NEWS Thursday, October 12, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 3A ON CAMPUS Reception to be held for photographer University Unions Arts and Programs members will hold a reception for photographer Michael Myers today from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Wall Gallery in Pierpont Commons. Myers's photography focuses on the rela- tionships between humans and the natural world. Workshop to focus on digitized books The University Digital Library Productions Service will offer a free demonstration of MBooks tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. on the second floor of the Harlan Hatch- er Graduate Library. The program will show interested participants how to view materials digitized by Google from the University's library collection. The event is open to the public, but space is limited. Visiting prof to speak on landscaping Dirk Wascher will discuss "landscape character assess- ment" with regard to land use and spatial planning tonight from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in room 1040 of the Dana Natural Resources Building. The lecture is part of a speaker series sponsored by JJR Landscape Architecture Firm and the Dean's Speaker Series. CRIME NOTES Unleashed dog runs through Arb An unleashed dog was reported to be running freely in Nichols Arboretum Tuesday morning, the Department of Public Safety said. According to a city ordinance, dogs are not allowed to be let off their leashes in public. DPS officers responded to the phone call, but the dog and its owner were gone when they arrived. T-shirt seller gets warning A person was given a warning for selling T-shirts on the 400 Block of South State Street on Tuesday, DPS reported. THIS DAY In 'U' History Plans for North Campus co-op take shape Oct. 12, 1968 - Blueprints for the new Inter-Cooperative Council Co-Op are finished. The building is expected to be open to residents next fall. The co-op will be located on Broad- way and Gilbert Court and is being designed by the archi- tectural firm Lane, Reibe, and Welland. John Achatz, who is in charge of the project, envisions a place that will be defined by its uniqueness. "It won't be like those wretched buildings in the city when they get old," Achatz. "It'll be rough and natural. It'll be slick." Variety is a main part of Achatz's architectural program. He said he hopes the design of the building will create an atmosphere of intimacy and belonging. Each of the 18 12- person houses in the co-op will be painted a slightly different color and have different internal room arrangements. The building will be covered with diagonal cedar panels and a birch hemming finish. Ach- atz said these details will give the exterior of the building the "sense that it is moving with the shadows." Occupants will have a view of North Campus from the courtyard. Students who live in the co-op will be expected to run the house on their own. OUT IN THE RAIN Institute gives $16m for MSU research Money will be used in planned med school expansion and be part of our community makes absolute sense," he said. The university already is recruit- ing students and faculty, Rappley said. LSA sophomore Erik Steel gives a speech on the Diag yeste It relates to Judaism, in celebration of National Coming Out students protested Proposal 2, the controversial MichiganC Husband testiesi wii~accused ofki Tim Holland testifies that his wife told him she hit their son in the head with a hammer LANSING (AP) - A sobbing Tim Holland took the stand yester- day in the murder trial of his wife, describing how he found their 7- year-old adopted son on a Friday night last year with no heartbeat or pulse. He said his wife, Lisa Holland, was in the house at the time. "Lisa's in the hallway screaming, 'I didn't mean to do it;" Tim Hol- land testified. "She was telling me to get his body out of the house" Lisa Holland is accused of humil- iating, abusing and later killing their son, Ricky. The much-anticipated testimony could be crucial, particularly for prosecutors who cut a deal with Tim Holland in exchange for his testimony against Lisa. The defense began trying to poke holes in Tim Holland's story by criticizing his credibility. Under questioning from the defense, Tim Holland acknowl- edged that he had previously lied to the police and had been forced from his job as an intelligence ana- lyst with the Army for downloading pornography onto his government computer. "It was easier to lie than tell the truth;' Tim Holland said of earlier untruthful statements to police. Tim Holland testified that Lisa told him in December 2005 that she had struck Ricky in the head with a hammer before he died. Tim Holland told jurors that Ricky was listless in the last week of his life, not eating or drinking, barely recognizing his surroundings. Ricky smelled like cat urine and wore a diaper, Tim Holland said. The father said he thought his son would get better and decided against taking him to a doctor or giving him a bath to avoid a confrontation with Lisa Holland, even though Ricky couldn't walk on his own. "I didn't want her to start pushing me around in front of the kids," Tim Holland said. The night Ricky died, Tim Hol- land said,the boy slumped over in his chair and wouldn't touch his favorite food: Kentucky Fried Chicken. He said Lisa Holland was physi- cally abusive toward Ricky in their Williamoston home, where they had lived since May 2005. One time, he said he came home to find Ricky's head taped to the refrigerator with duct tape. He also said Lisa Holland tied Ricky up in the basement. A week before Ricky's death, Tim Holland said he came home to find the boy standing in a diaper against the wall GRAND RAPIDS (AP) - The "We're in the works, we're past Van Andel Institute, a medical planning, we're now implementing" research center in the heart of the she said. city's growing medical corridor, Fifty second-year medical stu- has pledged $16 million