The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Justice Department
investigates spying
program
The Justice Department has
begun an internal investigation
into its handling of information
gathered in the government's
domestic spying program.
However, Democrats criticized
the review as not going far enough
to determine whether the program
violates federal law.
The inquiry by Glenn A. Fine,
the department's inspector gener-
al, will focus on the role of Justice
prosecutors and agents in carrying
out the warrantless surveillance
program run by the National Secu-
rity Agency.
Fine's investigation is not
expected to address whether
the controversial program is an
unconstitutional expansion of
presidential power, as its critics
and a federal judge in Detroit have
charged.
LOFTY ASPIRATION
Bona Kim, an architecture graduate student, drafts a project on a computer in the
on North Campus last night.
TAWN, ESTNIA Ford reaches I-u u
Bush to meet with RIL~.Jt
qS
SHAY SPANIOLA/Daly
lofts in the Art and Architecture Building
tdeadline
with further unspecified reduc-
tions in 2009.
Ford has announced plans to
close 16 plants as part of its "Way
Forward" restructuring plan. Nine
of the plants have been identified,
but the company has not named the
remaining seven.
Under the buyout or early retire-
ment plans, workers can choose
between eight packages that offer
from $35,000 to $140,000 depend-
ing on their years of service, age and
how close they are to retirement.
One package offers up to $15,000
per year for four years of college
tuition, plus half of the workers'
salaries and health benefits for four
years. There's also an offer that
pays 70 percent of their salaries
and tuition, both for two years.
Deutsche Bank analyst Rod
Lache, in a note to investors, said he
expects a relatively low number of
workers to take Ford's offers, in the
range of 10,000 to 15,000. That's
because only 28,000 of Ford's
75,000 hourly workers are eligible
for retirementunder the company's
offers, he said.
Because it won't get enough
workers this round, Ford likely
will have to negotiate a new and
potentially more costly buyout and
early retirement plan as part of the
upcoming 2007 labor negotiations.
Iraqi prime minister
President Bush intensified
diplomatic efforts yesterday to
quell rising violence in Iraq and
Afghanistan, turning to allies as
his national security adviser said
the conflict in Iraq had entered "a
new phase" requiring changes.
"Obviously everyone would
agree things are not proceed-
ing well enough or fast enough,"
National Security Adviser Stephen
Hadley told reporters aboard Air
Force One as Bush flew eastward.
The president was spending
last night in this tiny Baltic nation
ahead of a two-day NATO sum-
mit in Riga, Latvia, expected to
deal with deteriorating conditions
in Afghanistan, where NATO has
32,000 troops.
Bush will head to Amman,
Jordan, for talks tomorrow and
Thursday with Iraqi Prime Min-
ister Nouri al-Maliki and King
Abdullah of Jordan.
JERUSALEM
Israeli leader calls
for negotiations
with Palestinians
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
reached out to the Palestinians
yesterday in one of his most con-
ciliatory speeches yet, saying he
was prepared to grant them a
state, release desperately needed
funds and free prisoners if they
choose the path of peace.
Olmert's remarks sealed a dra-
matic policy shift and built on a
day-old truce meant to end five
months of violence in the Gaza
Strip, but new rocket attacks by
Palestinian militants threatened
Group home
blaze kills 10,
injures 24
Company still needs
20,000 employees
to take deals
DETROIT (AP) - Time is run-
ning out for 75,000 Ford Motor Co.
production workers to make one of
the biggest decisions they'll ever
have to make: Whether or not to
leave the company by taking buy-
out or early retirement offers.
Ford, faced with lower demand
for its products than in previous
years, is hoping 25,000 to 30,000
workers will take one of eight pack-
ages so itcan reduce manufacturing
capacity to better match demand.
The deadline was late yesterday
night. Ford will announce the num-
ber of people taking the buyouts
later this week.
Ford officials won't say how
many workers have signed up
for the offers so far, but they say
they are pleased with the num-
bers. President of the Americas
Mark Fields has said the company
expects fewer than 40 percent of
the workers to leave.
Before the latest round of buy-
outs was announced, Ford had
made offers to workers at a limited
number of plants, including those
scheduled for closure, and about
5,200 workers decided to go, Ford
said.
That means Ford needs about
20,000 more workers to take the
new round of buyouts and early
retirements to reach the low end of
its target range.
Workers who sign up for a pack-
age can change their minds up until
the day the package takes effect,
the company said.
Guy Hamilton, building chair-
man for United Auto Workers Local
1250 at an engine plant in Brook
Park, Ohio, near Cleveland, said it's
too early to tell how many workers
will take the packages.
Some could sign up today so they
have the option to leave, but with-
draw later, he said.
Local 1250 represents about
3,800 workers at the complex near
Cleveland.
Ford lost $7 billion in the first
nine months of the year, and yes-
terday the company announced
that it plans to get about $18 billion
in financing due to help staunch
its cash flow losses and to pay for
its restructuring. Ford's share of
the domestic market has declined
from around 26 percent in the early
1990s to 17.6 percent at the end of
October.
The company expects to cut its
costs by $5 billion through 2008,
Authorities consider
criminal investigation
into mysterious fire
ANDERSON, Mont. (AP) - An
early morning fire broke out in a
group home for the elderly and
mentally ill yesterday, killing 10
people and injuring two dozen oth-
ers in a blaze that the governor said
was being treated as a crime.
The blaze reduced the pri-
vately run Anderson Guest House
to a skeleton of cinder blocks and
stunned this rural community of
about 1,800 people tucked in the
Ozark hills of southwest Missouri.
Gov. MattBluntsaidinvestigators
were treating the fire as suspicious.
