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NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 7640557
www michigandail y. com
Wed nesday
November 22, 2000
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The Associated Press
In a dispiriting blow to George W. Bush, the
Florida Supreme Court granted Al Gore's
request to keep the presidential recounts grinding
away last
night, even
as vote-coun-
ters plowed
through bal-
lots and
shrunk Bush's minuscule advantage in the clos-
est presidential race in decades.
"We will move forward with a full, fair and
accurate count," the vice president said two
ours after the high court ruled. Democrats were
otorists F.
Court orders recounts to continue
jubilant. Republicans were bitter and angry.
"Two weeks after the election, that court has
changed the rules and has invented a new sys-
tem for counting election results," said former
Secretary of State James Baker, Bush's top
adviser. He said the Texas governor had other
legal options available - and even held out the
prospect that the GOP-leaning Florida legisla-
ture could step in to "affirm the original rules."
Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor of the state
and can call the legislature into session. Flori-
da's lawmakers assign the state's 25 electors to
a presidential candidate, traditionally the state's
largest vote-getter. The winner of Florida is the
nation's 43rd president.
One dispirited Bush adviser said he feared
the ruling gave Gore all the ammunition he
needed to creep ahead in the vote total.
Miles away, Palm Beach county elections
chief Charles Burton broke the news to his
weary vote counters. "So keep on counting," he
said. Bush holds a 930-vote lead in the official,
but uncertified vote tallies from Election Day,
with overseas absentee ballots included. Gore
has slowly been eating into that lead in recent
days as recounts have proceeded at his urging
in three Democratic counties.
Gore picked up 266 votes in recounts through
last night, cutting into Bush's minuscule lead.
In an unanimous opinion, the seven justices,
all appointed by Democratic governors, ruled
that manual recounts may continue until Sun-
day or Monday, when a final statewide vote
must be certified.
"An accurate vote count is one of the essential
foundations of our democracy." The work of
:iory
people, they said, is more just than machines.
The decision came as election workers in three
counties continued their counting of 1.5 million
ballots, now facing a Sunday deadline to com-
plete the job with no clear guidance as to how to
proceed. The fight will now be over thousands of
ballots with so-called "dimpled chads" - those
that are indented but not punched.
The Florida court called a 1990 Illinois
Supreme Court decision that endorses the count-
ing of partially punched chads "particularly apt,"
saying voters should not lose their voice in the
election "simply because the chad they punched
did not completely dislodge from the ballots."
"We decline to rule more expansively," the
See RECOUNT, Page 7
warned to
stay awake
y James Restivo
ally Staff Reporter
As students quickly finish midterms,
term papers and holiday preparations,
sleep deprivation threatens to ruin the
weekend for holiday travelers.
Last Thanksgiving weekend, 22
people died in 20 fatal crashes in
Michigan, AAA Michigan spokesman
Jim Rink said. One factor in holiday
ccidents is drivers not receiving
enough sleep for extensive travel.
"Among college students, due to all-
night studying and partying, students
have an increased propensity for falling
asleep at the wheel," said Alon Avidan,
a physician and assistant clinical profes-
sor who works in the University Health
System's sleep lab. Avidan said that
aside from drunken drivers, falling
asleep at the wheel is the biggest con-
rn facing motorists this Thanksgiving.
"The concern is that with more peo-
ple on the road, drowsiness doesn't turn
into tragedy," UHS spokeswoman
Valerie Gliem said. Due to the large vol-
umes of travelers expected this week-
end, students are advised to be cautious
and aware of their sleep habits.
"If a person begins to feel drowsy,
they should pull to the side of the road,
and by no means continue" Avidan said.
0 Some drivers rely on stimulation
such as the radio or air conditioning,
which Avidan said he doesn't advise
because "they aren't very effective:' He
recommends drivers get sufficient sleep
the night before a long trip and if possi-
ble bring a passenger.
In addition to sleep deprivation, a
problem this holiday season may be
the excessive amount of traffic on the
.roads. Nearly 73 percent of holiday
travel takes place on the road, Rink
Sid, with the busiest time occurring
tonight and Sunday evening.
"The best advice I can give is to
avoid peak travel times," Rink said.
"Travelers should leave earlier in the
day as opposed to rush hour, and if
possible wait until Thursday when the
roads aren't as busy."
Another issue facing students travel-
ing by car in Michigan is the weather.
severe weather warning is in effect
or the western part of the state.
As much as two feet of snow has
fallen during the past few days in areas
near Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids as
well as in northern Michigan.
For students who are flying, Rink said
Detroit Metropolitan Airport is currently
serving 105,000 passengers per day,
compared to its normal number of
80,000. Northwest Airlines spokes-
woman Mary Beth Schubert said despite
*fie amount of travelers, the airline has
not been overbooked and the most
important factor is arriving on time.
"We encourage people to arrive
early -- 90 minutes for domestic
flights and two hours for internation-
al," Schubert said. If passengers aren't
in their seat 10 minutes prior to take-
off, they can lose their reservation.
Once at the airport, passengers are
dvised to have their luggage labeled
the outside and the inside and to
utilize the various check-in options.
