NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 5
.U.S. tightens rules for incoming
ships to protect Great Lakes
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Most ships arriving in
the Great Lakes are exempt from regulations meant to
keep out invasive species capable of wreaking havoc
on the ecosystem, the U.S. Coast Guard has acknowl-
edged as it moves to tighten controls.
As many as 80 percent or more of oceangoing ves-
sels that enter the lakes are subject to little more than
paperwork requirements.
But those vessels - known as NOBOBs, short for
no ballast on board - are not necessarily without
stowaways.
The NOBOBs may carry tons of residual ballast
water and/or sediments that can mix with new bal-
last water once on the Great Lakes and be discharged,
according to a Coast Guard notice in the Federal Reg-
ister earlier this month.
The Coast Guard is soliciting suggestions for a new
ballast water management strategy and has scheduled
a public meeting for May in Cleveland.
"The Coast Guard's program has a loophole big
enough to drive a cargo ship through," responded Jen-
nifer Nalbone of the environmental group Great Lakes
United, which on Tuesday called for an immediate
crackdown on NOBOBs.
While praising the Coast Guard's intention to
address the problem, Nalbone said the agency is obli-
gated by law to move more quickly.
"The Coast Guard has the very clear statutory
authority to regulate all ships entering the Great Lakes,"
Nalbone said. "These NOBOB vessels are coming in
unregulated. They don't have to do anything."
Nalbone urged the Coast Guard to require the ves-
sels to seal their tanks or be made to retain all bal-
last content, measures the Coast Guard said would be
unlikely in the near future.
"We have to engage in full public participation
before we do anything," said Beivan Patnaik, regula-
tory coordinator for the Coast Guard's Aquatic Nui-
sance Species program.
Patnaik said NOBOBs are required to file reports
on their residual ballast water as they enter the
Great Lakes, but face no regulations on how to man-
age the water.
"The Coast Guard recognizes that that's an impor-
tant issue to the Great Lakes, and we're committed to
addressing this issue," he said.
Coastal waters worldwide are increasingly
becoming infested with foreign species that pro-
liferate because they lack predators that kept them
in check at home. Often the newcomers are dis-
charged in the ballast water used to balance large
oceangoing ships.
Utilities on the Great Lakes spend millions of dol-
lars each year to keep their water intake valves clear
of zebra mussels, among the first invaders and the
impetus for the existing ballast water regulations
sought by Congress.
High court rejects murder case
DETROIT (AP) - A man con-
victed of murder in a 1994 robbery in
Romulus is expected to get a new trial
" after the U.S. Supreme Court declined
yesterday to consider an appeal from
prosecutors in the case.
Prosecutors wanted the justices
to decide whether a lower court was
wrong to throw out Clarence Scott's
conviction in the death of Elwin Lil-
ley. The 54-year-old was fatally shot
in a McDonald's parking lot while he
waited to pick up his elderly mother
from Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The Supreme Court refused without
comment to hear the appeal.
Scott, now 43, was sentenced in
1995 to life in prison without parole
after his first-degree murder convic-
tion. Isaac Collier Jr., now 36, was
sentenced to life with the chance of
parole for second-degree murder in
the pair's joint trial. Both remain in
prison.
Tom Chambers, an assistant Wayne
County prosecutor who handled the
appeal, said he was disappointed that
the court declined to decide the issue.
But he said prosecutors are confident
Scott will be convicted.
"Now it's just a matter of trying the
man again for first-degree murder,"
Chambers said.
Cleveland lawyer Andrew Cox,
whose firm was assigned to handle
arguments on behalf of Scott, said
the case didn't present an unusual
question of constitutional law, and he
wasn't surprised the court declined to
hear the appeal.
"Now it's just a matter of trying the
man again for first-degree murder."
- Tom Chambers
Assistant Wayne County prosecutor
State Republicans
travel to Capitol for
Bush inauguration
Prosecutors said the Detroit men
were cruising the Romulus area look-
ing for someone to rob in April 1994
when they found Lillie sitting in a car
outside the McDonald's. When Lillie,
of the Osceola County community of
Evart, resisted their attempt to rob
him, prosecutors said Scott shot him
through the window.
Scott had challenged his murder
conviction, claiming that his consti-
tutional right to confront his accuser
under the Sixth Amendment was vio-
lated when prosecutors introduced an
incriminating statement from Collier,
who later decided not to testify.
In 2003, U.S. District Court Judge
David Lawson agreed and ordered
Michigan to either grant Scott a new
trial or release him. The 6th Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati
affirmed the decision last year.
Connerly to retire
after 12 years at UC
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Ward Con-
nerly - reviled as an Uncle Tom, hailed as a
man of principle and unflinching courage-is
moving on to another battlefield.
