LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Monday, Novembei 27, 2000 - 3A 'CA MPU S City drops meter fees or holiday season Event highlights Internet sources about cancer The last event in a series on how to access online cancer resources will take place Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the University's Cancer Center. Dietitian Suzanne Dixon will lead the session which is titled, "Nutrition Information: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." The Cancer Center is located on 1500 E. Medical Ctr. Dr. The free event is open to the public, but preregistration is required. Please call 615-4012. Holiday music to brighten hospital The University Hospital System will sponsor Gospel Extravaganza II on Thursday at 12:10 p.m. on the first floor of the University Hospital Lobby. The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Hospitals, grants, gifts and arts sales as part of the Gifts of Art program. U' prof. to read work at Rackham Author Peter Ho Davies will give a reading from his work Thursday at 5 p.m. in Rackham Amphitheater. Davies, a professor for the Univer- sity's Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing, has received awards from Silver PEN Award in England, the Mail on Sunday Literary Prize, the Oregon Book Award for Fiction and fellowships from the National Endow- ment for the Arts. Sponsored by the department of English and the Office of the Provost, the reading is free to the public. Conference to focus on effects of extended life The University's Life Sciences, Val- 'ucs and Society Program and the Pro- ject on Death in America will co-sponsor a conference beginning Friday in Rackham Auditorium. The two-day conference, titled "Death and Its Enemies," will focus on the social and ethical implications of extended longevity of life. -V isiting Law prof. Robert Burt organized the conference, which will address topics including scientific research on the increasing longevity of life and cultural attitudes towards dying and dead people. Experts from universities including Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cornell will participate in conference events. Pre-registration is required for the conference, which is free to the public. In order to register visit http://life- sciences. umich. edu/values/confer- enceregister html or call (734) 647-4571. Midnight Madness set for Main St. 0 Late night shopping with Santa and Mrs. Clause will fill Main Street on Prilay for Midnight Madness. While shoppers enjoy the extended hours of stores on Main Street, the Boys Choir of Ann Arbor, Boys Night .Out, a barbershop quartet and the Eclectics Band will add to the festive atmosphere. Visitors can also bring a toy for the * "Community Toy Chest" located at 306 S. Main St., which is sponsored bJy SOS Community Services. iRegistration open for U-Move classes To help University students, faculty and staff to keep their New Year's reso- lutions, U-Move will offer classes in swimming, yoga, and kick boxing dur- ing Winter term. To avoid standing in line to register in January, U-Move has begun accept- ing registrations at the U-Move Fit- ness Office in room 1271 Central Campus Recreation Building from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information call 764-1342. - Complied hi Daily Sta/fReporter Lisa Hoffman. By David Enders Daily Staff Reporter For many students with a car on campus, get- ting a parking ticket is almost as common as not getting one. "I have three unpaid tickets," said an LSA senior studying at Cava Java in the Michigan Union last night who asked her name not be printed. "Parking is extremely annoying." Another LSA senior sitting across from her said she had "four or five" unpaid tickets. Tickets will be less common for the rest of the year after the Ann Arbor City Council unani- mously approved a "Free End of the Year" park- ing program last week to encourage holiday shopping in the area. Councilman Chris Kolb (D-Ward V) was one of the main proponents of the measure. "It's to compete with free parking at the malls and strip malls," Kolb said yesterday. Meters will be free after 3 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and all day Saturday from this week until Christmas at all of Ann Arbor's 1,895 metered spaces. Parking meters are normally in effect until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Roger Shambaugh, a manager at Bivouac Sporting Goods on South State Street, said he expects the meter time reduction will help the store. "I would think that would be great," he said. "It takes you 15 minutes to buy a cup of coffee on State Street, let alone try on a pair of pants or decide what cool sweater you want." Council members expect the plan to cost the city more than $75,000 in lost meter fees and ticket revenue but anticipate stores will experi- ence higher sales. "The lost revenues is what the city is giving to downtown," Kolb said. "It's more 64 an invest- "It's to compete with free parking at the malls and strip malls." --Chris Kolb Ann Arbor City councilman ment." There are a few exceptions to the holiday rules: To promote turnover of spots, motorists will still receive tickets if they leave their vehicles in a spot longer than the maximum time indicated on the meter or park in a no-parking zone. Blue meters allow four-hour parking, gray meters permit two hours, brown meters indicate a one-hour limit and yellow meters have a 30- minute maximum; Also, spots used by the Downtown Develop- ment Authority and the parking lot adjacent to the Amtrak station on Depot Street are still sub- ject to normal parking regulations. Along with free meter time, the council is con- sidering changes to current parking laws, includ- ing a 10-minute grace period on expired meters and giving meter attendants the option of waiving a ticket if a driver arrives while it is being issued. City parking has been under scrutiny since a local jeweler sued the city's parking department when his car was towed in 1999 just after he made a complaint against the parking depart- ment. Better not shout, better not cry State legislators return to Lansing to finish session LANSING (AP) - State lawmakers return to the Capitol this week to wrap up legislative work for the two-year session. Bills will die if they fail to reach enactment by the time lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn for the year in two weeks. They would have to be introduced again next year and begin their travel through both chambers anew if they're to pass. The top