to support dents are expected to enroll in Grand research at a planned expansion of Rapids by fall 2008. They would the Michigan State University medi- join 50 to 70 upper-level medical cal school. students already assigned to pro- Representatives of the university grams in the area. and the institute jointly announced The university expects 100 first- the eight-year commitment yester- year students to enroll in Grand day. Rapids by the time a new, $70 mil- The money is to be used to invest lion building opens in 2010. At that in basic science and clinical research point, Michigan State's medical rdN abIMON/Daly that will support both institutions, school will be based in Grand Rap- rday about coming out as meaning the two facilities could ids while it continues to offer a four- Civi Rights Initiative. jointly hire staff and share space. year program in East Lansing. "We hope to have investigators Michigan State officials are con- working side-by-side according to sidering four possible sites for the their areas of research, rather than medical school. Three are down- who employs them," Dr. Marsha town near the institute and Spec- Rappley, dean of Michigan State's trum Health Butterworth Campus, College of Human Medicine, told a hospital. The Grand Rapids Press. The hospital's parent company S(M ' Steve Heacock, the institute's chief eariier agreed to contribute up to $55 n g administrative officer, said teaming million toward the cost of the medi- up with a school that performs medi- cal school building. It also pledged cal research is a "natural fit." around $30 million over the next as punishment, with a cut on the top "To have them come and join us decade to support medical research. of his head. "Lisa would smack Ricky, grab e. him by the arm and backhand him. She would hit him with a wooden spoon;" he said. TimHolland,37,pleadedguiltyto W h i e r whie riding the rals second-degree murder last month as part of the plea deal. Prosecutors say he aided and abetted child abuse and MOUNT CLEMENS (AP) - A from Fort Lewis, Wash., told police had a reckless disregard for Ricky's suburban Detroit man who was fas- that she saw Litzner fall onto the rails. welfare while knowing death was a cinated by trains since childhood and Litzner's wife was asleep at the foreseeable consequence. who enjoyed riding the rails hobo-style time of the accident, authorities say. The prosecution's theory is that was killed after falling from a freight Chehalis police Detective Jeff Elder Ricky sustained a blow to the head train near Seattle, authorities say. said the three had consumed half a by his adoptive mother that led to his Jason P. Litzner, 25, wife Rosie, bottle of wine and also had half a case death. Ingham County jail inmates 22, and a female friend had climbed of beer with them. have testified that Lisa Holland, 33, aboard the car in Tacoma, Wash., and "This is the third case of this type said she struck Ricky with a ham- were headed for San Francisco when we've had this year with hobos getting mer. the accident happened Sunday in Che- on the trains when they're not sup- In openingrstatements,the defense halis, Wash. posed to and then a tragedy happens;" said Tim Holland's testimony would "He absolutely loved trains" his Elder said. not be credible because he has a mother, Marsha Litzner, told The Litzner grew up in Warren and motive for deflecting attention from Macomb Daily. "If he had to choose attended the Warren Consolidated himself and has changed his story how he died, he wouldn't have thought Schools before his mother began- many times. about being shot or from cancer or a home-schooling him. Ricky vanished from his home car accident. He would have wanted to As a child, Litzner dressed as a east of Lansing in July 2005. His have died on a train." train conductor for Halloween. He adoptive parents said he had run The car was a type nicknamed a was known as free-spirited and away, sparking a nine-day search "suicide car" because it consists only very independent, with a flair for by 1,700 volunteers and hundreds of of a frame for cargo containers. writing, drawing and crafts, family law enforcement and other officials. The other woman, a 20-year-old members say. But Tim Holland later led authori- ties to Ricky's body in a marshy Ing- ham County game area after telling them his wife struck the boy in the head with a hammer. Tim Hollandr s said he only helped dispose of the orts body. Cool Wfds4 cealcrtisn n en t i i l i t 1 r i t C r l i C DeVos calls for end to personal property tax The tax accounts for $1.75 billion that mostly goes to cities and schools LANSING (AP) - Dick DeVos wants to get rid of Michigan's personal property tax, but he'd find a way to replace most of the money schools and local govern- ments now get from it, a campaign spokesman said yesterday. DeVos' declaration that he'd eliminate the tax, made Tuesday night during his second debate with Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, thrilled a manufactur- ers' group but left education and local government, organizations worried. The Republican businessman doesn't yet have a plan for how he would make up the $1.75 billion lost, campaign spokesman John Truscott said. He'd have to work that out with lawmakers, possibly as part of a larger restructuring of the state's main corporate tax. "We realize where that money goes" Truscott said of the per- sonal property tax. "For the most part ... whether it's local govern- ments or schools, we need to pre- serve as much money as possible for them." Last year, Granholm and state legislators worked out a deal that gave businesses a 15 percent Single Business Tax credit on their per- sonal property taxes. That credit saves companies - mainly large manufacturers - about $115 mil- lion a year,all money that otherwise would go to the state treasury. university unions- almost as good as YOUR M [we know you love pizza.] M University wUnions