"You can either do it face-to-face, or
electronically with electronic service
devises," Schubert said. Northwest has
installed more than 240 electronic kiosks
in airports nationwide enabling passen-
"T r tonkPt, n ad nint iawmA at
Nuclear lab,
reactor to be
dismantled
By Jen Fish
Daily Staff Reporter
The University announced yesterday it has begun the
planning process to decommission the Ford Nuclear Reac-
tor and the facilities of the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory
on North Campus.
Vice President for Research Fawwaz Ulaby said evalua-
tions of the facility showed the primary users of the reactor
were from outside institutions rather than the University.
"There was a decline in the fraction of the services it pro-
vides to the University community in comparison to outside
users such as industry and the federal government;' Ulaby
said.
Ulaby estimated that 75 percent of the reactor's users
were from outside the University.
Because much of this use is by the federal government,
Ulaby said the University is trying to persuade the govern-
ment to provide funds to keep the reactor in operation.
"If the federal government comes forward with funds to
cover the operational costs of the reactor, we will reconsider
this decision," Ulaby said.
The decommissioning of reactors is not unusual, Ulaby
said. In the past 20 years, he said, the nuither of university-
owned nuclear reactors nationwide has declined from about
65 to 28.
Although the license for the facilities is valid for another
five years, the decommission process will cut into that time.
If the decommission proceeds, the lab will continue to oper-
ate for another 12 to 18 months.
Jan Strasma, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, said the process of decommissioning a reactor
"involves dismantling the facility, cleaning contamination
See REACTOR, Page 2
NORMAN NG/Daily
Assistant Manager Bernard Ducamp works in the control room at the Ford Nuclear Reactor yesterday. In the background is the actual reactor,
which can generate 2 megawatts of electricity.
Drinking death raises liability concerns
By Caitlin Nish
Daily Staff Reporter
Drinking can have consequences reaching far
beyond a fun night, including illness and even
death.
The death of Engineering sophomore Byung
Soo Kim last week has raised concerns about the
repercussions of binge drinking with friends.
Kim consumed 20 shots of Scotch whisky in
celebration of his 21st birthday at a friend's apart-
ment near North Campus. Although residents of
the apartment have not been charged with negli-
time to help
at 'U' hospit
By Whitney Elliott
Daily Staff Reporter
gence or wrongdoing, the potential of such charges
has been weighing on the minds of Uni-
versity students, including questions
about safety in consuming alcohol and
the responsibility to help friends drink
safely.
Washtenaw County Chief Assistant
Prosecutor Joe Burke said it is difficult
for students to be charged under the law
for failing to stop a student of legal age
who is drinking excessively.
"The Michigan statutes make it illegal, by use of
gross negligence or by failure to act when you have
a legal duty to perform, to cause the death of some-
one else," Burke said.
Burke said that while students may
have a moral responsibility to stop a
friend of legal age from consuming too
much alcohol, the law does not stipulate
legal responsibility. Michigan statutes are
usually invoked in drunk driving cases.
"Generally where you see it is in driving
cases where someone is involved in reck-
less behavior while driving and they kill someone,'
Burke said.
Keith Elkin, director of the Office of Stu-
dent Conflict Resolution, said the statutes
under the Code of Student Conduct mirror
Michigan laws.
"There's no Code obligation to come to the res-
cue of your fellow student," Elkin said. "The Code
focuses on actions of students and not the inactions
of students."
He added that problems arise in charging stu-
dents under either state law or under the Code
because there is no way to prove a student knew a
friend was in trouble. "How can you really show
that you knew someone was in danger?" he asked.
See DRINKING, Page 2
Overseas students
seek alternatives
for
Thanksgiving
Amalia Stefanou, an RC junior, said some of her best
experiences at the University have been volunteering at the
University Hospitals, meeting people that have made a last-
ing impression on her life.
"More than anything else it's given me an opportunity to
meet people I never would have met," Stefanou said. "It
makes me get outside of the shell in which we don't see the
people who don't have the opportunities we do."
When Stefanou met a 17-year-old girl with a baby at
Mott's Children's Hospital, she realized how similar she and
the girl were.
"We were almost the same age but she had to grow up so
mitAft tr T d idn',t ,no w cx m'wn I ma ir----he rorr
By Jacquelyn Nixon
Daily Staff Reporter
While some students will be pack-
ing their bags and heading for the air-
port to see their families this
afternoon, many of the University's
international students will be remain-
ing on campus or visiting friends this
holiday weekend.
Rackham student Guilherme
Larangeira of Brazil said he has
remained in Michigan twice before for
Thanksgiving breaks.
"Last year I stayed with friends and
had a dinner with other international
"I'm probably going for the entire
weekend skiing in northern Michigan.
We're going to try to have a nice din-
ner," he said.
Yoshitaka Matsuura, an LSA sopho-
more from Japan, traveled to Califor-
nia last Thanksgiving to visit his
friend's family.
"This year I'm going to Lake Michi-
gan. A couple of my friends rented out
a cabin for the weekend," he said.
For LSA sophomore Babawole
Akin-Aina, who will be staying on
campus this year, Thanksgiving is an
uneventful vacation from classes.
"I don't usually do anything at all.
ALEX WOLK/ Daily
Volunteer Cary Belen, a Kinesiology senior, works yesterday
at stocking shelves and refilling dosages at Mott's
Children's Hospital Inpatient Pharmacy.
Beverly Smith, coordinator of Volunteer Resources of
University Medical Health Systems, said student volunteers
are an inteoral nart of the hngnital
I