One hundred ten years of editon lfreedom t tt NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 7640557 www michigandail y. com Wed nesday November 22, 2000 1 f 9'1 :. R _ ' Sc g4 I U U U 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