NEWS
Friday, September 8, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 3
ON CAMPUS
Ark to hold free
concert for 'U'
students
The popular Ann Arbor music
venue The Ark will host a concert
tonight at 8 p.m. Alternate Routes,
a young rock band with an empha-
sis on storytelling, will perform.
The concert is free for anyone with
a an Mcard.
Theater group
to perform and
recruit in Union
So You Say Productions, a
multicultural theater group, is
holding a performance at 8 p.m.
in the Michigan Union. The event
is free for students. More infor-
mation on how to get involved
with the group will be available
at the event.
Chappelle film
to show on Trot-
ter House lawn
Students are invited to recline
on the front lawn of the Trotter
House today at 8:30 p.m. to watch
the film "Chappelle's Block Party."
The Office of Multi-Ethnic Student
Affairs and Black Welcome Week
are hosting the event.
CRIME_
Trespasser
removed from
Union food court
Campus police found a tres-
passer in the food court of the
Michigan Union yesterday at
about 1 a.m., the Department of
Public Safety reported. An offi-
cer removed the trespasser from
the building after reading him a
warning.
Purse looted at
bus stop
Someone stole three credit
cards from an unattended purse
at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, DPS
reported. The purse had been left
at a bus stop in front of C.S. Mott's
Children's Hospital.
Thief slips into
dental school
Cash was discovered missing
from an office in the School of Den-
tistry Wednesday at about 9:30 p.m.,
DPS reported. The theft occurred
sometime during the week.
THIS DAY
In 'U' History
Students rally
on Diag to
protest steep
'U' Housing
Sept. 8, 1965 - High Univer-
sity housing prices drove about
200 student protesters into the
Diag yesterday at about noon.
Later that night, several student
representatives met with adminis-
trators to discuss what many stu-
dents say are unaffordable prices
for University housing.
Vice President for Student
Affairs Richard Cutler has
agreed to start working today
to establish a student advisory
committee to participate in
planning future housing proj-
ects.
The rally, organizers say, was
in essence preparation for the
meeting later that night, intend-
ed to give the students' cause
maximum leverage.
The group agreed to present
their demands to the business
and finance offices this week
and asked that an adminis-
trator publicily acknowledge
the receipt of the students
'requests.
If the administration does
not respond within a week, stu-
dents will vote on what course
of action to take Friday.
Another rally will be held
today at noon on the Diag to try
to drum up additional support
for the movement.
BLOW HARD
Schools hurt
by strike,
judge told
Teacher strike
hinders schools trying
to dig out of debt
DETROIT (AP) - A strike
by 7,000 Detroit Public Schools
teachers is causing parents to
switch their children to suburban
and charter schools and threatens
to derail the district's efforts to
eliminate a $105 million deficit,
administrators told a judge yes-
terday.
Michigan's largest public school
district seeks a back-to-work
order for the Detroit Federation
of Teachers, which struck after
rejecting a proposed two-year
contract with a 5.5 percent pay cut
and health care copays of up to 20
percent.
"The strike continues to
restrict our ability to turn around
the image of the Detroit Public
Schools," Superintendent William
Coleman told a judge considering
the request.
To get a back-to-work an order,
the 130,000-student district must
show that the strike is causing it
irreparable harm, Wayne County
Circuit Judge Susan Borman told
lawyers for both sides yesterday.
Borman has ordered intensive
bargaining while considering the
district's request. The talks con-
tinued yesterday afternoon.
A union lawyer pressed Cole-
man on why the district had not
taken other moneysaving steps,
including closing underused
buildings, leasing or selling prop-
erty, and trimming non-personnel
costs.
"You chose, for a variety of
reasons, not to close 30 (schools)
this year, to close them next year,"
Eileen Nowikowski told Cole-
man.
Nowikowski also cross-exam-
ined the superintendent about rev-
enue increases that could offset
the proposed pay cuts.
Coleman acknowledged that
some recent increases in state
aid were not included in the
budget. He said he postponed
more school closings to assure
parents that their children's new
schools offered a better educa-
tion than the ones they were
leaving.
The teachers walked off the job
Aug. 28 at the start of what was
supposed to be a week of prepa-
ration for classes, which had been
scheduled to start this week.
School administrators opened
classes Tuesday, then canceled
them indefinitely.
Administrators are seeking $88
million in concessions from the
union, which also represents about
2,000 non-teaching employees, to
help balance the district's $1.36
billion annual budget.
