w
Wednesday
Novemberi20 2002
©2002 The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 54
One-hundred-twelve years ofeditonalfreedom
TODAY:
Cloudy
throughout the
daytime hours
with light rain
beginning after
dark.
Tomorrow:
46132.
wwwmihigandaily~com
Transition
process
begins for
candidates
By Louie Melzlbsh
Daily Staff Reporter
Just two weeks after the Nov. 5 gen-
eral elections, transition efforts are
heavily underway at both the national
and state levels to replace the numer-
ous lawmakers and executives who are
leaving their posts.
State Sen.-elect Liz Brater (D-Ann
Arbor), while acknowledging that her
party will be in the minority in both
houses of the Michigan Legislature,
said the state budget will likely be
one of the tougher issues state law-
makers face.
"It's going to be very painful - all
the easy (solutions) have already been
done so everybody's going to have to
examine priorities," she said.
Numerous governorships and seats
in the U.S. Congress and state legisla-
tures are being turned over. There will
be at least 10 new U.S. senators and 50
new members of the House, pending
special elections and runoffs in a few
races around the country.
For example, Democratic Sen. Mary
Landrieu's runoff in Louisiana will
determine whether Republicans pad
their new 51-seat majority in Congress
upper house. Landrieu, who faces
Republican challenger Suzanne Haik
Terrell, was forced into the Dec. 7 runoff
after failing to get more than 50 percent
of the vote in the November election.
Reps.-elect Candice Miller (R-Harri-
son Twp.) and Thaddeus McCotter (R-
Livonia) will be sworn in at the
beginning of the year. Combined with
the departure of Democratic Reps.
James Barcia of Bay City, David
Bonior of Mount Clemens and Lynn
Rivers of Ann Arbor, their swearings-in
will give Republicans a 9-6 majority in
Michigan's congressional delegation.
In Michigan, all four state execu-
tive officers will be new, although
the race for attorney general has not
yet been certified. Democratic Gov.-
elect Jennifer Granholm and Lt.
Gov.-elect John Cherry Jr. announced
yesterday a chief of staff for the
administration, though no appoint-
ments to the governor's Cabinet have
been announced yet.
Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the
Department of Management and Bud-
get, which oversees transition efforts
between Granholm and departing Gov.
John Engler, said "the Engler adminis-
tration is working with the transition
leaders to familiarize them with the
agencies and agency issues that may be
coming up in the working year," like
dealing with an expected budget short-
fall of more than $1 billion in the 2004
fiscal year.
Republican Mike Cox is currently
clinging to a 6,500 margin over Demo-
crat Gary Peters in the attorney gener-
al's race, and a recount still is possible
but unlikely. Cox named a transition
team yesterday, as did Republican Sec-
See TRANSITION, Page 7
Polls open for
MSA election
voting today
A'P PHOTO
The Bahamas-registered 'Prestige' oil tanker sinks into the Atlantic Ocean in this video grab after it broke in two some 152
miles off Spain's coast. The stricken tanker was originally carrying 20.5 million gallons of fuel oil when it sank.
Tanker oil spill ravages
Spanish waters, coasts
By Elizabeth Anderson
and Carmen Johnson
Daily Staff Reporters
After two weeks of 6 a.m. chalking
rounds, student government candidates
are ready to see the effects of their
campaigns. Voting in Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly, LSA Student Govern-
ment, University of Michigan
Engineering Council and Rackham
Student Government elections became
available online this morning at mid-
night and will extend until tomorrow at
11:59 p.m.
Unlike previous elections, MSA and
LSA-SG Election Director Collin
McGlashen said there have been few
campaign violations so far.
"Elections have been surprisingly
clean. It's been such a smooth election."
Students can vote online at the
University-provided website,
vote. www.umich.edu.
Approximately 30 percent of Univer-
sity students have voted in the past, said
McGlashen, who added that the Univer-
sity holds the record for the highest
voter turnout in the Big Ten College
Conference.
When asked about this semester's
voting turnout, McGlashen said he
could not predict numbers because of
all the different factors leading to voter
turnout, primarily because this is a
midterm election.
But McGlashen said he noticed more
campaigning than in recent times..
Students First candidates have been
campaigning together in order to
emphasize their cohesiveness as a
party. Students First Nursing candidate
Heather Bidgoli said she anticipates
the results of the election.
"I'm nervous and I don't know
what's going to happen. But right now,
I'm trying to contact as many kids as I
can," Bidgoli said.
Unofficial election results will be
released around noon on Friday.
Defend Affirmative Action Party
MSA candidate Manuel Lopez said the
MIDTERM ELECTION
VOTING BEGINS
TODAY!
VOTING ENDS TOMORROW AT
I 1:59 P.M.
CAST YOUR VOTE FOR:
MICHIGAN STUDENT
ASSEMBLY
LSA STUDENT
GOVERNMENT
UNIVERSITY OF
MICHIGAN
ENGINEERING COUNCIL
VOTE.WWW.UMICH.EDU
whole campaigning process was very
fulfilling.
"There are very great people from
Blue and Students First. No matter
which party wins, students will be in
good hands," said Lopez, an LSA
freshman.
