STATE/NATIONAL
Fieger,
Engler
*address
workers
LANSING (AP) - About 8,000
building trades workers gathered at
the Capitol yesterday to cheer for
IDemocratic gubernatorial candidate
Geoffrey Fieger and criticize Gov.
John Engler's record on worker safe-
ty.
Senate Democratic Leader John
Cherry of Clio said the number of
workers killed on the job is rising as
the number of state workplace
inspections falls.
le cited statistics showing that
the number of workers killed on the
Ojob increased to 34 in 1997 and that
19 have already died this year. The
state's Republican leaders are "tak-
ing the state backwards on worker
safety,". Cherry said. "It's time to
stop this retreat."
Engler spokesperson John
Truscott, however, said Michigan has
one of the largest and most respected
workplace inspection programs in
the country. It also has one of the
. ighest numbers of compliance offi-
cers per employer and charges some
of the highest fines when violations
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 24, 1998 - 5A
Clinton:icrease
Pentagon funds
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Clinton asked Congress to give the
Pentagon an extra $1 billion next year
to cover spare parts shortages and other
readiness problems and to bolster long-
term budgets to update .weapons and
keep top-quality personnel.
"We must act now," Clinton wrote in
a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott that was made available to
reporters yesterday.
"The security of the nation depends
on our military forces' ability to quick-
ly, effectively and successfully prose-
cute their mission. Ensuring that these
forces are trained and ready is a priori-
ty upon which we can all agree,"
Clinton said.
"I have asked key officials of my
administration to work together over
the coming days to develop a fully off-
set $1 billion funding package for these
readiness probleihs."
The president did not say where the
savings, or "offset," for the $1 billion
might be found. He has insisted that
budget surpluses projected for the next
fiscal year in the tens of billions of dol-
lars be set aside to protect Social
Security.
Even so, the move got bipartisan
applause from Rep. Floyd Spence (R-
S.C ), chair of the Ilouse National
Security Committee, and his panel's
ranking Democrat, Rep. Ike Skelton
(D-Mo),
"Without additional defense
resources to reverse the 14-year pattern
of spending decline, the military ser-
vices will be unable to stabilize their
shrinking force structures, protect qual-
ity of life and readiness and modernize
rapidly aging equipment," Spence,
Skelton and other panel leaders said in
a response to Clinton.
Clinton also wrote Defense
Secretary William Cohen, asking hir
and Gen. Henry Shelton, chair of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, to work with the
White House and Congress on
revised budget proposals for both the
short and long term.
Because of the need to project spend-
ing for high-cost weapons programs
over lengthy periods, the Pentagon sub-
mits budget outlines for five-year peri-
ods to Congress when making the
annual military budget request.
Clinton said he based his decision on
a recent meeting at which top military
officers and advisers warned that tho
nation's forces might not be able to ful-
fill its mission of being able to fight or
two major fronts at nearly the same
time.
"I believe we need to examine
options with Congress to secure addi
tional funds in FY 1999 to address
short falls in critical spare parts, Navy
manpower, Army training unit activities
and related readiness problems,"
Clinton wrote in his letter to Cohen.
"I believe we need to consider addi .
tional steps to maintain ... quality and
readiness into the next century."
Cohen told reporters last week
that deficiencies affecting U.S. war,
making capability can be addressed
and pledged to work with Clinton
and Congress "to assure that our
armed forces have the resources
they need."
AP FILE PHOTO
Michigan Gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Feger shakes hands with a supporter yesterday at the State Capital Building in
Lansing. Fieger will face Governor John Engler in the November election.
are found, he said,
"If you have more people work-
ing, chances are you'll have more
accidents," Truscott said. "Our safety
rate is a very good one, and one we'll
continue to defend."
Many of the electricians, mill-
wrights, plumbers, iron workers and
others gathered at the Capitol sport-
ed black arm bands in memory of
five workers killed on the job in the
past month, including four who died
when a wall collapsed Aug. 24 at a
Flushing High School construction
site.
Cherry said the deaths show the
state needs more than 13 inspectors
to oversee 42,000 construction pro-
jects statewide.
not statistics," Cherry said of those
killed.
Fieger said he would restaff the
Michigan Occupational Safety &
Health Administration so more work
sites could be inspected. le criti-
cized Engler and GOP legislators for
not passing legislation that would
require inspections at school con-
"These are real people. They're struction sites.
