NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - 3
ON CAMPUS
* Workshop to
demystify Michigan
tax forms
The International Center is hosting
a workshop intended to explain the
ins and outs of the Michigan tax form
to international students. The event is
scheduled for today at 1 p.m. in the
Pendleton Room of the Michigan
Union. Participants should bring a
completed federal income tax form.
Group to hold
open forum on
sexual violence
University Women Against Rape is
holding a forum to promote open dis-
cussion about sexual violence today at
7 p.m. at Auditorium D in the Michi-
gan League. The event is part of the
Take Back the Night campaign aimed
at stopping violence against women.
Bestselling
author to speak
on interaction
Linguist Deborah Tannen of George-
town University will speak today at
7:30 p.m. in the Michigan League on
communication and human interac-
tion. Tannen's book, "You're Wearing
THAT? Understanding Mothers and
Daughters in Conversation," is current-
ly fifth on the New York Times Best
Sellers list.
CRIME
NOTIrES
r Yellow paint mars
Oxford sidewalk
Court fines
members of
elections board
® Appeals court orders
Democrats to pay fine for
disobeying court order
LANSING (AP) - Two members
of the state elections board who failed
to comply with a court order to put
an anti-affirmative action measure
on the November ballot were ordered
yesterday to pay a fine or face con-
tempt charges.
The Michigan Court of Appeals
issued an order directing Democrats
Paul Mitchell and Doyle O'Connor
to each pay a $250 fine or show up in
court on June 8.
The appeals court told the four-
member Board of State Canvassers
last year to certify signatures gath-
ered for the petition drive and put
the proposal on the November 2006
ballot.
But during a raucous meeting in
December, the board deadlocked
after Mitchell voted against a motion
to place the issue on the ballot and
O'Connor didn't vote.
O'Connor said yesterday the Dec.
14 meeting was improperly adjourned
and ended in confusion during a loud
protest by the measure's opponents.
"My gut reaction is not to pay
fines where I haven't done anything
wrong," O'Connor said. "The court is
mistaken as to what happened here."
O'Connor said he thought the board
was voting on a motion to end debate,
and not yet voting on whether to cer-
tify the petitions. He said he intended
to follow the court order and expects
the appeals court to dismiss the case
after hearing his side.
But a three-member panel of the
appeals court said yesterday that a
motion to certify the petitions was the
only motion pending before the board
at the time it voted.
A message seeking comment was
left with Mitchell.
The appeals court said that
because a previous court order told
the secretary of state to place the
issue on the ballot directly, Mitch-
ell and O'Connor had no chance to
purge their earlier votes. The court
said it must continue with criminal
contempt proceedings "for violating
this court's clear and unconditional
directive to certify the petition."
Opponents have said the ballot pro-
posal shouldn't go to voters because
its backers misrepresented the intent
of their plan to some people who
signed the petitions.
But last week, the Michigan
Supreme Court decided not to hear an
appeal in the case, meaning the issue
will be on the November ballot.
The $250 fine is the maximum for
criminal contempt. Paying the fine is
deemed an admission of contempt.
Michigan Democratic Party chair-
man Mark Brewer said the contempt
proceeding is unnecessary.
"The court has far more impor-
tant things to do than to address this
moot issue," Brewer said.
Feds intercept meds
for 6-year
-old boy
CEO says Delphi
will be able to
avoid strike
Congressman intervenes
to get illegal medicine
from the U.K. for 6-year-
old boy in Michigan
ROCKFORD (AP) - The federal
government intercepted a package con-
taining medicine shipped from England
and intended for use by a 6-year-old
Michigan boy with muscular dystrophy,
until a congressman's office intervened.
Anessa and Scott Fehsenfeld, of
Rockford, were upset about the delay but
relieved that the government released
the drug, Deflazacort, which is vital to
the health of their son. Tyler Fehsenfeld
has Duchenne, an aggressive form of
muscular dystrophy.
"I'm choosing to give this drug to my
son that a doctor says he needs, and my
country says he can't have it," Anessa
Fehsenfeld told The Grand Rapids Press
for a story yesterday. "As if the diagno-
sis isn't bad enough, and then you have
this to deal with."
Tyler is the grandson of Dan Gaydou,
the newspaper's publisher.
In November, customs agents within
the U.S. Department of Homeland Secu-
rity began cracking down on shipments
of prescription drugs from outside the
United States.
Agents started intercepting pack-
ages of Deflazacort and sending letters
of explanation to intended recipients,
saying the drug was being confiscated
because it is not approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration.
While Deflazacort is available in
Canada and throughout Europe, the
company that makes it has not sought
approval from the FDA to sell it here.
Some doctors and advocates for muscu-
lar dystrophy patients believe the reason
is because Deflazacort is an "orphan
drug," with a market too small to be
profitable.
An estimated 12,000 U.S. children
have Duchenne, which affects only boys.
Brenda Wong, a Cincinnati mus-
cular dystrophy specialist, wrote the
Deflazacort prescription for Tyler.
