NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 3

ON CAMPUS
IASA to host
political mixer
The Indian American Student
Association will hold an open forum
on issues pertaining to the upcoming
elections with members of the Col-
lege Republicans, College Demo-
crats and LSA Student Government,
at 7 p.m. tonight in the Pendleton
Room of the Michigan Union.
Noted vegan to
lecture on ethical
food choices
Paul Shapiro, founder of the non-
profit organization Compassion Over
Killing, will give an open lecture titled
"Ethical Food Choices in an Age of
Agribusiness" at 7 p.m. tonight in
the Pendleton Room of the Michigan
Union. The event is free.
Author and Sierra
Club director to
speak at SNRE
Carl Pope, executive director of
the Sierra Club and author of the new
book "Strategic Ignorance: Why the
Bush Administration is Recklessly
Destroying a Century of Environmen-
tal Progress" will speak at the School
of Natural Resources and Environment
at 7 p.m. tonight in Room 1040 of the
Dana Building.
The talk is being sponsored by the
Doris Duke Conservation Fellows and
the Ecosystem Management Initiative.
Environmental
writer to lecture
on future of energy
Barbara Freese will give a lecture
called "Global warming, fossil fuels
and the audacity of imagining we can
shape our energy future" at 5 p.m. today
in Room 1040 of the Dana Building.
Freese has worked on environmental
policy for the state of Minnesota.
Journalist to
address effect of
welfare reform
Jason DeParle, a New York Times
reporter, will speak about issues
addressed in his book on the results of
the controversial 1996 Welfare Reform
Act at an event called "American
Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a
Nation's Drive to End Welfare." DePar-
le will speak at 7 p.m. in the Rackham
Ampitheater.
CRIME
NOTES
Graffiti found on
Markley hall wall
Graffiti was found on the walls of
Blagdon House in Mary Markley Resi-

dence Hall early Sunday morning.
Laptops and wallet
stolen from house
Three laptop computers and a wal-
let was taken from a house on the 1200
block of Cambridge Court early Sun-

New report: Preservation creates jobs

5

percent of state's jobs are environmental friendly

TRAVERSE CITY (AP) - Nearly 5 percent
of all jobs in Michigan are linked to environmen-
tal protection in some way, according to a report
that contends what's good for nature does not
have to be bad for the economy.
Environmentally friendly products, pro-
grams and services create employment not only
for scientists and engineers, but also for office
and factory workers and even truck drivers, the
report says.
"Most of these jobs are in occupations and
skills that people wouldn't necessarily think of
as "green jobs,"' said Roger Bezdek, the report's
author and president of a Washington-based eco-
nomic research firm.
The report shows that "investments in the
environment are good for the economy, good for
business and good for jobs," he said.
Bezdek and David Hollister, director of the
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic
Growth, are scheduled to release the report

today during a news conference at the state
Capitol in Lansing.
Bezdek, an economist who has written exten-
sively on the ties between environmental protec-
tion and job creation, said the "environmental
industry" is a leading employer that last year
generated nearly 5 million jobs nationwide and
pumped $301 billion into the economy.
In Michigan, about 217,000 jobs are "envi-
ronment related," he said - 4.9 percent of total
employment. Some came about through laws and
regulations, while others arose solely through
private initiative.
The environmental industry produced $12.9
billion in 2003 sales and made up 3.9 percent of
the gross state product, the report says. Twenty-
nine percent of private-sector environmental jobs
are in manufacturing, it says.
The report urges Michigan policymakers to
nurture environmentally friendly companies and
jobs. Among the recommendations: stepped-up

research, development and marketing of more
energy-efficient automobiles.
Rich Studley, a senior vice president of the
Michigan Chamber of Commerce, said the econ-
omy benefits when businesses take steps such as
purchasing cleaner equipment and hiring envi-
ronmental compliance staff
"But if the point they're trying to make is
that more environmental regulation is good for
industry, I think that would be a hard sell with
the people we represent," Studley said.
Bezdek said the report doesn't get into whether
regulations should be strengthened, but disputes
the widespread belief that environmental protec-
tion and economic growth don't mix.
"It's not a tradeoff between the environment
and jobs," he said.
Bezdek acknowledged his study used "fairly
broad" criteria for determining what qualifies
as an environmentally linked job. He defines
such jobs as "created either directly or indi-

