2A - Wednesday, November 1, 2006 MONDAY: Ten Spot TUESDAY: Arbor Anecdotes 'DEDYTHURSDAY: FRIDAY: Explained Before You Were Here A ride on the hospital helicopter 'U' pilot responds to regional emergencies The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 413 E. Huron St. Ann ArborMI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com DONNM. FRESARD ALEXISFLOYD Editor in Chief Business Manager 734-647-3336 734-764-0558 fre'ard@michigandaily.com floyd@michigandaily.com 4 Matt Douglass exploded out of his seat mid-sentence Monday to respond to a shrill alarm. When the commotion ceased a few minutes later, Douglass returned to his seat. "Just a small fire," he said. Douglass, a Survival Flight pilot at the University Hospital, said on some days his job can be boring, but on others, the excite- ment never seems to end. Survival Flight is the Univer- sity's air medical transport pro- gram. As a pilot of one of three Bell 430 helicopters in the Universi- ty's fleet, Douglass is responsible for transporting patients safely out of emergency situations. Aside from flying "scene calls" or emergency rescue missions, Douglass transports patients who can't travel by road between hos- pitals. He also delivers patients from hospitals unable to care for serious injuries to those that are properly equipped. "I like scene calls the best," Douglass said. "You never know what you will get. It's quick- paced, and the adrenaline never stops going." Some days are so packed with emergencies, he said, pilots are too busy to eat. "And I like to eat," he said. Douglass and a crew of at least two highly trained registered nurses are required to lift off within five minutes of a call. He said the nurses must be able to "do anything a doctor can do." Standing on the landing pad, Douglass opened the helicopter's rear door, revealing a functional emergency room, which he said can support neonatal care. The helicopter travels at an average speed of 150 mph and can fly as far as Indianapolis and Chicago. Douglass has served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Reserves since 1987. He left his job at Survival Flight in January of 2003 with another pilot and a mechanic to serve in Iraq. Douglass returned to Ann Arbor in March of last year. Douglass works 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, with at best three days off every other week. To ease his and other pilots' workload, Douglass said the Uni- versity hospital is looking to hire additional pilots. "This was supposed to be my day off," Douglass said on Mon- day. DREWPHILP - Want to know more about a University job? E-mail suggestions to news@michigandaily.com. CONTACT INFORMATION Newsroom offic News Tips Corrections Letterstothe Editor Photography Department Arts Section Editorial Page Sports Section Display Sales Classified Sales Online Sales Finance EDITORIAL STAFF e hours:sun.-Thaurs.1a.m.-2a.m. 734-763-24s9 news@michigandaily.com corrections@michigandaily.com tothedaily@michigandaily.com photo@mihiigandaily.com 763. 704-0563 artspage@michigandaily.com 734-763-0379 opinion@michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily.com 734-764-8585 display@michigandaily.com classified@michigandaily.com 734-764-0557 onlineads@michigandaily.com 734-61s-013s finance@michigandaily.com Matt Douglass, Survival Flight pilot at the University Hospital, the landing pad yesterday. CRIME NOTES Man tries to eat WHEN: Monday at 2:30 p.m. artifiCal flowers WHAT: A restaura WHERE: Harlan Hatcher er said a man was ft Graduate Library lently trying to obtt GduE:LMoraryatab refund for food he I WHEN: Monday at about purchased, DPS rep 6:30 p.m. Plchaedltw -WHAT: A suspicious man, Police have dealt w who is unaffiliated with the man on numerous o 'University, was found try- sions. ing to eat artifical flowers and tamper with students' No fire, no backpacks, the Department -of Public Safety reported. He smoke mea 'was transported to the Uni- falsea r versity Hospital Psychiatric aiarnl Emergency Room. WHERE: Taubman CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES about nt work- raudu- ain a had orted. ith this 'cca- ns 115 nMedical RSC photo exhibit WHAT: A display of photo- graphs and printed engrav- ings of former actors who performed in Shakespeare productions WHO: University curator Kathryn Beam and David Howells, curator of the Royal Shakespeare Com- pany archive WHERE: North Lobby of the Ann Arbor District Library Brown bag lecture on mortality WHAT: A lecture on mor- tality in Russia and South Africa WHO: Sociology Prof. Bar- bara Anderson WHEN: Today at noon WHERE: School of Social Work, room 1636 Workshop for reducing stress WHAT: A meditation work- shop to introduce several types of meditation WHO: University Unions Arts and