NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 3

ON CAMPUS
*The Books to
perform for free
at art museum
The electronic music group The
Books will be playing a free concert at
the Michigan Museum of Art on March
15. Tickets are available today at the
Michigan Union Ticket Office.
Event to honor
LG BTQA people
of color
An event titled "Heroes: Queer People
of Color" will be held today in the Wol-
verine Room of the Michigan Union.
The event will honor lesbian, gay, bisex-
ual, transgender and questioning people
and allies of color and their cultural and
political contributions to society. Pro-
files of the honorees will be displayed
from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Special literature
readings will be held from noon to 4
p.m. today. The event is sponsored by
the Black Heritage Month Committee
and the Office of LQBT Affairs.
Essay contest
focuses on
health issues
The Quito Project is sponsoring an
essay contest to promote international
health awareness. Interested undergradu-
ate students should submit a 750-word
essay describing why they are concerned
about the state of global health. The win-
ner of the contest will earn $200, and the
winning essay will be published in "Med-
* icine at Michigan," a University publica-
tion. The contest ends Feb. 19 and winners
will be announced April 1.
Cafe Shapiro offers
study breaks and
student writing
Students in need of a study break can go
to Cafe Shapiro to hear undergraduate stu-
dent writers read from their own work. The
caf6 is located in the first-floor atrium of the
Shapiro Graduate Library. Readings will
take place today from 8:30 to 9:15 p.m.
CRIME
NOTES
Assault victim
treated at ER
An assault victim was treated at the
University Hospital emergency room
 Sunday, the Department of Public Safe-
ty reported. The case was referred to the
Ann Arbor Police Department.
Student reports
phishing scam
A student reported Sunday that money
had been withdrawn from his checking

account in what he identified as a phishing
scam - a scam in which a person is tricked
into giving up personal information, usual-
ly through an e-mail - DPS reported. The
situation is under investigation.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Myth: Love don't
cost a thing
Feb. 14, 1980 - Apparently the desire
to impress the opposite sex surpasses res-
ervations about spending $50 for a dozen
roses. Despite the steep sum, love-struck
college students have been snatching up
the costly blossoms at an impressive rate.
Louise Flowers and Gift Shop on State
Street sold out yesterday, and was forced
to close its doors to all but the select few
wise enough to pre-order their flow-
ers. These customers could pick up their
orders throughout the day.
The University Flower Shop in
Nickels Arcade overflowed with col-
lege students who had procrastinated
(as college students often do) until the
last minute to order their flowers. Stu-
dents pushed and shoved in desperate
attempts to get their flower orders in
before the store ran out of supplies.
Disheartened students stared at the

Pfizer aims'
to create new
drugs, more jobs

Drug giant employs
8,500 people in Michigan,
2,500 in Ann Arbor
LIVONIA (AP) - Pfizer Inc.'s Ann
Arbor research center will produce a
large number of new medications during
the next decade, increasing the prospect
for more jobs, the company's chairman
and CEO said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters after addressing
a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club
in suburban Livonia, Hank McKinnell
said Ann Arbor has produced the epilepsy
drug Lyrica, which was introduced last
year and looks like it will become compa-
ny's most successful drug this decade.
Ann Arbor also produced the block-
buster cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor.
"Our employment level depends on
the success of our business," he said, add-
ing that the infrastructure in Ann Arbor
could support a larger work force.
Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker,
late last week forecast earnings for this
year that are below Wall Street projections
and said its sales will be essentially flat.
It now employs 8,500 people in Michi-
gan, mainly at sites in Ann Arbor, Kal-
amazoo and Holland, and is in the midst
of a restructuring that could cost some
jobs in the state.
But McKinnell said he was opti-
mistic about prospects in Michigan,
particularly Ann Arbor. He said the
Ann Arbor facility's history of drug