Connerly's term as a member of the Univer-
sity of California Board of Regents is drawing
to a close after 12 turbulent years in which he
led the university, and then the state of Cali-
fornia, to drop affirmative action.
"Love him or hate him, he really is the
lightning rod for a lot of big issues," said Jen-
nifer Lilla, a graduate student and president of
UC's student association. Lilla did not always
agree with Connerly but said she will "miss
his enthusiasm and his energy and his strength
of opinions."
Michigan may be the next battleground for
Connerly, who is of black, white and Ameri-
can Indian descent. He and others recently
announced they have enough signatures to get
a proposed constitutional amendment on that
state's 2006 ballot that would ban race and
gender-based' preferences in admissions and
government hiring.
The 65-year-old Connerly, who will attend
his final meeting as a regent this week, was
a little-known Sacramento consultant in the
land-development business when he was
appointed to the Board of Regents in 1993 by
Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.
In 1995, 13 hours into a tense, stomach-
churning meeting interrupted by a bomb
threat and punctuated by a protests led by the
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Connerly's colleagues on
the Board of Regents voted 14-10 to dismantle
race-based admissions.
At one point, Connerly was surrounded by
more than a dozen security officers.
"You could cut with a knife through the
atmosphere of that meeting," he said in a
recent interview.
The vote marked the first time that a U.S.
public university dropped affirmative action
without being forced to do so by a court.
Connerly went on to lead the campaign
for Proposition 209, the 1996 California
ballot measure that banned race- and gen-
der-based considerations in government
hiring, contracting and education. It was
the first time a state voluntarily abandoned
affirmative action.
A number of states have joined California
in dropping race-based college admissions,
though largely because of court decisions.
Some question
the high cost of
the ceremony
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - State
Sen. Jason Allen has been to every
inauguration for a Republican presi-
dent since 1984. He plans to make
it four in a row with another trek to
Washington this week.
Allen, of Traverse City, is among
the Republican faithful from Michi-
gan who will be on hand for President
Bush's second inauguration. Festivi-
ties began Tuesday with a program to
honor members of the military serving
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is a celebration that is part his-
tory, and we're participating in that,"
said Allen, who is making the trip with
his parents, wife and daughter.
A number of other Michigan Repub-
licans will experience a presidential
inauguration for the first time.
Jennifer Hoff, a spokeswoman for
the state House GOP, said she's going
because it may be her only chance to see
the U.S. president take the oath of office.
Bush will be sworn in on Thursday by
U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
"This is the president being sworn
in. It's a president I have a lot of respect
for and one that I spent a lot of time
volunteering for. Who knows if I ever
will be at a point in my life when I can
go see an inauguration," she said. "It's
an amazing opportunity."
Hoff is among those looking for-
ward to attending balls that are part
of the inauguration. She has tickets
to the Michigan State Society Ball at
the Smithsonian American History
Museum and the ball for the president's
home state of Texas.
The state's congressional delegation is
sponsoring the Michigan State Society
Ball, which is set for Saturday. Michi-
gan's officially sanctioned ball, the Free-
dom Ball at Union Station, also includes
Alaska, Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana and
Kansas. It will be on Thursday.
Some people have questioned wheth-
er tens of millions of dollars should be
spent on Bush's second inauguration
with the ongoing war in Iraq, Decem-
ber's devastating tsunami in South and
Southeast Asia and the national deficit
hitting a record-breaking $412 billion
last year.
District of Columbia officials expect
the costs for the inauguration, the
first since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, to be at least $17.3 million.
Michigan Rep. David Palsrok, a
Manistee Republican who is making
his first trip to see a presidential inau-
guration this week, said it's important
to recognize the historic event.
"It celebrates the transfer of power
in a peaceful manner," he said. "It is
an event that should be promoted and
highlighted so people around the world
can see how true democracy works.
We're not having a revolution in the
street even though just less than half
the people who voted didn't support
the president."
Although Michigan's 17 electoral
votes went to Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry in the Novem-
ber election, a spokesman for the
state Republican Party'said the inau-
guration celebrates the hard work of
Bush's campaign in the state.
Ward Connerly, who is retiring from the University of California
Board of Regents, Is seen outside his office in California.
U U
lnterfraternity Council
Winter Recruitment
Fraternity Forum
Thursday, January 20th 7pm
Michigan Union - Ballroom
Register
& Get Rush Details
N..
Recruitment Dates
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
1/23 3pm-7pm
1/24 6pm-9pm
1/25 6pm-9pm
Wednesday 1/26
6pm-9pm
Events will be held at
individual chapters houses