He also said that he felt DAAP
was the only party that has a strong
stance on hard issues, like violence
against women and race-based
admissions.
Blue Party candidates plan to cam-
paign on the Diag until tomorrow night
to remind students to vote.
"These have been the longest two
weeks of my life," said MSA Blue
Party candidate and LSA freshman
Jack DeCamp. "Waking up at 6 a.m.
gets tiring"
Blue Party LSA-SG candidate Paige
Butler said she thought the most effec-
tive campaign strategy was contacting
students at a personal level.
"Campaigning has definitely been
stressful," Butler said. "But I've also
met incredible people. I wouldn't trade
this experience for the world"
MADRID, Spain (AP) - A damaged tanker carrying
more than 20 million gallons of fuel oil broke in two off
northwest Spain and sank yesterday, threatening an envi-
ronmental disaster.
The Bahamas-flagged Prestige vanished into the ocean
at midday, said Lars Walder, a spokeisan for the Dutch
salvage company SMIT. The ship's oil containers seemed
to remain intact, moderating spill damage, but the toxic
fuel was likely to seep out eventually, he said. An environ-
mentalist warned the wreckage would be like a "time
bomb" on the ocean floor, some 11,800 feet down.
If the ship lost its entire cargo of fuel oil, the spill would
be nearly twice the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster
in Alaska. Some 10.92 million gallons of crude oil were
lost from the Valdez.
"We can say goodbye to the ship and its cargo,"
Walder said.
The tanker ruptured last Wednesday during a storm, and
was towed some 150 miles out to sea. The salvage compa-
ny estimated it lost between 1.3 million and 2.6 million
gallons of fuel. The crew was airlifted to safety last week.
The spill caused friction between Portugal and Spain,
which disagreed over who was responsible for the clean-
See SPILL, Page 7
Senate passes bill for
massive restructuring
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted
decisively yesterday to create a Homeland Securi-
ty Department, delivering a triumph to President
Bush and setting the stage for the biggest govern-
ment reshuffling in a half-century as a way to
thwart and respond to terrorist attacks.
The final vote was 90-9, belying bitter clashes
that pitted Congress against the White House and
the two parties against each other and that pro-
longed work on the legislation for nearly a year.
Eight Democrats and independent Sen. James
Jeffords of Vermont voted no.
"It is landmark in its scope and it ends a ses-
sion which has seen two years worth of legislative
work which has been very productive for the
American people," Bush told Senate Republican
leaders from Air Force One as he flew to NATO
meetings in Europe.
The new Cabinet-level department will merge
See SENATE, Page 2
The city lights
'U' surpasses goal of
hiring 100 nurses
By Bron Daniels
For the Daily
Many nurses have complained about
inadequate salaries, lack of recognition
with regard to supplemental package
benefits, poor management and the
always-looming glass ceiling. Not only
have many people currently in the pro-
fession complained about their jobs,
but there are increasing numbers of
graduates who have shown no interest
in venturing into the nursing profes-
sion, University of Michigan Health
System officials said.
Given the current situation, UMHS
officials launched a campaign in Sep-
tember to hire 100 nurses in 100 days.
They successfully hired more than 100
nurses a month before its 100-dayy
goal. The campaign's success is attrib-
uted to extremely generous and com-
petitive benefits, UMHS spokeswoman
Kara Gavin said.
UMHS' recruitment plan has a
increased salaries and competitive ben-
efits, Gavin said.
The process of improvement begins
on the patient care unit, Gavin added.
"Our nurses complete an extensive
training and assessment program in
order to ensure the best care for our
patients," Gavin said.
She said the quality of the nurses
was not sacrificed in order for UMHS
to meet its 100-day goal. The Universi-
ty will increase technical and clinical
training to improve patient care and
marketability.
"We are giving our patients the best
possible care that we are capable of
giving, which ensures a quality-health
care environment. As nurses, we will
never allow ourselves to become com-
placent about the quality of the care we
deliver," said a nurse from the UMHS
C. S. Mott Children's Hospital, who
requested to remain anonymous.
While recruitment is essential in this
ALYA wOuu/Daily
The Tablet PC gives its users easy access to drawing and writing with a stylus that other laptops don't
provide.
Tablet P touts easy
access to taking notes
Lydia K. Leung
Daily Staff Reporter
Hate waiting in line for your notes to be printed
out in the Fishbowl? Tired of copying notes from
your classmates? Can't find your notes in your
war-zone-like room before midterms? The Tablet
PC may be your solution.
Now, keeping notes on a computer with your
own handwriting and highlighting electronic doc-
uments and articles on the web are made possible
The price of a Tablet PC ranges from $1,699 to
$2,799, which is similar to the cost of a newer
model laptop.
Tablet PC may look like a normal laptop, but
with its special digitizer underneath the screen, stu-
dents can use the digital pen to write on the screen
and do everything that you can do with paper and
pen, Microsoft Student Consultant Lee Linden said.
"There are two different types of Tablet PCs.
They are the pure tablets, which have no key-
boards.... The other type is the convertible tablet,
TOM FELDKAMP/Daily
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