research, its ability to attract talented
staff, a, good relationship with the
University of Michigan and a large
number of smaller biomedical com-
panies to partner with all contribute
to good opportunities.
"If our business does well, if the envi-
ronment here continues to be strong, as
our business grows, our employment
here will grow," he said.
Pfizer in 2003 bought the Ann Arbor-
based Esperion Therapeutics, a small
company that has developed a drug
that shows promise in reducing arterial
plaque. Pfizer is in the early days of a
10-12 year cycle of getting the drug to
market and is spending $800 million on
its development, McKinnell said.
The Ann Arbor site is one of six Pfiz-
er research centers. The company also
has its largest manufacturing center in
the Kalamazoo area. Holland is home
to a 200-person Pfizer facility that will
close by the end of 2006, said company
spokesman Rick Chambers.
Pfizer employs nearly 5,000 people at
its Kalamazoo-area facilities, with 500
of those jobs targeted for reduction in the
restructuring, Chambers said. But many
of those posts, in pharmaceutical sciences,
will move to Ann Arbor, where about 2,500
people are employed, Chambers said.
Chambers said some jobs will be
eliminated in Ann Arbor as well. He
said he can't give specific employ-
ment numbers in Michigan because the
restructuring is still in progress.

Discount cards and passes
may ease border restrictions

Teacher aids students
with serious illnesses

Starting in 2008, people
going to Canada will be
required to have a passport
WASHINGTON (AP) - A prob-
lematic new passport requirement for
all those crossing the U.S. border with
Canada may be eased with a family
discount-card program and a day-pass
option, authorities said yesterday.
Such options are welcomed by
towns and cities along the border
where folks chafe at the notion they
will someday need a $97 passport
or $50 ID card to cross, but the day-
pass proposal worries those seeking
tighter security to deter terrorists.
"My concern would be, is the gov-
ernment in the travel business or the
business of protecting our borders?"
said Debra Burlingame, a member of
9/11 Families for a Secure America.
Lawmakers along the border have
been pushing the Department of
Homeland Security and the Depart-
ment of State for months to come up
with a cheaper, quicker alternative
to the passport requirement, which
is to go into effect in 2008 under a
new law called the Western Hemi-
sphere Travel Initiative.
A new passport costs $97, and
government officials have indicated
they are working on a second option
- a new wallet-sized identification
card for crossing the border may
cost about half of that. Even at half
price, the card has done little to mol-
lify open-border advocates.
Officials at both agencies said
yesterday they are also considering
a family-discount price for the pass

cards and day passes for spontane-
ous border trips.
"It shows that after all of our push-
ing, they are beginning to understand
the Canadian side of the border, and
how it's part of our economy," said
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
The Department of Homeland
Security, which is responsible for
border security, and the Depart-
ment of State, which is responsible
for issuing passports, are work-
ing together on the WHTI program
passed by Con-
gress as a post- "My concei
Sept. 11 security
measure. would be,
The WHTI will
require passports governmei
or one of four
other secure doc- the travel 1
uments at land t i
border crossings. or the busi
Previous . lawv of protecti
required Ameri-
cans returning our border
home from Can-
ada to show only
a driver's license - Det
or other gov- Memb
ernment-issued for aS
photo identifica-_
tion card.
Officials on both sides of the
northern border argue the passport
rule would reduce trade and leisure
travel between the two countries.
The U.S. government, however,
maintains it is necessary to prevent
terrorists from entering the country.
Jarrod Agen, a DHS spokesman,
said the agency is considering a day
pass because "we see that there's

definitely a need for a convenient
and less expensive alternative to the
passport."
Agen said the details of how,
where, and what it would cost to get
a day pass had not been worked out.
That raised alarm bells with security
advocates who fear it could undermine
the very purpose of the passport rule.
"When the United States govern-
ment tries to do things like expe-
diting and making things easier for
people, they create a pretext for
letting in illegal
immigrants," said
Burlingame, whose
s the brother Charles was
a pilot aboard the
.t in hijacked plane that
hit the Pentagon on
usinesS Sept. 11.
Rep. Louise
ness Slaughter, (D-N.Y.),
said the debate over
1g alternatives to the
S ?" passport require-

n
lI
ir
r,

EJami Hoeksema helps
students with worksheets
and other assignments
GRAND RAPIDS (AP) - When
Jami Hoeksema started work-
ing three months ago as a teacher
whose students cannot attend school
because of serious illness, she knew
right away that the job always would
tug at her heartstrings.
"Initially, there were days when I
said, 'I don't know if I want to be
able to handle this,"' said Hoek-
sema, a 39-year-old mother of two
small children who is on the staff at
DeVos Children's Hospital.
But she soon adjusted to regularly
seeing youngsters hooked up to IVs
and machines. She has learned to
focus on the good she is doing by
helping them catch up with school
work they are missing while under-
going treatment at the hospital.
"It's an incredible privilege to be
able to work with kids who are going
through health issues," Hoeksema
told The Grand Rapids Press for a
story published yesterday. "Giving
them education gives them a little
control over their lives."
A grant from the Children's Mira-