issue facing the Senate is the anti-pornography package, a series of nine bills designed to impose new regu- lations on adult entertainment operations and allow local governments to add their own rules. The package differs from similar legislation that has passed the House, which also included state licensing of adult entertainment operations. And lawmakers are running out of time to reach an agreement on the matter this session. "It is up the air," said Sen. William Van Regenmorter, a Republican from Ottawa County's Georgetown Township and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee which approved the Senate bills. "There still is time," he said. "I felt it was my job to do the committee work. We did not use a licensing approach at all." Among other things, the bills would require adult entertain- ment businesses to close at midnight; require nude dancers to stay at least six feet from viewers; require patrons to be at least 21 years old; and provide for financial forfeiture of a compa- ny's assets for conviction under the law. But the Judiciary Committee rejected state licensing of adult entertainment operations, as provided by the House. And it voted down a requirement that adult businesses close on yesterday. "The principal problem (of the pornography industry) is its secondary effects - increases in crime, devaluation of prop- erty," Van Regenmorter said as the committee approved the bills. "We're limiting them as much as we can. Licensing car- ried state approval. We felt it was better to have strict regula- tioni." The other major legislation facing Senate action this week would set ground rules under which convicted crimi- nals could use DNA testing to challenge their convictions. It also was approved by the Judiciary Committee, but has not yet been considered by the House. The bill was approved in committee over Democratic- objections that few convicted criminals would have the money or legal advice to contest their convictions. One key area of disagreement is a one-year limit on such challenges, which is expected to be debated on the Senate floor. Senate debate comes as DNA testing has cleared dozens of - people nationwide, including some death-row inmates. And an "Innocence Project" has been set up at several law schools to review cases which might be successfully challenged. Both sides say they don't want innocent people in prison, but prisoner advocates argue the bill stacks the deck against such defendants seeking a new shot at freedom. The bill, which has the support of Michigan prosecutors, sets out several conditions for inmates to meet in challeng- ing their convictions within a year of the bill becoming law: A defendant must always have asserted innocence. A person who pleaded guilty could not ask for a new trial. The defendant's identity must have been at issue. For example, a person who claimed he had consensual sex with a rape victim could not now claim someone else committed the crime. The defendant must show the DNA evidence is rele- vant. For example, if an accomplice left the DNA sample at the crime scene, it does not prove the defendant did not par- ticipate in the crime. 0 The defendant must show that a properly conducted DNA test on uncontaminated evidence will establish that the defendant was not the source of the sample. The Senate has several other items before it finishes the legislative session. They include a rewrite of the state drain code, a prohibition against riding in the open beds of pickup trucks, and bills to require doctors and laboratories to use safer hypodermic needles. MICHAEL HYNES/Daily Tibor Tuske sits on Santa's lap at Briarwood Mall yesterday. The Thanksgiving weekend began the onslaught of holiday festivities in the mall. Pentagon officials met w representatives HARRISON TOWNSHIP (AP) - Some residents in this Macomb Coun- ty community may soon decide. whether to sell their homes as federal and local officials are expected to dis- cuss the sale of the land that abuts Sel- fridge Air National Guard Base. The private land - about 36 acres - would be bought so military planes would have a place to land in case of emergencies. The base is in the heart of one of the fastest growing areas of the county. Fighter jets, cargo planes and midair refueling tankers take off and land over new subdivisions and industrial parks. Base officials are still conducting studies, and Pentagon officials are expected to meet next month with offi- cials from Harrison and Chesterfield townships. Selfridge evolved from an Air Force base to an Air National Guard base. It houses each branch of the U.S. mili- tary. Lawrence King of Chesterfield Township said he would sell his prop- erty to the base if asked. "This property was in my family before Michigan was even a state, so I'm the last of the Mohicans so to speak," King told The Detroit News for a story yesterday. "But I'd still sell it. I wouldn't have a choice." Crews plan missions hours, some- times days, before departure because of their civilian neighbors. "We try to balance the needs of the community with the needs of the mili- tary. We hope to minimize the noise, Maj. Sean Southworth said. Renaming of building halted due to lawsuit MENS * DONALDJ.1PLINER. MADE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF ITALY to: 1, , rri <. , g x f~f toT, 4 , - a 9 N: EASTPOINTE (AP) - East Detroit Public Schools officials are consider- ing renaming a school administration building amid a lawsuit filed by the former schools chief. It has been proposed that the John E Gardiner Administration Building be renamed to the East Detroit Public Schools Administrative Building. However, the school board halted a vote on the issue because of a lawsuit Gardiner, the district's chief adminis- trator for 15 years, filed last year. The suit says board members and an audi- tor defamed him by blaming him for millions of dollars in cost overruns on a massive construction project funded by S28 million in bonds. Gardiner claims he was made a "scapegoat for the shenanigans, rascal- ity and villainy" of others, according to the lawsuit. Gardiner has not been charged with any crime stemming from the investi- gation by police and the FBI. David Scothorn, East Detroit's for- mer assistant superintendent of busi- ness services, was charged with embezzling more than $438,000 in district funds for personal use. Scothorn is free on bond as he awaits trial. THE CALENDAR What's happening in Ann Arbor today EVENTS "How to Read Poetry In Public," and Open Mike, Sponsored by Room 4448 I.