Programs WHEN: Today from 6 to 8 p.m. WHERE: Henderson and Koessler rooms of the Mich- igan League CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com. The spinach plants respon- sible for making peope sick last month did not get E. coli through their roots, as was believed. The outbreak, experts say, likely resulted frommanure being splashed onto the leaves. Plants are actually highly selec- tive about what they soak up through their roots. If you vote in Iowa's first congressional district, you can choose between the candidates from the Republican, Democratic and Pirate Parties. >FOR MORE, SEE ELECTION GUIDE The Day of the Dead, cel- ebrated today and tomor- row, is an ancient Aztec celebration of the memory of deceased ancestors. Jeffrey Bloomer ManagingEditor bloomer@michigandaily.com Karl Stampfl ManagingNewsEditor stampfl@michigandaily.com NEWSEDITORS: LeahGraboskiChristina Hildreth,AnneJoling,AnneVanderMey Emily BeamEditorialPageEditor beam@michigandaily.com ChristopherZbrozek EditorialPageEditor zbrozek@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Whitney Dibo, Theresa Kennelly, Imran Syed Jack Herman ManagingSportsEditor Kerman@michigandaily.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS: Scott Bell, H. Jose Bosch, Matt Singer, Kevin Wright, Stephanie Wright SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Dan Bromwich, Amber Colvin, Mark Giannotto, Ian Robinson, Nate Sandals, Dan Levy AndrewSargusKlein ManagingArts Editor klein@michigandaily.com Bernie Nguyen Managing Arts Editor nguyen@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR: Kimberly Chou ARTSSUBEDITORS:Lloyd H.Cargo,CaitlinCowan,PunitMattoo,KristinMacDonald Alex DziadosZ Managing Photo Editor dziadosz@michigandaily.com Mike Hulsebus Managing PhotooEditor hulsebus@michigandaily.com AS^TEPHOTOEEDIORS:oestaseyTrevorCabell, Peter Schottenfels Bridget O'Donnell Managing Design Editor odonnel@michigandaily.com ASSISTANT DESIGN EDITOR: Lisa Gentile Phil Dokas Managing Online Editor dokas@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE ONLINE EDITOR: Angela Cesere James V.Dowd Magazine Editor dowd@michigandaily.com ASSOCIATE MAGAZINE EDITOR: Chris Gaerig BUSINESS STAFF Robert Chin Display Sales Manager ASSOCIATE DISPLAY SALES MANAGER: Ben Schrotenboer SPECIAL SECTIONS MANAGER: David Dai Kristina Diamantoni Classified sales Manager ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED SALES MANAGER: Michael Moore EmilyCipriano Onlinesales Manager Ryan VanTassel Finance Manager BrittanyO'Keefe Layout Manager Chelsea Hoard Production Manager The Michigan taily (ISSNI0745-967)is published Monday through Friday duringthe fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan.One copy is available free of chargetoall readers.Additional copiesmay bepicked up atthe Dailysoffice for$2.Subscriptionsforfall term, startingin September viaU.mailare $110. Winter termJanuary throughApril)is$115,yearlong(Septemberthrough April) is $195. University affiliates are subject toa reduced subscription rate.On-campus subscriptions for falltermare$35.Subscriptionsmust beprepaid.TheMichiganDaily is a memberof The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. I Man tries to obtain phony refund for food WHERE: Pierpont Commons Library WHEN: Yesterday at about 4:30 p.m. WHAT: DPS responded to a fire alarm that went off inside the library. Officers found no smoke and no fire and declared it a false alarm. Apartheid South Africa's former leader dies at age 90 Nicknamed the 'Old Crocodile,' Botha was known for his temper CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - P.W. Botha, the apartheid- era president who led South Africa through its worst racial violence and deepest international isolation, died yesterday. He was 90. Botha died at his home on the southern Cape coast at 8 p.m., according to the South African Press Association. "Botha died at home, peacefully," Capt. Frikkie Lucas was quoted as saying. The African National Congress issued a statement expressing con- dolences and wishing his family "strength and comfort at this dif- ficult time." Nicknamed the "Old Crocodile" for his feared temper and some- times ruthless manner, Botha served as head of the white racist government from 1978 to 1989. Throughout his leadership he resisted mounting pressure to free South Africa's most famous political prisoner, Nelson Mandela. Mandela was released by Botha's successor, F.W. de Klerk in1990. Botha liked to depict himself as the first South African leader to pursue race reform, but he tena- ciously defended the framework of apartheid, sharply restricting, the activities of black political organi- zations and detaining more than 30,000 people. Through a series of liberaliz- ing moves, Botha sought