rectly by environmental spending investments
or programs."
Installing solar thermal collectors on houses
and office buildings would be an example of a
"directly" linked job, the report says, while an
"indirect" job might be working for a restaurant
that draws most of its customers from a solar
panel factory across the street.
Many construction workers, financial analysts,
janitors, office clerks, packagers and others owe
their livelihoods to environmental protection,
Bezdek said.
Among the companies listed as providing
environmental jobs is Tetra Tech, MPS, an engi-
neering consulting firm based in Ann Arbor with
a staff of about 250. It is part of a larger company
that provides about 8,000 environmentally linked
jobs, President Don Lund said.
The Michigan affiliate primarily helps local
governments improve infrastructure such as
sewer systems.

Michigan may set
record for bank
robberies this year

WAR TALES

DETROIT (AP) - Michigan might
set a record for bank robberies this
year, thanks not only to several serial
bandits but also to first-timers facing
unpaid bills and casino losses, the
FBI says.
There have been 306 bank robber-
ies in the state in the first nine months
of 2004. That's up 15 percent from all
of 2003, when 265 Michigan banks
were robbed.
Averaging more than one bank rob-
bery a day, Michigan is on pace to
have more than 400 by year's end. The
record is 356 robberies, set in 1996.
That compares with 97 heists state-
wide in all of 1984.
"People keep robbing banks
because that's where the money is,"
FBI Special Agent Terry Booth told
The Detroit News for a story in yes-
terday's paper. "They take awful big
risks for only a little bit of money."
The average bank robber gets
away with less than $2,000. About
70 percent of robberies are solved,
Booth said.
About three-quarters of bank rob-
bers are involved with drugs. But a
growing number of people, many with
no criminal history, are robbing banks
to pay off debts, he said.
Banks, citing security concerns,
decline to discuss bank robberies in
detail. "We are very cognizant of rob-
beries," said Comerica Bank spokes-
woman Sara Snyder.
Earlier this month, a Macomb Coun-
ty woman dubbed the "granny bandit"
was released after serving 16 months
in state prison.
Brenda Bishop, 52, was arrested in

2002 while attempting to rob a bank
in Clinton Township. The apartment
manager admitted to stealing tenants'
rent money and spending it on slot
machines at Detroit's Greektown Casi-
no. She said she tried to rob the bank in
an effort to cover her losses.
Another Clinton Township resident,
Timothy Berner, 33, robbed banks
in Brighton and Lansing early this
year before killing Sterling Heights
police officer Mark Sawyers's in June.
Authorities said Berner stole Sawyers'
handgun and used it to rob a Georgia
bank, then used it to commit suicide
July 25 as police closed in on him in
Jacksonville, Fla.
.Serial robbers being sought by the
FBI include a man nicknamed the
"stinky bandit" because of his strong
body odor. The man has been linked
to the robberies of at least seven banks
in Macomb County and Detroit, and at
least four robberies of a single Charter
One bank branch in Harper Woods.
In May, a grandmother with no
criminal record was sentenced to
six years in prison in Grand Rapids
after pleading guilty to robbing two
Lansing banks and admitting to 10
other robberies in Connecticut and
Massachusetts.
Margaret Ann Thomas-Irving, 58,
of Hartford, Conn., apparently held up
the Lansing banks while visiting her
son, an officer with the Bath Township
Police Department in Ingham County.
She said she committed the crimes to
pay off mounting debts.
Anyone with information about any
bank robbery suspects can call local
police or the FBI at (313) 965-2323.

day. A screen of a
was cut.

bedroom window

The University of Michigan College of Literature Science and the Arts
presents a public lecture and reception I

THIs DAY
In Daily History
Spanish Civil War
commander speaks
to club
Sept. 28, 1937 - Twenty-five-year-
old Steve Daduk, commander of all
Americans, among them three Univer-
sity students, fighting for the Spanish
government in the country's civil war,
spoke at the Progressive Club's first
meeting in the Union Ballroom. Daduk,
who studied electrical engineering at
the City College of New York, turned
down a job upon graduating to become
an aviator in Spain. A leg wound, one of

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116, AM

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