ANN ARBOR The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - Fall 2005 - 7F Students light up for weed reform By Olga Mantilla APRIL 4, 2005 Daily Staff Writer An estimated 900 people gathered this weekend for Ann Arbor's annual Hash Bash, a peaceful and music-filled rally that brought together a diverse group of participants. Their reasons for attending ranged from educating people about marijuana reform laws, to supporting a recently passed proposal to allow the use of medicinal marijuana, to witnessing the Ann Arbor tradition for themselves. Among the speakers at the rally were Scio Township trustee Chuck Ream and Melanie Karr, vice president of the Michigan chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Mari- juana Laws. The Diag rally was followed by a street fair held across from the Law Quad and an impromptu march to City Hall led by Ream. The march made its way downtown with 150 participants, including Karr, who held signs that read "74%," the percentage by which Pro- posal C, the medical marijuana initiative, passed last November. "This march is about implementing the marijuana initiative in Ann Arbor," Karr said. But Ann Arbor City Attorney Stephen Postema said that the issue that activists like Karr are fighting for is a nonissue. "There's been no prosecution for people who use marijuana for medical uses," he said. "If you have a valid prescription for mari- juana, it is legal. That's state law." Postema said that although the vote for the marijuana initiative was valid, the result is unenforceable to the extent that it conflicts with state and federal law. The U.S. Supreme. Court medicinal marijuana case Raich v. Ashcroft was one of the issues proponents of medicinal marijuana discussed at the rally. The case will have a significant impact on the future of medicinal marijuana, states' rights and the federal govern- ment's power in determining the legal scope of its usage. Although the organizers of Hash Bash said they were present at the rally for both political and recreational reasons, some students scoffed at the notion that the rally was politically motivated. "I don't think the political impact is big on campus," LSA soph- University student Stephanie and friend Jarim light a pipe at the 34th Annual Hash Bash. omore Ryne Dominguez said. "It's about smoking, not marijuana (legislation)." Although many participants chose to smoke marijuana openly, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Diane Brown said the rally resulted in no arrests or citations, a change from last year's Hash Bash, which resulted in six marijuana-related arrests and 14 tickets for alcohol-related violations. The turnout for Hash Bash this year increased from last year's 650 to approximately 900 people, according to Brown. Kate Dillon, the vice president of the University chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said this year's rally tried to attract more students and community members by having live bands kick off the event. "We wanted to bring up the energy of Hash Bash," she said. "This is the first time the University's chapter of NORML has had major involvement in the planning of the event." Adam Brook, a member of the executive board of Michigan's NORML chapter, has organized Hash Bash for more than 16 years. He said Hash Bash is renowned across the country as one of the larg- est, most unadvertised events protesting laws prohibiting marijuana. "There are thousands here from out of town today," he said. "The weather has to do with the relatively small turnout during the day, but the bars downtown will be packed tonight. This is a cultural experience in Ann Arbor." The University's College Libertarians were present to show their support for the goals of NORML. College Libertarians Vice Chair Jeremy Linden said his group supports the effort to educate people about marijuana law reform. "College Libertarians supports the privacy of individuals against government regulation, prohibiting people from doing something that does not harm other people," Linden said. A record number of proposals to reform marijuana laws were on state and local ballots in 2004. Within the past year, legislative districts in California, Montana and Massachusetts have passed medicinal marijuana initiatives that have strengthened existing medicinal marijuana law. Bomb threat empties out City Hall By Melissa Benton NOVEMBER 15, 2004 Daily Staff Writer Ann Arbor City Hall was evacuated for more than eight hours Saturday, Nov. 13 as police investigated a bomb threat. Although Sgt. Pat Ouellette of the Ann Arbor Police Department said police did not find any evidence of a bomb in city hall - located in the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building - in their search, the building was evacuated until about noon. Ouellette said as of November 15 there were no sus- pects in the investigation. The case was turned over to the FBI's Detroit field office for further investigation. Ouellette said two square blocks surrounding city hall, including residences exposed to city hall, were also evacuated. About 40 people were evacuated from city hall and the surrounding area, including police personnel and residents, he added. Specifically, police were investigating a filing cabi- net located outside Mayor John Hieftje's office, based on a tip the FBI received. "We received the information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation at about 3:30 (in the) morn- ing," Ouellette said. "The FBI received that information through an overseas source," Ouellette said. He was unable to comment further on the nature of the source, but said the local FBI office in Ann Arbor informed AAPD of a possible bomb in city hall. Ouellette said AAPD used six trained dogs to sniff out explosives in order to search the six-floor building. "The dog went upstairs and did hit on the suspicious filing