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February 22, 2006 - Image 3

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The Michigan Daily, 2006-02-22

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NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 3

ON CAMPUS
Prof to discuss how
to increase career
satisfaction
Prof. Kristie Keeton, from the
Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, will present ways to
increase career satisfaction and
decrease work-related stress across
medical fields. The lecture will
begin today at 3:30 p.m. in room
2239 of Lane Hall.
Amir Sulaiman to
perform spoken-
word poetry
Black Muslim spoken-word artist
Amir Sulaiman, who was featured on
HBO's Def Poetry Jam and has toured
with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, will
perform today at 8 p.m. in Angell
Hall Auditorium B. The event is free
and is sponsored by the Muslim Stu-
dents' Association.
CRIME
NOTES
Car springs leak
in parking lot
A vehicle in a parking lot on Ingalls
Street was leaking gasoline Monday
at about 10 a.m., the Department of
Public Safety reported. Workers with
the Department of Occupational Safe-
ty and Environmental Health cleaned
up the spill.
Vehicle struck in
hospital lot
A white Ford Tempo was struck
by another vehicle on Monday in
the hospital parking lot on West
Medical Center Drive, DPS report-
ed. The accident was a hit and run,
police said.
Pipe explodes,
floods basement
A pipe froze and burst in the stair-
well of the Biomedical Research
Building on Zina Pitcher Drive Mon-
day at about 10:20 p.m., DPS report-
ed. The pipe partially flooded the
stairwell and some of the lower level
of the building.
Load of laundry
disappears from
S South Quad
A load of laundry was stolen from
South Quadrangle Residence Hall Mon-
day between sometime 12:30 and 1

Prof sa s U.S.
lags be ind in
war on poverty

By Katerina Georgiev
Daily Staff Reporter
The United States is falling behind
other countries in the war on pover-
ty, according to Public Policy Prof.
Sheldon Danziger.
Danziger delivered a lecture
called "America's Persisting Pover-
ty: What Research Says About How
to Reduce It" yesterday afternoon in
the Rackham Amphitheater.
Danziger said poverty persists
because when the economy is flour-
ishing it does not deliver prosperity
to everyone. He criticized the idea
that poverty is exacerbated by too
much government aid or the failure of
government anti-poverty programs.
Danziger expressed admiration for
the anti-poverty policies implement-
ed in the United Kingdom after Tony
Blair's 1999 call to end child pov-
erty. Specifically, he pointed to the
Work For Those Who Can, Security
For Those Who Cannot and Services
and Policies For Young Children
social programs, noting that these
and others cost less than 1 percent of
the British GDP and resulted in sig-
nificantly decreased poverty rates in
the United Kingdom.
He also showed a graph to indi-
cate that while the British minimum
wage has increased about 40 percent
since 1999, the U.S. national mini-
mum wage has not changed.
"(The British anti-poverty poli-
cies have) resulted in a dramatic
reduction in child poverty," he said.
"The last time I checked, the U.K.
hasn't collapsed since the govern-
ment became more concerned about
the well-being of the poor."
When asked how other aspects
of the British anti-poverty system
could be made to function in the
U.S., Danziger qualified his point.
"I'm not arguing we should have
a whole European social safety net
because that wouldn't apply (in the
United States)" he said.
Danziger then proposed a modest

anti-poverty initiative he designed
to cut the U.S. poverty rate in half.
Danziger's suggested program
includes expanding the earned
income tax credit for single people
and childless couples, subsidizing
health care for those not covered by
Medicare and Medicaid, and provid-
ing transitional jobs of last resort
for people no longer entitled to cash
welfare who want to work but cannot
find jobs. He said these jobs could
be offered by nonprofit or commu-
nity-based organizations.
Danziger also voiced strong sup-
port for a higher minimum wage.
"(Other) economies have not col-
lapsed after the minimum wage was
raised," he said.
Danziger said American society's
lack of trust in the government
to handle tax dollars and develop
worthwhile social programs has
affected the war on poverty.
"Americans have never put as much
stock in their government as people in
other countries (have put in theirs),"
he said. "People think government is
wasteful and inefficient."
"(Americans) are less willing to
provide tax money, less likely to
trust the government to do anything,
less likely to believe the government
can be successful, and (therefore)
they are less likely to feel respon-
sible for the poor," he said.
Danziger concluded that in the
United States there is a shifting atti-
tude towards greater tolerance for
higher levels of poverty.
"Most (Americans) feel they are
not going to be poor, so they don't
feel the need for programs," he said.
"When a person's elderly parents are
sick and Medicaid pays for their hos-
pital bills, that's when he says, 'That's
a good government program'."
University President Mary Sue
Coleman gave opening remarks for
the lecture.
"This is the most complicated of
topics presented by the most enlight-
ened of minds," she said.

Controversy over Detroit Zoo closure heats up

Detroit City Council members rejected
an agreement to relinquish control of
the zoo's daily operations
DETROIT (AP) - A fight over the threatened closure of the Detroit
Zoo turned into a racially charged war of words yesterday between
Detroit City Council members and Oakland County Executive L.
Brooks Patterson.
But even as they turned the heat up on the rhetoric, council members
who had rejected an agreement to relinquish the city's control of the
zoo's daily operations said they were hopeful a deal could be reached to
keep the beloved institution open.
At a news conference at which six council members defended their
no votes, several of them lashed out at Patterson, whose county includes
dozens of Detroit suburbs, for saying the council members themselves
belong in a zoo.
"We will not be divided by the racist comments of L. Brooks Patter-
son," council member Monica Conyers said.

