to sup- moved ii t the resolution to support the dent rec appeals. before b "Students who are the targets of "We attack should have the opportunity to Bergma speak in court," Massie said. "Even if Berge you are against affirmative action, you Tom B should be for this resolution. They approaci cl ntil havptei n;--P ;ina " elnfing c eeks support, pushes activism students will be essential Auditorium 3, but no one seemed disappointed. In a speech that covered everything from his expe- riences with Jack Kevorkian to his views on the Engler administration, Fieger appealed to the stu- dents' sense of activism and change. "The only way I will be successful is with your help," Fieger said. "When I was in school here, I was absolutely apathetic. But something changed. "I've got to instill in you the feeling that it's time to act," he said. Fieger's antics have drawn substantial media attention since his victory in the July primary, and he did not disappoint last night. He spoke at length about the "ingrained establishment" that he believes he is up against. He stressed the fact that he is the first candidate in state history that was not "pre-chosen" by the party bosses, and even though the establishment may not want to hear what he is saying, Fieger said he believes the people want him to "rock the boat." It is that establishment that Fieger mocked when he impersonated a drunken doctor to prove a point about the medical profession's clout in Lansing. "Your interests are being sold out," Fieger said, referring to Engler's advocacy of laws prohibiting assisted suicide and reducing the maximum penalty for medical malpractice. "That S.O.B. passed a law that said you have to suffer. "They've attempted to demonize me. But it scares them to death that I just want to make a difference," Fieger said. Although the meeting is an annual recruitment event for the group, most students said they came just to see the gubernatorial candidate. College Democrats President Kelley Boland said the turnout for the event was high, but she did not believe Fieger's appearance was the only draw. "He was fabulous. But we've seen turnout up in election years in the past," Boland said. LSA senior Jonathon Blavin said he came to the meeting just to see Fieger, and although he saw what he expected, more would have been nice. "He was a little to rhetorical, and his demonization of Engler was absurd. But overall, he was impressive," Blavin said. Other candidates at the meeting stressed the See FIEGER, Page 2 KELLY MCKINNELL/Oaiy Democratic gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Fleger speaks to a meeting of the University Chapter of College Democrats last night. Investigating the President cost $4.4M WASHINGTON (AP) -- Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr spent at least $4.4 million investigating the alleged cover-up of the Monica Lewinsky affair - a figure that became an instant political weapon in the debate over penalizing President Clinton. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a Senate resolution yes- terday that would demand Clinton repay the cost of the investigation for misleading the country since January. "President Clinton has pursued a strategy of deceiving the American people and Congress, and he pur- posely delayed and impeded the independent counsel investigation," Murkowski said. "Equity demands that the costs of the delays should be borne by the president and not the taxpayers." Many Democrats are already advo- cating a penalty less than impeachment for Clinton, such as a censure and reim- bursement arrangement similar to the reprimand and penalty that House Speaker Newt Gingrich got in a 1996 ethics case. The White House left open the possi- bility yesterday that Clinton might accept a penalty. Presidential spokesperson Mike McCurry said Clinton "does not owe the taxpayers" the $4.4 million, but "if there's a serious effort made in Congress to that, we'll consider it when the time comes." Starr's office declined comment. The Starr estimate covers the last eight months of the Lewinsky investi- gation, without the administration's costs in fighting legal battles that delayed the prosecutor, future reim- bursements to witnesses or the other aspects of Starr's Whitewater investi- gation. There was no immediate vote in the Senate on Murkowski's proposal. Starr's staff calculated the costs its Washitigton office incurred between Jan. 15, the day permission was granted to expand the Whitewater investigation to include the Lewinsky allegations, and Aug. 31. They included: $1.86 million for its staff of investigators, prosecutors and sup- port workers. The office includes 27 full-time lawyers, some on loan from other agencies; $949,895 for the travel of its inves- tigators and witness flown from as far away as Tokyo to testify before the grand jury; $884,110 for contracts and con- sultants, from laboratory tests and people hired to help write and edit Starr's historic report to Congress to the costs of researching law and news articles; $356,494 for rent, telephone and utilities; $186,021 for equipment purchas- See STARR, Page 5 JESSICA JOHNSON/Daily Dehoome, a Medical School graduate, looks through the disc collection at Schoolkids Records yesterday. The or store will go out of business Monday after 22 years on East Liberty Street. CH OOL' S OUT FOREVER Record store will close doors after two decades Term limits bar 64 incumbents R Easley ffReporter fird." Just as many 22 years ting customers with rare pop s finds, the music will end on for a fixture in the Ann Arbor ommunity, when Schoolkids and Tapes closes its doors. olkids Records opened its >n East Liberty Street, in 1976. r and owner of Schoolkids , Steve Bergman, said he to open up the store in Ann ecause "it is a college town eat spot to do it" Borders Books and Music in across the street, the indepen- ord store held on for five years eing forced to shut its doors. did the best we could," n added. nan said that five years ago, 3order, owner of Borders, bed Schoolkid's records about dnm and movinu some of the ., LSA senior Oriana Vigliotti said it is sad the store is closing. "It was nice to go to a store that had a wide variety," Vigliotti said. Bergman attributes his store clos- ing to a "trend of chains stores taking over the community." He said that Schoolkids has sup- ported many groups, including the Indigo Girls and Barenaked 'Ladies, when the big stores did not want to sell their records. "We'd bend over backwards to sell their product," Bergman said. "Anybody can stuff a store full of product, but do they care?" asked Jim Leonard, new owner of the record store's property. Leonard added that although a chain store is in the community it is "not a part of the community." Zac Johnson. manager of Tower big businesses go out of business as independent stores, but chain stores have a larger system to depend on, Johnson said. "The CD market has a small mar- ket margin and if you don't sell enough CDs in a day, you could lose money," he added. Economics Prof. John Laitner said large chain stores can afford to oper- ate in a way that might "out-compete local operators." "The whole reason for a big chain store to exist is to get high return on the dollar for the stock holders," said Shaman Drum Bookshop owner Karl Pohrt. Pohrt said independent stores exist because they care about the communi- ty, whereas larger chains don't have a personal investment. "The people that ran Schoolkid's wanted people who liked music to walk By Jason Stoffer Daily Staff Reporter When the gavel strikes and the 89th session of the Michigan state Legislature comes to a close at year- end, the era of the powerful incumbent politician will officially be Sixty-four incumbent representatives, including Rep. Mary Schroer (D- Ann Arbor), are constitu- tionally barred from run- ning for re-election in November. Whether a less experi- enced legislature will be able to effectively govern koglom ° n M @i) U IMIIM MiM rMMI VGM ILI number of experienced legislators. "We're entering the great unknown," Truscott said. "No one really knows what the impact (of term limits) will be but we're optimistic that after a brief period of intense training we'll develop-an aggressive agenda for (Engler's) .1 Q third term." Schroer said the Nw P advent of limits, which Of amof allow for no more than three two-year terms for s P representatives or two four-year terms for sen- ators, will result in a loss of institutional memory. M has spread concern through political circles since a 1992 ballot proposal Once people get a firm grasp of how I