cabinet," Ouellette said. Although nothing was found in the cabinet during the search, Ouellette said even well-trained dogs can occasionally flag an area with no explosives. He added that the file cabinet was previously locat- ed in the basement of city hall where ammunition has been stored, so the dog could have picked up on the scent of some contaminants that had rubbed off onto the cabinet from previous use. The streets surrounding city hall for a two-block radius in both directions were blocked off while police searched city hall. That led to an influx of traffic prob- lems and congestion exacerbated by the football game, Ouellette said. "Once football traffic started coming into town it backed up traffic a little bit," he said. But he added that radio and TV announcements were made to curb traffic jams. The local FBI, the Michigan State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explo- sives, the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office and the Livingston County Sheriff's Office assisted AAPD in securing the building, Ouellette said.He added that the Department of Public Safety was not involved because of the football game. The FBI and city administrators were unavailable for comment. Police report that walk-in thefts increase By Emily Kraack October 1, 2004 Daily Staff Writer Simple door and window locks may be the most powerful tools for students in the fight against theft, says Ann Arbor Police Depart- ment Sgt. Ed Dreslinski. Due to a rise in what are called "walk-in home invasions," or break-ins that involve no forced entry, AAPD asked Ann Arbor residents and especially students to be more careful to lock doors and windows. Dreslinski stressed that students should lock doors when leaving "either to go to class or home for the weekend or even just sleeping in their residence." He said they should also put pressure on their landlords to install and maintain safety devices in rental properties. "By not taking these simple precautionary steps, they're leaving themselves more suscep- tible to being a victim," he said. On the other hand, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Diane Brown said that on-campus crimes, including home invasions, fell between 2002 and 2003. She said home invasions fell 55 percent, and she had not heard of a spike in on-campus break-ins similar to the off-campus increase noticed by AAPD. The number of break-ins in campus buildings fell from 150 in 2002 to 67 in 2003, and much of the decrease happened in the residence halls. Brown attributed the decrease to new cam- pus security initiatives implemented in 2003. These measures started with locking residence hall entrances to non-residents 24 hours a day, and continued with automatic door locks on residence hall doors, additional security and police patrols and education awareness efforts similar to those of AAPD. Dreslinski said he did not know how many break-ins had occurred since the start of the school year, but said there had been at least three incidents in the last two weeks in Sep- tember where people awakened to an intruder in their homes. Three apartments in University Towers, an off-campus apartment complex, were also broken into last weekend, apparently without the use of force. LSA senior Greg Mowatt said he usually locks the door of his off-campus apartment. "I've left it unlocked and haven't had any prob- lems," he said. He added that he thinks parties, where hous- es are filled with strangers, represent a bigger danger than doors occasionally left unlocked. AAPD is also asking neighbors to look out for each other, be aware of their surroundings and aware of their neighbors houses. "Sometimes we get calls of a (breaking and entering) and we'll have a neighbor say, 'I saw someone looking in the window an hour ago,' " he said. "We'd like to know about that - we'd like to stop something before it happens." Engineering freshman Tiffinique' Walls, who lives in a North Campus residence hall, said she thinks her dorm, which just got elec- tronic door locks, is safe. She added that stu- dents sometimes make bad decisions. "They prop doors open - I've kicked the rock out plenty of times," she said. LSA freshman James Robinson said he thinks the University is doing a good job of protecting students. "There's only so much you can do," he said. Dreslinski said that if students finds some- one in their house or room, they should call 911 as soon as the person leaves. He also sug- gested going to a neighbor's home and calling the police to get out of harm's way. He advised against threatening the invader. "The last thing you want to do is inflame a situation. Most of these people don't want to get caught, they want to get away with some finan- cial gain," he said. "Chasing them or confront- ing them might escalate the situation - we haven't had anyone accosted or assaulted yet, and we want to keep it that way." Kolb clinches his final term in House By Kristin Ostby NOVEMBER 3, 2004 Daily Staff Writer Democrat Chris Kolb was re-elected to represent Ann Arbor for a third term in the state Legislature on Nov. 2, surpassing Republican opponent Erik Shea- gren with a majority of the vote. "It's always very rewarding to be re-elected in Ann Arbor," Kolb said at a gathering of the local Demo- cratic Party at Ann Arbor's Cavern Club on 210 S. First St. This will be Kolb's final term serving the 53rd dis- tric,, which encompasses Ann Arbor. Given the largely Democratic constituency of his district, Kolb's victory did not come as a surprise to many. In last August's primaries, he won 78 percent of the vote against Sheagren. In fact, Sheagren said he ran against Kolb primarily to give voters a choice on Election Day - he did not have high expectations of winning. Kolb said he plans to make the state budget, higher education and the environment the focus of his two- year tenure. "I