Detroit schools have lost about
half their enrollment over the past
two decades, and the district has
been fighting to stem continuing
losses, Coleman testified.
The schools earlier projected
a loss of 7,300 students this fall,
and the strike could significantly
increase that number, he said.
Many surrounding districts
have open enrollment policies,
and there also are about 70 pub-
licly funded, independently run
charter schools in the city, Cole-
man said.
"Parents have stopped me and
told me they're enrolling their
children in suburban school dis-
tricts," Coleman said. "The strike
continues to restrict our ability
to turn around the image of the
Detroit Public Schools."
Oak Park schools Assistant
Superintendent Carlos Lopez said
the district had about 200 students
from neighboring Detroit last
year but now has about 800, 266
of whom have applied since the
strike started.
ANGELA CESERE/Dauly
LSA junior Fadi Dawood, president of the Chaldean American Student Association, blows
Nargila bubbles at Festifai yesterday. Nargila bubbles are made by inhaling smoke and
exhaling through a bottle dipped in a bubble solution.
State police: Michigans
homeland security better
EAST LANSING (AP) - Gas
masks and hazardous material
trucks, mobile decontamination
units and robotic probes have taken
their places next to fire trucks and
handcuffs for Michigan's first
responders in the five years since
the 2001 terrorist attacks.
But the biggest and most impor-
tant change since the Sept. 11,2001
attacks may not be the new high-
tech gear bought with more than
$260 million in federal grants. It
could be the improved communi-
cation between the state's various
police and emergency response
agencies, Michigan State Police
director Col. Peter Munoz said in
an interview with The Associated
Press this week.
"Cops are notorious for hoard-
ing their information and hanging
onto it. And probably one of the
good things to come out of all of
this is it has made us realize infor-
mation sharing and interoperabil-
ity are key components not only
to homeland defense, but to how
we approach crime in general";
Munoz said. "We can't do things
in a vacuum. Now we have a way
to go, but we are miles ahead of
where we were."
Munoz was named the leader of
the Michigan State Police in May.
He replaced Col. Tadarial Sturdi-
vant, who retired from the depart-
ment and took a job with Wayne
County government.
Another of Michigan's top
homeland security officials also
is new in his position. Capt. Eddie
Washington Jr. was appointed
commander of the department's
Emergency Management and
Homeland Security Division in
August, replacing Lt. Col. Kriste
Etue, who was promoted to a dep-
uty director.
Munoz and Washington have
nearly 50 years of combined
state police experience. The last
five years have been particularly
dramatic as Michigan, like other
states, has shifted focus to anti-ter-
rorism and disaster preparedness.
Critics in both political parties
say some northern border states
have not always received their
fair share of money when Con-
gress doles out homeland secu-
rity cash. Despite being a border
state, Michigan - which has
three key border crossings with
Canada - received less federal
homeland security money per
person than states such as Wyo-
ming, Iowa and Nebraska in fiscal
year 2005.
Nationwide, federal homeland
security grants will decrease
in fiscal year 2006. Michigan's
funding is expected to drop more
than 20 percent to $46.9 million,
but that reduction is less severe
than the national average, state
police said.
The state's homeland security
grant money peaked at $75.7 mil-
lion in fiscal year 2004.
The priority for funding proj-
ects has changed.
Soon after the 2001 attacks,
much of the funding went to buy
basic equipment for local police
and fire departments across Michi-
gan. Gas masks and chemical suits
became standard gear, and many
agencies beefed up their hazardous
material teams with new trucks
and technology.
The state police bought big-
ticket items such as emergency
response vehicles and robots that
can investigate the scene of a ter-
rorist threat without putting an
officer at risk.
Now the emphasis is more
regional. The state is divided into
seven regions, and agencies within
each area decide who will operate
high-end bomb squad equipment,
mobile decontamination trucks
and other technology that it doesn't
make sense for all local level agen-
cies to possess.
"That was a huge step,' Wash-
ington said. "We have been
impressed with their ability to take
their local hats off and put their
regional hats on, and make deci-
sions that really make sense."
Michigan has 16 regional emer-
gency response teams set up so
that at least one should be able to
reach a disaster scene anywhere in
the state within two hours.
The state also plans to open two
"fusion centers" late this year or in
early 2007.
Join us fhis Sunday for
Great Bible Teaching!
Our van will pick you up for the services!
see our web page for the schedule.
ANN ARBOR BAPTIST CHURCH
2150 9. Wagner Rd. * Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Pastor Gary 0. Hirfh * 734-995-5144
www.aabaptist.com