8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 12, 2001


Victims, relatives can view execution of McVeigh

The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Attorney General John
Ashcroft plans to announce today that survivors
and relatives of those killed in the Oklahoma City
bombing will be allowed to view the execution of
Timothy McVeigh through closed-circuit televi-
sion, Bush administration officials said yesterday.
Ashcroft's decision, made after he met with
victims of the blast this week, means that about
250 people who were injured or who lost relatives
in Oklahoma City in 1995 will be permitted to
witness the first federal execution in more than 37
years, officials said.

Ashcroft will discuss his decision at a press
conference this morning. He wants to limit the
broadcast's scope to the injection of lethal chemi-
cals that will kill McVeigh, and will try not to
broadcast the prisoner's last words, sources said.
Bush administration officials say they want to
avoid giving McVeigh a chance to confront or
taunt the Oklahoma spectators in his final min-
utes.
Officials said the Justice Department and the
Bureau of Prisons decided McVeigh will not be
allowed to mount new appeals in the two hours
before his May 16 execution in Terre Haute, Ind.
He has already waived his right to further appeals.

Death penalty opponents said the closed-circuit
broadcast will only add to the macabre spectacle
forming around the federal government's yet-
unused execution chamber in Terre Haute, where
thousands of journalists, protesters and other
spectators are expected to camp out. The United
States has not executed a federal prisoner since
1963.
"We have the fullest sympathy for the family
members," said Ajamu Baraka, director of
Amnesty International USA's anti-death penalty
program. "But we are opposed to all executions
as a fundamental violation of human rights,
whether the person is guilty or innocent... . We

don't think there should be an execution to tele-
vise in the first place."
McVeigh, 32, was convicted and sentenced to
death in 1997 for detonating a massive truck
bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building. It killed 168 people, including 19 chil-
dren.
In a newly published book, McVeigh for the
first time admitted culpability but offered no
remorse, saying he set the blast to avenge the gov-
ernment's 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian reli-
gious sect near Waco, Texas, in which 75 people
perished. The Persian Gulf War veteran also
referred to the children killed in the blast as "col-

lateral damage."
McVeigh told the Buffalo News reporters who
wrote the book that he would demand that his
execution be broadcast on network television if a
closed-circuit broadcast is allowed. "If they do
that, I'm going to throw it back in their face;" he
said. "I'm going to demand they televise
nationally."
Ashcroft is expected to address today whether
reporters may interview McVeigh during his last
weeks. Ashcroft has indicated he is reluctant to do
anything that would generate additional publicity
for McVeigh and said he wanted to "minimize"
McVeigh's opportunities to speak publicly.

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KICKOFF
Continued from Page IA
the initiative's efforts to expand
opportunities for aspiring
researchers.
Members of the University Board
of Regents were also on hand to
accept a series of murals painted by
21 Ypsilanti High School students
that will be used to decorate the
construction site of the Life Sci-
ences Institute.
Dixon took the audience through
a virtual tour of the building, which
will house 25 to 30 new faculty
members and form an "intellectual
and physical bridge between the
main campus and the Medical
School."
Outside Rackham, however, a
group of about 15 protesters picket-
ed before the ceremony began,
handing out fake money imprinted
with Bollinger's face and the slogan
"In Corporations We Trust?"
Claiming that the Life Sciences
Initiative will open the University to
relationships with pharmaceutical
companies interested only in prof-
its, biology Prof. John Vandermeer
said the initiative will also trans-
form the research culture of the
University.
"I challenge them to think of what
the world really needs, which is not
more profits for the drug compa-
nies," Vandermeer said.
The initiative "is going to be for
the corporate profit and not for the
public good," said University alum
and Ann Arbor resident Jessica
Stanton. .
Law Prof. Rick Lempert, who
will direct the Life Sciences, Values
and Society Program, said he hoped
there will be an open forum on the
"issues of commercialization of
research and the intellectual proper-
ty issues."
"This is something being con-
fronted nationally now," Lempert
said. "It's a perfectly legitimate
issue and one the University must
confront."
The Life Sciences Initiative was
launched in 1999 as part of the
state's Life Sciences Corridor, a $1
billion project to promote and invest
in life sciences research at Michigan
colleges and universities. The state
has pledged $50 million per year for
the next 20 years to aid the initiative.

