NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 23, 2006 - 3A

ON CAMPUS
LG BT office to
offer HIV testing
The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender Affairs will sponsor
free and anonymous HIV testing in the
Michigan Union from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m
today. A counselor from the HIV/AIDS
Resource Center will be available to
answer questions. The screenings are
open to the public.
Symposium to host
talk on nonviolence
The Program on Intergroup Rela-
tions will host a discussion on activ-
ism through nonviolence today at noon.
The talk will focus on the Civil Rights
movement. The discussion will be in the
Michigan Student Assembly chambers
in the Michigan Union. This event is
part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Sym-
posium.
Union to host
'summer' festival
The University Unions Arts and Pro-
grams will hold a "Summer in January"
festival in the Michigan Union from 7
pm. to 10 p.m. today. Free food, games
and other activities will be available.
CRIME
NOTES
Heavy beam falls
on man's fingers
A several-hundred-pound beam fell on
a technician's fingers at the G.G. Brown
building just before noon on Friday, the
Department of Public Safety reported.
He was attempting to reposition several
blocks under the beam when it slipped,
crushing his fingers. He was transported
to the University Hospital.
I Three cited for
MIPs in East Quad
Officers issued three citations to
minors in possession of alcohol in
East Quadrangle at about 4:23 a.m.
Saturday, DPS reported.
Jersey stolen from
Mott Hospital
A football jersey was stolen from
Mott Children's Hospital Saturday at
3:22 p.m., DPS said. The value of the
jersey is unknown. DPS has not identi-
fied a suspect.
Person falls on ice,
refuses treatment
A subject slipped and fell on a patch
of ice outside Yost Ice Arena at 8:28 pm.
Saturday, DPS reported. An ambulance
responded, but the subject refused medi-
cal attention.

THIS DAY

State's schools
employ many
criminals

More than 2,500
workers in Michigan
schools have been
convicted of crimes
DETROIT (AP) - Criminal back-
ground checks show that about 2,500
employees in Michigan schools have
been convicted of crimes that include
sexual assault, homicide and kidnap-
ping.
Checks of about 200,000 current
school employees revealed more than
4,600 criminal offenses, of which
2,200 were felonies, according to a
report of recent checks obtained by
The Detroit News.
The report found that about 2,500
employees in the state Department of
Education employee database also were in
a Michigan State Police criminal history
database. Police used employees' names
and birth dates for the checks.
More than 100 of the crimes found
were sex offenses that would result in
firing under new school safety laws that
went into effect Jan. 1. The legislation

is part of an effort to protect children
from sex offenders.
The legislation requires districts to
fingerprint and perform background
checks on all school employees by
July 2008. Once fingerprint checks
are complete, any employee with a sex
offense must be fired.
Those with felony convictions must
receive written approval from the
superintendent and school board to
stay employed.
Among the findings of the name checks
are that 23 employees have been convict-
ed of homicide, 21 of armed robbery, 11 of
child abuse, 10 of escaping jail or prison
and 355 of drug felonies, the newspaper
reported yesterday.
House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-
Novi) said he suspects most of the crimes
were committed by non-teaching staff
because an earlier background check of
teachers found only a handful of crimes.
Prior to the new laws, background
checks were required only for new
teachers, administrators, guidance
counselors, nurses, social workers,
school psychologists and bus drivers.

Ford officials to
announce plant
closings today

Gran oim expected to
reveal education plan

In Daily

History

RC prof fights
restructuring of
residential college
r
Jan. 23, 1976 - Residential College
Prof. Ed Egnatios spoke to more than
30 people yesterday in East Quadrangle
about the Housing office's proposal to
change the way the college is structured.
According to Egnatios, the Residential
College, an alternative learning commu-
nity, is at risk of becoming an "... uninte-
grated, unexciting living experience." The
RC is based on the sharing of decisions
between students, administrators, and
faculty, he said, adding that it is a com-
munity that lives and learns together, and
promotes personal relationships between
all members.
At yesterday's meeting, Egnatios spoke
out against John Feldkamp, the University
housing director. Egnatios said Feldkamp
was doing all in his power to change the
principles of the RC.
The RC has never been on great terms
with the Housing Office. In the past, the
RC has had problems with student drug
use and sexual promiscuity. With Feld-
kamp as housing director, the RC budget