"We're not saying it is definitely a
crime scenebutwe are treatingitas
if it is and trying to determine if the
fire was set by somebody who had a
nefarious motive," Blunt said.
The home had 32 residents and
two employees inside when the
fire was reported at about 1 a.m.
The dead ranged in age from early
20s to elderly. Another 18 people
were taken to hospitals, and six
were treated at the scene, authori-
ties said.
One of the dead was a worker in
the home, and the other nine were
residents, Blunt said. Authorities
did not plan to release names until
relatives were notified.
Officials refused to say how
the victims died or whether they
had any warning of the flames.
The home had fire alarms but no
sprinklers.
Asked whether two staff mem-
bers were enough to look after 32
residents, Blunt said that was up to
state health officials.
"Again, it was late at night," the
governor said. "That would impact
to some degree the amount of care
that is necessary."
Neighbor Steven Spears, 47, saw
the blaze erupt through security
cameras posted outside his home.
"I saw the front door blow open
with fire," Spears said. "I know
most of them (the residents). I've
talked to all of them at one time or
another. It still hasn't hit me."
The home is operated by Jop-
lin River of Life Ministries Inc.
Owner Robert Dupont issued a
statement expressing sadness and
saying all displaced residents were
being cared for with the help of
local agencies." This is a very trag-
ic situation that has saddened all
of us at Joplin River of Life Minis-
tries," he said.
At the company's offices in
Joplin, investigators interviewed
Dupont and group home residents,
including some survivors. A min-
istries employee said Dupont was
unavailable for further comment.
Three people were in serious
condition at hospitals in Joplin
and Springdale, Ark. All the other
survivors who went to area hos-
pitals were either in good or fair
condition, or had been treated and
released.
Authorities were tryingto deter-
mine whether the blaze was linked
to a smaller fire at the facility Sat-
urday morning, said Assistant Fire
Marshal Greg Carrell. No one was
injured in the first fire, which was
still under investigation when the
second blaze began.
Inspectors from the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior
Services, which licenses the facil-
ity, found some deficiencies at the
home in March, but none related to
fire safety.
The home is a residential care
center licensed by the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior
Services. The facility also has a
license from the state Department
of Mental Health that allowed
mentally ill residents to live at the
home and receive treatment else-
where.
The facility was cited in March
for grease buildup in the kitchen,
uncovered fluorescent light fix-
tures, allowing meat to thaw on
the kitchen counter instead of in
a refrigerator, allowing a resident
to take more than the prescribed
dose of an inhaler and not request-
ing criminal background checks
for new employees as quickly as
required by law. All the deficien-
cies were corrected within three
weeks, according to the health
department.
1
3
Online retailers launch promotions
NEW YORK (AP) - After jam- other, shoppers are being bom-
ming malls on Friday for dis- barded with even more generous
counted flat-screen TVs and toys, discounts, free shipping offers
shoppers clicked onto their com- and other enticements this holiday
puters at work yesterday as retail- season.
ers ushered in the start of the For the Monday after Thanksgiv-
online shopping season with bar- ing, coined Cyber Monday by the
gains and marketing hype. National RetailFederation, plentyof
With an increasing number of retailers like Circuit City Stores Inc.
online players tryingto outdo each offered special one-day coupons.
The University of Michigan
R Department of Recreational Sports
SPORTS Intramural Sports Program SPORTS
www.recsports.umich.edu IN ALS
734-763-3562
I. -I
I 1.
the latest rapprochement.
NEW YORK CITY
Mayor says police
used excessive force
during shooting
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
weighed in on the uproar over
a deadly police shooting yester-
day, saying bluntly that officers
appeared to use excessive force
when they fired 50 shots at an
unarmed man in a confrontation
outside a strip club hours before
his wedding.
"I can tell you that it is to me
unacceptable or inexplicable how
you can have 50-odd shots fired,
but that's up to the investigation
to find out what really happened,"
Bloomberg said at a news confer-
ence.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Entries due: Entries due:
Wed, 11/29 Thurs, 11/30
CR1E D T4:30 PM 4:30 PM
IM Building IM Building
ForYour Best Choice in ntr ee: n
Financial Services $35 per team $35 per team
-'M' checks Manager's Meeting: $5 per individual
" Free online banking 24/7 MANDATORY Manager's
- ATMs on campus umcu.org Thurs, 11/30 Meeting:
- Three campus branches email: umcu@umcu.org 6:00 PM MANDATORY
- StudentVISA credit card phone: 734-662-8200 IM Building Thurs, 11/30
-VISA Check Card Tua n7:00 PM
Tournament IM Building
Entries also Dates: Entries also Meet Dates:
taken online 12/01 & 12/03 taken online 12/05 - 12/06
IMSB
Sports Coliseum
Dod geball Weti
Signups for our NEW Bouldering
competition ends Thursday 11/30.
To play: Complete the grid so that every row, column v Signup online!
and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
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test on this site, which challenges
users to burn through a million- -- - -
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The site deducts virtual dollars
from each user's account as they 9
splurge in any of the frivolous cat-
egories, which range from charity
to cosmetic surgery.
A virtual pet tiger will set you
back 5,000 imaginary pounds,
while a fire engine red Moller
Skycar M400 is listed at 324,000
pounds. Users can also price out
experiences including space travel
for the price tag of 115,000 pounds.
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Officials Needed!
K Very flexible scheduling
K First time officials welcome
K Uniforms provided and yours to keep
K Earn $7.15 an hour
K Meet new friends
BASKETBALL
January 4th, 8th, 9th at 7 PM
All clinics are held in the Intramural Sports Building.
Please contact Nicole Green at
nmgreen@umich.edu or 764-0515
for more information.
i