think we really have to concentrate on trying to jumpstart Michigan's economy," he said. "It's been impacting our ability to make adjustments in educa- tion, health care, higher education, life sciences - sec- tors of our economy that we have not been able to make the investments we need." For the past two years, Kolb has worked on the House Appropriations Committee to prepare the state budget. He voted for a proposal drawn up by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to cap tuition costs last winter. Kolb has also said he would like to see the num- ber of college graduates in Michigan double in the next 10 years. "That's part of the governor's plan to make sure we have the workforce Michigan's going to need," he said. He also said he would like to work on creating a transit system from Ann Arbor to Detroit by rail or bus to give students an easier way of getting to and from the airport. Since taking office in January of 2001 Kolb has strongly supported environmental policies such as the Ann Arbor Greenbelt program to protect the city's parks and other green spaces from urban sprawl. He sponsored the Water Legacy Act, a package of bills outlining ways in which the Great Lakes can be safe- guarded from water diversion. Kolb said he plans to keep working on a long list of environmental issues. "We're going to continue to push to protect the Great Lakes, basically our greatest resource in the state of Michigan." He added that the removal of mercury and other toxic chemicals was of high importance to him. He also said he would like to increase the use of renewable energy in Michigan. Kolb said he is concerned about the passage of Pro- posals 1 and 2 in the November elections Proposal 1 added an amendment to the state con- stitution to require voter approval for any new form of legalized gambling in the state, excluding projects started within casinos operated by Native American tribes and those currently functioning in Detroit. Pro- posal 2 made gay marriage and civil unions unconsti- tutional in the state. "Proposal 1 will have a negative impact on the Mich- igan lottery to provide needed funds for our education system," Kolb said. Kolb, Michigan's first openly gay legislator, said the passage of Proposal 2 will negatively affect same-sex families in Michigan. "It sends a bad message about Michigan to our country," he added. He said he believes the issue of gay marriage will resurface in courts, especially because of the propos- al's vague wording. He said he also expects its sup- porters to try to use the proposal to prevent the legal recognition of domestic partnerships and the benefits provided for them. Ann arbor Repre Bnattves U.S. Senators: Carl Levin (D) and Debbie Stabenow (D) U.S Representative: John t). Dingell (D) Michigan Governor: Jennifer Granholm (D) State Senator: Liz Brater (D) State Representatives: Chris Kalb (D) Mayor of Ann Arbor: John Hiefte(LD) MIKE HULSEBUS/Dai Chris Kolb won his final term in the state House of Representatives. Greenbelt proposal has yet to preserve any land in A2 By Anne Joling JANUARY 6, 2005 Daily Staff Reporter More than one year after Ann Arbor voters approved the Parks and Greenbelt Proposal to protect natural habitats in the city, the project has yet to preserve its first piece of land within the designated Greenbelt. Ann Arbor voters approved the Parks and Green- belt Proposal in 2003 with 67 percent of the vote. The proposal created a millage, which will be used to nurchase develonment rights from landowners land purchases have been made under the Green- belt Project, they are pleased with the progress it is making. "I think it's going as well as one could hope. It's a very complicated process," said City Council and Greenbelt Advisory Commission member Robert Johnson. "We hope to begin purchasing properties in the first half of 2005." Additionally, those involved with the Green- belt Project have said that in comparison to simi- lar projects in other cities, the timeline of Ann Arbor's project is on target. "By every measure of what we have to compare slow," Hanson said. Doug Cowherd, another former leader in the effort to create and pass the Greenbelt plan last year, also said it is unfair to compare Ann Arbor's Greenbelt project to projects in other cities because of the varying circumstances in each city. "Some conservation programs start slowly because they're not under sprawl development pres- sure, they have no money in hand and they have no history of land acquisition. In Ann Arbor, we have severe sprawl pressure; we started out with around $4 million in the acquisition fund on the day the proposal was passed, and we have a 20-year history time on matters like couch bans than it has on the Greenbelt," Hanson said. Mike Garfield, chairman of the Greenbelt Advisory Commission, said he understands these concerns and believes the commission should continue to move forward and begin to purchase properties soon. "There has not been the same kind of increase in property values that we've seen over the last 10 years, but I take that with a grain of salt because I think all the long-term indicators say that property values are going to escalate. I think we're going to save money if we buy more properties soon, rather help to advise the commission and guide it in mak- ing land acquisitions. "A lot of what goes on in the first year of a project like this is legal work, organization, structure and is certainly less visible to the voters," Berriz said. Commission members said one of the project's challenges is finding properties that are for sale. But Garfield said one important aspect of the Greenbelt Project is that farmers and land owners are not asked to sell their properties and give up their farms. Instead, farmers may keep farming, but if enrolled in the program, they must sell their right to develop that piece of property.