cle Network funded her job at DeVos
as an educational liaison and hospi-
tal teacher.
Her students range from elementa-
ry-school-age to high schoolers. All
of her teaching is done one-on-one.
Before Hoeksema started making
rounds, 12-year-old Allison Hunt, of
Montague, was falling further behind
the rest of her fifth-grade class. Her
dialysis treatments made her miss 31
to 35 schooldays each semester.
Hoeksema helped her last week
with a math worksheet.
"This has been really good for
the kids," said the girl's mother,
Tina Hunt.
Hoeksema recently received a val-
entine from one of her youngest stu-
dents, Brent Rogers, of Eau Claire.
Denise and David Rogers learned
their 6-year-old son had a cancerous
tumor Dec. 7. Brent had surgery to
remove it the following week and is
now undergoing chemotherapy and
radiation treatments.
The first-grader is working with
Hoeksema on his phonics book to
catch up with his classmates.
"All of his friends think he's just
having a ball outside of school," said
Denise Rogers. "But he wrote back and
said, 'I still have to go to school."'

L.V
bra Burlingame
er, 9/11 Families
Secure America

ment. are part of a
bureaucratic fight
between the depart-
ments of Homeland
Security and State
over the rules of the

program.
"I think a family discount for the
cards is a great idea, but there's also a
war between State and DHS here over
who does what. State is not going to
let DHS determine who is going to
be a citizen of the United States, and
DHS is trying to do the card they
want to do," she said. "Personally, I
would like very much to have State
do it and get it over with."

Snowstorm causes 86-car pileup on
slippery Michigan highway

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Nine people were transported
to area hospitals, no one suffered
serious injuries
MUSKEGON (AP) - An intense snow squall cut visibility
nearly to zero and caused an 86-vehicle chain-reaction pileup
on an icy western Michigan freeway, injuring 25 people.
No one suffered life-threatening injuries, although
ambulances took nine people to two area hospitals and
another 16 were taken in buses that were called in to
shelter people from the cold, Muskegon Director of Pub-
lic Safety Tony Kleibecker said yesterday.
"For as bad as it could have been, it really turned out
that we had relatively minor injuries," Kleibecker said.
The first call came in at 1:06 p.m. Sunday, reporting
a multiple car pileup on U.S. 31 on the northeast side of
the city along the Lake Michigan shore.
Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Johnson saw
cars stacked four deep for about 300 yards when he
arrived at the crash in the northbound lanes.
"It looked like they played pinball off the side guard-
rail," he said. "The cars were every which way."
Johnson said he first noticed a car with its engine on
fire and two people trapped inside. He grabbed a fire
extinguisher from his truck and jumped the guardrail to
put out the flames. Joined by a police officer, he pulled

other people out of their car."
Police closed a two-mile stretch of the highway until
the wreckage was cleared.
"When I left the house, the sun was shining,'"said Tom Pitcher
of Cloverville, about four or five miles from the accident site.
"By the time I came onto the highway, it was coming
down," he told The Muskegon Chronicle.
His pickup truck was pushed against a van somewhere
in the middle of the wreckage.
In the van was a family from Grand Rapids, on the
way to the Muskegon area. All escaped injury.
"We were driving fine and all of a sudden there was a pile-
up," said Diane Scott, who stood wrapped in a red blanket at
the top of a steep hill overlooking the mass of vehicles.
"You could hardly see," said her son Chris, 13.
Witnesses told police that they were driving through sun-
shine and flurries until they got past Sherman Boulevard.
"Just beyond the Sherman overpass, you could see a
wall of snow. An absolute wall," Kleibecker said. "As
soon as you hit that wall, it was instant ice, you could
barely control your vehicle."
Many people left their cars and struggled up a steep
hill on the east side of the highway. Muskegon firefight-
ers tied a rope to a nearby tree to help people get up
the hill. Others were stuck in their vehicles, which were
wedged against other cars on the road.
As police closed the freeway, rear-end crashes continued