support among the Asian and mixed-race communities by creating separate parliamentary chambers. He lifted restrictions on interracial sex and marriage. He met with Mandela duringhis last year as president. But after each step forward, there was a backlash, resulting inthe 1986 state of emergency declaration and the worst reprisals of more than four decades of apartheid. Botha's intransigence on releas- ing Mandela led the anti-apartheid Johannesburg Daily, Business Day, to write: "The government is now the prisoner of its prisoner; it can- not escape his embrace." Within a year after Botha stepped down, de Klerk released Mandela after 27 years in prison and put South Africa on the road to its first all-race elections in 1994, when Mandela became president. In December 1997, Botha stub- bornly resisted appearing before a panel investigating apartheid- era crimes. He risked criminal penalties by repeatedly defying subpoenas from the Truth and Rec- onciliation Commission to testify about the State Security Council that he headed. The council was believed to have sanctioned the killing and torture of anti-apartheid activists, and the panelwanted to know what Botha's involvement was. Born Jan. 12, 1916, the son of a farmer in the rural Orange Free State province, Botha never served in the military or graduated from college. He quit university in 1935 to become a National Party orga- nizer. During World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag (Ox Wagon Fire Guard), a group that was sympathetic to the Nazis and opposed South Africa's participa- tion on the Allied side. BothawonelectiontoParliament in 1948, the year the National Party came to power and began codifying apartheid legislation. He joined the Cabinet in1961 and became defense minister in 1966. As head of the white-minor- ity government in 1978, Botha repeatedly stressed the paramount importance of national security. He charged that the anti-apartheid struggle was a "total onslaught" on South Africa instigated by commu- nist forces. During a series of gradual race reforms, he told white South Afri- cans they must "adapt or die." A new constitution in 1983 gave Asians and mixed-race people a limited voice in government, but continued to exclude blacks. The new law also drastically increased Botha's powers, chang- ing his title from prime minister to president. He declared a national emergency in 1986 after wide- spread violence erupted in black areas, where anger focused on the new constitution. State security forces brutally quelled the opposition, and one of his former lieutenants - police minister Adriaan Vlok - told the Truth Commission that Botha had 4 1l personally congratulated Vlok for successfully bombing a building thought to harbor anti-apartheid activists and weapons. But in documents submitted to the panel, Botha denied knowledge of the killings, torture and bomb- ings. Botha's reprisals against the black majority drew international economic sanctions against South Africa during the 1980s that con- tributed to apartheid's fall. In July 1989, Mandela went from prison to Botha's official residence for a conversation, which increased speculation that Botha would free Mandela. Mandela recalled going into the meeting thinking he was seeing "the very model of the old-fash- ioned, stiff-necked, stubborn Afri- kaner who did not so much discuss matters with black leaders as dic- tate to them." He found Botha holding out his hand and smiling broadly "and in fact, from that very first moment, he completely disarmed me," Man- dela wrote in his autobiography. Mandela said the only tense moment was when he asked Botha to release all political prisoners - including himself - uncondi- tionally. "Mr. Botha said that he was afraid he could not do that," Man- dela wrote. The meeting was one of Botha's last acts before he was ousted as National Party leader by de Klerk in September 1989. Botha refused to attend a fare- well banquet held in his honor by the party he had served for 54 years. After 1990, he quit the National Party. Botha's foremost loyalties were to his fellow Afrikaners, yet his moves to extend limited political power to nonwhites prompted a mass defection of hard-line segre- gationists from the National Party in 1982. Beeld, an Afrikaans-language daily that supported Botha for many years, said, "The last image that will linger ... is that of a blind Samson who with his last strength tried to overturn the pillars of his party on himself and his own com- panions." There has been no decision on funeral arrangements. 4 I www.metropcs.com Ann Arbor 4860 Washtenaw Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48108 734-444-0521 Clinton Twp. 40779 Garfield Rd. 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