Though the zoo belongs to Detroit, it is located in Oakland County in
the city of Royal Oak. Gail Warden, chairman of the Detroit Zoological

Society, estimated about 35 percent to 40 percent
of zoo visitors were from the city, while the rest are
from the suburbs and beyond. ,
Detroit's population is more than 80 percent black,
as are eight of the nine city council members and all
seven who voted against the zoo agreement.
Patterson, who is white and frequently spars
with Detroit's leadership, told The Associated
Press yesterday he did not believe his comment
on the council was racist. He said council member
Barbara-Rose Collins was the one who made inap-

"This is not
plantation.
folks are ni
owned by'
folks anym

bara-Rose Collins."
Collins said after the news conference yesterday that she regretted
her remarks.
a Issues involving Detroit and the suburbs often
take on racial overtones, and city leaders are wary of
Black any initiatives that would seem to take power away
from them. The city has long opposed attempts
Ot by suburban leaders to gain some control over the
Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which the
white. suburbs accuse of overcharging them. And a seven-
year state takeover of Detroit Public Schools pro-
iore. voked widespread outrage in the city and was ended
at the ballot box.
a-Rose Collins The plan to save the zoo, which the cash-strapped
ouncil Member city says it can no longer afford to subsidize, would
have transferred operations not to suburban commu-
nities, but to the Detroit Zoological Society. Officials
had asked the City Council to approve the agreement by Sunday, when an
offer for $4 million in state aid contingent upon the transfer expired.

propriate comments when she suggested suburban- - Barb
ites who complained about the council's vote on the Detroit City (
zoo were racist.
"This is not a plantation" Collins told The
Detroit News. "Black folks are not owned by white folks anymore."
Patterson shot back: "I would rather own a '48 Buick than own Bar-

iar,
Ca

a.m., DPS reported.
no suspects.

DPS currently has

Debate over gun law intensifies

THIS DAY
In Daily History
Stink bombs
permeate campus
Feb. 22, 1970 - Four incidents of
"stink-bombing" occurred yesterday
in the Michigan Union, South Quad
Residence Hall and the Shapiro Under-
graduate Library. No suspects have
been identified.
The stink bombs contained butyric
acid, an organic solution that produc-
es an unpleasant, long-lasting smell
that quickly spreads over large areas.
Butyric acid may be "deleterious to
health when breathed in or exposed
to the skin," Chemistry Prof. Danial
Longone said.
The first stink bomb was found yes-
terday morning in the third floor of the
Union, where it entered the air circula-
tion system and spread throughout the
building.
A second stink bomb appeared short-
ly afterward in an elevator in South
Quad, where residents reported a strong,
unpleasant odor.
At about 1 p.m., an someone splashed
butyric acid on the third floor of the UGLi.
A third-floor librarian said: "We saw an
individual leaving, and then a smell came.
He was carrying a paper bag."

The bills would extend self-
defense rights to places outside of
the home
LANSING. (AP) - The debate over Michigan's gun laws
intensified yesterday as a legislative committee heard testi-
mony on a bill supporters say would give law-abiding people
more self-defense rights in certain situations.
Gun control groups say 'the bills are reckless and could
create a public safety hazard by fostering a shoot-first, ask-
questions-later mentality.
The bills would establish a presumption of reasonable
fear of death or injury when a law-abiding person uses force
in certain circumstances. A threatened person would have
no duty to retreat and would be able to meet force with force
in situations such as a home invasion or, in certain situa-
tions, a carjacking.
While some self-defense rights already exist in the home,
the legislation would extend them to other places if the per-
son was not breaking the law and had a permit to carry a
concealed weapon, supporters told the Senate Judiciary
Committee. The protections could be invoked under cer-
tain circumstances if the person using defensive force was
attacked in a place he or she had the right to be.

"What we want to do is see violence decrease," said Sen.
Alan Cropsey, a DeWitt Republican who chairs the judicia-
ry committee and sponsors the legislation. "We want to see
people be able to protect themselves."
A person would be able to use deadly force if he or she
believed it was needed to prevent death, serious injury or
what are called "forcible felonies." A person would be able
to use force - but not deadly force - if they felt force was
necessary to stop a person from trespassing, to stop a theft,
or to stop certain other property crimes.
A person who uses force as permitted in the legislation
would get criminal and civil immunity, which could protect
them against costly legal defenses.
Opponents say the legislation is vague and potentially
could apply to all sorts of situations - including disputes on
the street or as a way to escape prosecution in gang-related
violence. They say current Michigan law already allows jus-
tifiable self-defense.
"We thought our Legislature was here to prevent crimes
- not allow them," Shikha Hamilton, a Michigan leader of
the Million Mom March antigun violence group, said before
yesterday's hearing. "This is an outrageous bill"
Florida has passed a similar law, with a few other
states - including Michigan - determining whether to
follow suit.

- I

Voters seek more education funding

Voters could decide if
schools should get funding
increases equal to inflation
LANSING (AP) - Voters are one step

days to act on the proposal. If lawmakers
don't pass the plan, it would go to voters
in November.
The Legislature so far has not acted on
the proposal, but K-16 Coalition leader
Tom White said discussions continue.

talks. All have been the subject of leg-
islative debate in recent months, and
some lawmakers have said they would
not address funding reforms unless the
discussion is linked to improved per-
formance of schools.

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