Without the drug, Duchenne patients
typically lose their ability to walk
between the ages of 6 and 12, said Mar-
ianne Knue, a nurse practitioner who
works with Wong. Since the disease also
affects the heart and breathing muscles,
they often die in their teens.
"But with Deflazacort, we are finding
boys are able to ambulate much longer,
well into their teens' Knue said, adding
that she has patients on the drug still liv-
ing in their late 20s.
After a Grand Rapids Press report-
er called the Washington office of
U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Grand
Rapids) a member of Ehlers' staff
contacted the FDA on behalf of the
Fehsenfelds.
The agency agreed to release the
family's package of Deflazacort under
a policy that allows people to import a
small amount of a drug for personal use,
as long as it does not pose a risk and is
approved by a doctor.
If future shipments are accompa-
nied by an explanation of the drug's use
and a prescription, they should not be
impounded, the FDA said.
A large can of yellow paint was
poured onto the sidewalk on Oxford
Street Sunday at about 10 p.m., the
Department of Public Safety reported.
Police currently have no suspects.
DPS and AAPD
team up to make
burglary arrest
A DPS patrol unit driving down Church
Street was flagged down by three students
yesterday at about 1:30 a.m., DPS report-
ed. They told the patrol unit someone was
breaking into their apartment on East Uni-
versity. The officers saw someone running
from the building. Ann Arbor police were
notified, and they apprehended the man,
who was transported to the hospital for
medical assistance.
Institute for Social
Research staffer
harassed
Someone left multiple threaten-
ing telephone messages at the office
and home of a staff member at the
Institute for Social Research, DPS
reported. DPS learned of the incident
Sunday at about 9:30 a.m.
THIS DAY
Delphi execs say they
are determined to avoid
strike that would devastate
General Motors
DETROIT (AP) - The chairman and
chief executive of Delphi Corp. said yes-
terday that he is confident the troubled
auto parts supplier will avoid a strike that
would devastate General Motors Corp.,
Delphi's former parent and largest cus-
tomer.
Speaking to the Detroit Economic
Club, Robert "Steve" Miller said the
bankruptcy court motion the company
filed Friday, asking a judge to void its
labor contracts, was "an insurance pol-
icy" he hoped the company would not
have to use.
The United Auto Workers has warned
that a long strike would be inevitable if
the judge agrees to void the contracts
and Delphi imposes its most recent pro-
posal, which would have lowered wages
from $27 to $22 through 2007, and then
to $16.50. The offer was rejected by the
UAW and other unions.
Asked after the speech whether Del-
phi would be able to avoid a strike, Miller
answered: "Absolutely."
"We are determined to work this out,"
he told reporters on his way out the door.
In his speech, Miller said the motion
in bankruptcy court was not the "nucle-
ar button" some have portrayed it to be.
He noted that hearings on the motion
are scheduled for May 9 and a ruling
from the judge is not expected until
early June.
"We've got a couple of months to work
things out,' he said.
Even if the judge approves the
request, Delphi might not act unilater-
ally if it believes an agreement is pos-
sible, he said.
"We are not leaving the negotiat-
ing table, and I hope no one else does
either," he said. "We are in good-
faith discussions with our unions,
but we cannot just keep talking and
losing money indefinitely."
Miller, who has overseen restruc-
turings at companies such as Bethle-
hem Steel Co. and Morrison Knudson
Corp., said the first half of 2007 was
a realistic target for Delphi's emer-
gence from bankruptcy.
In addition to asking the judge to
void its contracts, Delphi on Friday also
announced plans to cut 8,500 salaried jobs
and close or sell 21 of its 29 U.S. plants.
As Miller spoke yesterday at
Detroit's Masonic Temple, the work-
ers' group Soldiers of Solidarity held
a protest outside. About 50 people
carried signs and chanted slogans
like "Steve Miller/Dream killer" and
"Not one dollar, not one dime/Cut-
ting wages is a crime."
"It's a sad day for the Delphi work-
ers that our plants are being closed,"
said Jonell Sayles, a 53-year-old who
has worked at a Delphi plant in Flint
for 30 years. "We're out here today to
send a message to the world and our
co-workers that somebody is trying
to make a difference."
In Daily
History
MSA demands
halt of LSA dean
reappointment
April 4, 1985 - Last night the
Michigan Student Assembly unani-
mously passed a resolution asking the
University Board of Regents to table its
decision on the reappointment of LSA
Dean Peter Steiner until he states his
stance on student representation on the
college's executive committee.
MSA President Scott Page said the
resolution was prompted by Steiner's
refusal to discuss the issue with LSA
Student Government leaders.
The resolution requests that Stein-
er's new term be suspended until he
"publicly states his views on student
representation on the LSA Executive
Committee to the regents, the LSA fac-
ulty and the LSA students."
"We feel we should have students on
(the cnmmittee) hecause it is the most
for moreinformation call 734/998-6251
The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Twenty-Seventh Distinguished Senior Faculty Lecture
Sharon C. Herbert
Professor of Classical Archaeology & Greek
Director, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
I F. $