Assisted suicide, managed care odd couple
DETROIT (AP) Doctor-assisted suicide and
managed health care are a deadly mix, giving doctors
financial incentives to steer seriously ill patients
*toward an early grave, a medical group leader said
yesterday.
Dr. David Stevens, leader of a nationwide evangel-
ical Christian medical group, took the fight against
Michigan's assisted suicide ballot proposal to medical
students at Wayne State University.
Stevens began by citing a series of Biblical passages
on the sanctity of life. But he quickly switched gears
to arguments aimed at those with mixed feelings about
assisted suicide.
Proposal B, on the Nov 3 ballot, would allow assist-
"d suicide for those declared to have less than six
nonths to live, with approval of two doctors and a
psychiatrist's certification that the person is mentally
competent.
The Netherlands, Stevens said, has had 25 years of
experience with officially sanctioned doctor-aided
suicide. It has seen the practice spread from the termi-
nally ill seeking help in dying to the killing of handi-
capped babies and the mentally ill, he said.
"That's our laboratory," he told about 100 students.
They gobbled pizza and drank pop as they listened to
the noontime talk by Stevens, executive director of the
Christian Medical & Dental Society.
A message was left yesterday seeking comment
from Dr. Ed Pierce, a leader of the of the group that
petitioned to place Proposal B on the ballot.
One key difTerence between the Netherlands and
the United States would make assisted suicide even
more insidious on this side of the Atlantic, he said.
"they have socialized medicine," he said. With the
government paying for medical care, Dutch doctors
have no financial incentive to help their patients die,
he said.
Not so in America, Stevens said.
"We have a cost-driven medical care system," he
told the students. "You will see that when you go into
practice."
Managed care plans reward doctors who keep treat-
ment costs down, and a large share of medical costs
come in the last six months of life, Stevens said, le
said that means doctors will have a direct incentive to
push the terminally ill toward assisted suicide.
"Unethical physicians can easily influence a
patient's decision," he said.
Doctor-aided suicide also gives unscrupulous rela-
tives a way to get rid of the elderly and sick and get
their hands on money that otherwise would go to med-
ical or nursing home care, he said.
"Economic forces will make the choice to die very
quickly the duty to die," he said.
Penicillin for
the soul...
because Novocaine
solves nothing.
Campus Chapel
Explorations in faith and reason
Sunday Service 10:30 a.m.
1236 Washtenaw Ct.,
just north of Forest and Washtenaw
http://www.umich.edu/-crchapel
;
Neoglyphics Media Corporation
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After graduation, I wanted to follow up on the most
current thing. At that time the Internet was strange
and underground, and I wasn't sure if it would really
take off. But then it started to explode. So I came to
Neoglyphics and started learning new technologies.
I think my title is computer programmer, maybe
software developer. Titles are kind of goofy here.
Personally, I like Web Slinger or Spiderman.
I do a lot of different things, mostly project-related.
For example, I spend a lot of time talking with
clients about project requirements. Then there's the
programming. Writing code from scratch, doing
high level design, testing it, deploying it on a machine.
What's great about Neoglyphics? To a great extent,
the community of people. Everyone seems to get
along. We maintain a relatively open, flat hierarchy -
you can talk to anyone and share opinions. I've made
a lot of personal friends with developers that I'll
always keep in touch with. The pay isn't too bad either!
The culture encourages individualism, sort of a laid
back dress code.
We will be on campus the following dates:
SWE-TBP Career Fair
September 28
Interviews
December 1
We are recruiting for the following positions:
Software Engineers with experience
and interest developing in Java, C++
and/or knowledge of distributed objects
using CORBA or Java RMI, web servers,
and SQL.
Name:
Position:
Education:
Matt
Lead Software Engineer
B.S. Computer Science,
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
M.S.E Computer Science/
Artificial lntelligence,
University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor
I~
I'm the person who started our weekly Social Hour
Originally, it wasn't planned. People just gathered
on Friday afternoon, but this stopped when we moved
to a bigger office. I thought it was important to
continue, and Neo agreed to reimburse me if I brought
refreshments. Now we vote on beverages and have
them delivered. Keeping this tradition seems to have
struck a lot of resonance with people here. Social