Govenor will lay out
plan to revamp Michigan
Merit award in high-
stakes State of the State
LANSING (AP) - Unlike her three
predecessors, Gov. Jennifer Granholm
has never had the luxury of giving a
State of the State address when the
economy was good.
But that makes it even more impor-
tant that her fourth annual address on
Wednesday carries a vision of where
she wants the state to go and how to
get there, says William Rustem, who
helped Gov. William Milliken craft 12
of his 14 State of the State addresses in
the 1970s and early '80s.
Granholm is expected to focus on
Bowl
starts at
Cobo
Workers at convention
hall have less than a week
to take down Auto Show,
set up for Super Bowl
DETROIT (AP) - Workers at Cobo
Center have a little more than a week
to convert the downtown convention
hall from a place celebrating the auto
industry's latest innovations to a foot-
ball theme park.
Shortly after the North American
International Auto Show drives out of
Cobo, the NFL will set up the NFL
Experience - more than 50 interactive
games and attractions spread out over
800,000 square feet.
"We normally have about 1,500
people working for two weeks (for tear-
down)," Fred Taneri of Convention and
Show Services told The Detroit News.
This year, as many as 2,500 workers
are expected on hand a day, the news-
paper said.

the economy and education when she
gives her fourth annual address, key,
themes in some of her earlier State of
the State speeches.
The stakes are especially high for
the Democrat, who faces re-election
in a tough economic climate that's not
expected to improve substantially for
another two years.
Last year, the governor titled her
speech, "Jobs Today, Jobs Tomor-
row," and unveiled a restructuring
of the state's main business tax that
failed to get passed by the Repub-
lican-controlled Legislature and an
investment fund to promote' high-
tech jobs that did.
Granholm is expected to reveal
plans to put more money into the
Michigan Merit Award by giving


students who do well on standard-
ized tests in high school $1,000 each
of their first two years of school
- whether that's at a community
college, university or other training
- and giving them another $2,000
if they earn a two-year associate's
degree or become juniors at a four-
year university while maintaining a
minimum 2.5 grade point average.
If students didn't do well on the high
school test, they could get the full $4,000
by finishing two years of college.
Students now qualify for $2,500,
split between their first two years of
school, if they do well on the high
school test. Some students also have
qualified for $500 more by doing
well on standardized tests in sev-
enth grade.

Car company expected
to lay off 122,000 workers
and close several plants,
including Wixom
DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co.,
hurt by falling sales of sport utility
vehicles, is expected to close plants and
cut thousands of jobs in North America
as part of a restructuring program to be
announced today.
Ford has refused to release details
of the plan, dubbed the "Way For-
ward," which also is expected to
include product changes and cuts to
Ford's salaried ranks. Ford has about
87,000 hourly workers and 35,000
salaried workers in North America.
"It's going to be painful for some peo-
ple," Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford
said earlier this month at the North Amer-
ican International Auto Show in Detroit.
The assembly plants believed to
be most at risk for closure are in
St. Louis; St. Paul, Minn.; Atlanta;
Wixom, Mich.; St. Thomas, Ontario;
and Cuatitlan, Mexico. Those plants
could be targeted because of their age,
the products they make, their lack of
flexibility or other factors.
States were scrambling to offer tax

credits and other incentives to keep
Ford from closing their facilities.
Earlier this month, Missouri Gov.
Matt Blunt and other state officials
flew to Ford's headquarters in Dear-
born for a meeting with Ford execu-
tives. Gov. Jennifer Granholm said
she outlined a package of incen-
tives to Ford last week. Granholm
wouldn't disclose the details of the
package and said she wasn't given
any assurance that Michigan plants
would be spared.
Ford is expected to report a world-
wide profit for 2005 when it releases
earnings today. But it lost more than
$1.4 billion in its North American
operations in the first nine months
of last year.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker has been
hurt by falling sales of its profitable sport
utility vehicles, growing health care and
materials costs and labor contracts that
have limited its ability to close plants
and cut jobs. The United Auto Workers
union will have to agree to some of the
changes Ford wants to make.
"We don't like to see any jobs go
away," UAW President Ron Gettelfin-
ger said last week. "We're always in
hope that down the road we'll be able
to reverse some of those decisions."

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