Gunman kills two residents.
of San Diego senior center

Los Angeles Times
CHULA VISTA, Calif. - For the third time in little more
than a month, gunfire erupted yesterday in an unlikely setting
of suburban San Diego County: this time, in a church-run
apartment complex for the elderly.
Police said a disgruntled longtime resident shot and killed
two people and then exchanged shots with officers before flee-
ing.
As police searched for the gunman both inside and outside
the 16-story Congregational Tower, dozens of terrified resi-
dents huddled in a recreation room under the protection of offi-
cers - a chilling echo of recent scenes after schoolyard
shootings in nearby Santee and El Cajon.
The gunman was described as a thin man in his 60s, wearing
a ponytail. Neither the suspect nor the victims were immediate-
ly identified.
More than three hours after the search began, police stormed
a room on an upper floor, using flash-bang grenades and tear
gas. Later, a spokesman said only that a third person had been
found dead but declined to say whether it was the gunman.
Soon after the shooting, residents, some in wheelchairs,
were evacuated in a SWAT truck, guarded by police with guns

drawn.
"It was like a prison cell in there," a woman in her 60s said'
of the three-plus hours in which she and others were trapped
inside the building.
"Two people I know are dead," cried another woman.
In addition to the two killed, a woman in her 60s suffered a
apparent heart attack and was taken to a hospital by police who
dashed into the building wearing body armor.
The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. in the lobby of the
building, which serves low-income elderly and is run by the
adjacent Community Congregational Church. When police
arrived, the gunman allegedly fired six shots but none of the
officers was hit.
As the search continued, police ordered people in nearby
office buildings, homes and restaurants to stay inside, including
Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) and his staff.
Reflecting on the Congregational Tower shooting, and tda
two recent high school shootings in eastern San Diego Count,
Filner said, "We've got to realize that we're all vulnerable to


violence.
"There are a lot of people out there with rage who, with tlfe
easy availability of guns, think it's all right to begin killing pec-
ple," said Filner.

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SWindow on the world

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AVID u fKAT/Uai
Students and residents protest the Life Sciences institute kickoff ceremony yesterday
moming. The crane in the background is on the future site of the institute.

PANEL
Continued from Page IA
genetic research and biotechnology.
In the exhibition, various themes,
including evolution and the genetic
component of identity, are presented in
34 works by 18 artists. Chosen works
include paintings, photographs, sculp-
tures, interactive projects and installa-
tion, and mixed media pieces.
'The exhibition is based on real life
isses," Heiferman added. "I think it
will help the audience think about this
period and what we are going though."
Ubel stressed that genetics will play
animportant role in society in upcom-
ing years.
"What the dot-com fad was to the

'90s, the Human Genome Project will
be to this decade, Ubel said.
Kismaric noted the curators' desire
for diversity in the exhibition.
"We really wanted for different
mediums of art and different genera-
tions to be represented," Kismaric said.
Heiferman also discussed how the
exhibition made its way to Ann Arbor.
"The exhibition is here because the
University was interested in it and
the fact that it is the first of its kind,"
he said. "It's an interesting way to get
people talking about art and science
and we want to thank the University
for getting the exhibition here so
fast."
The exhibition runs at the Museum
of Art through May 27.

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Northside

Happy Easter!
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Episcopal Holy
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Adult and Youth
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11:00am Episcopal Holy
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provided for both)
7:00pm Healing

Food for Thought
Pride & Honor
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Borders hands control of
online site to Amazon.com

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1679 Broadway - at Baits Drive 663-5503
Two congregations committed to inclusive and supportive community

A pedestrian, seen through the glass door of the Del Rio Bar, walks along West Washington Street yesterday.


NEW YORK (AP) - Ann Arbor-
based Borders Group Inc., the nation's
second-largest book retailer, is abandon-
ing its money-losing online business,
turning it over to Amazon.com Inc. as
part of a new partnership between the
two companies.
A new co-branded Borders.com
website will launch in August, the
companies announced yesterday.
Amazon.com will become the seller
of record, providing inventory, fulfill-
ment and content and customer ser-
vice, including personalization
features, for the site.
Amazon.com's website will continue
to operate independently.
Borders will eliminate all 70 jobs in
its Borders.com operation, though the
company said that it will be looking to
find laid off workers jobs within the
organization, according to Greg Jose-

fowicz, president and chief executive
officer of Borders.
Both companies declined to comment
on specific terms of the agreement, but
Borders officials said that it would be
making an undisclosed one-time pay-
ment to Amazon.com. Borders also will
share a percentage of the revenue with
Amazon, thouh officials said no stgck
exchange is involved.
Both Amazon and Borders officials
said that it will not affect the earnings
guidance previously issued by either
company. The news didn't impress many
Wall Street analysts, who dismissed the
alliance as having modest financial
impact on Amazon.
"It doesn't seem that material to me"
said Faye Landes, an analyst at Sanford
Bernstein & Co. "It would be nice if
they found someone to pay a lot of
money and take some inventory risk in

some of their dicier categories."
Those categories include consumer
electronics and hardware, areas whico
have been growing but have not yet
turned a profit for the company.
Amazon has reportedly had discus-
sions with such retailers as Best Buy.t
Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Jeff-
Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, in
an interview with The Associated
Press, declined to comment, saying
only: "We would like to have more
partnerships."
Referring to the new alliance with
Borders, Bezos said, "This isn't symbo*
ic. There are potential synergies with
Borders physical stores."-
As part of the deal, the companies :
said they may expand the agreement to
allow customers to reserve titles online
for later purchase and pickup at a Bor-
ders store.

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