The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 7A
Aerospace
firm to draw
on U' talent
FACE TIME
COMPANY From page 1A
Weinert said University stu-
dents won't get any special con-
sideration in competition for
internships or jobs, but he thinks
the proximity of the company to
Ann Arbor will be an advantage to
students.
ElizabethParkinson,aspokes-
woman for Ann Arbor SPARK
- a nonprofit organization that
works to bring businesses to the
Ann Arbor area - said SPARK is
planning at first to help the com-
pany find interested graduates
and experienced workers to fill
positions, but then will leave it
up to Weinert and the Universi-
ty's placement programs to work
with the company. If Aernnova
wants to increase its area pres-
ence, Ann Arbor SPARK will
help it expand its facilities, Par-
kinson said.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm
announced the move yesterday
in Lansing. With her were Uni-
versity President Mary Sue Cole-
man, Ann Arbor SPARK CEO
Mike Finney, CEO of Michigan
Economic Development Corpora-
tion James Epolito, and Aernnova
CEO Inaki Lopez Gandasegui.
The announcement is a boost
to the struggling Michigan econ-
omy, especially after Pfizer's deci-
sion this winter to shut down its
2,100-person facility near North
Campus.
In a statement released yester-
day, Coleman said she's looking
forward to working with the com-
pany to collaborate on jobs and
internships.
"In working with Ann Arbor
SPARK and the MEDC (Michigan
Economic Development Corpora-
tion), we immediately recognized
the benefit of this international
firm to our region," she said. "We
also knew we had much to offer
Aernnova, from collaborations
with our highly ranked College of
Engineering to qualified gradu-
ates from throughout our univer-
sity."
- The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Lea Sult, a barista at Cafe Ambrosia on Maynard Street, is seen in the refelection of a large drawing of a face by Jane Sylvia Clifford of Ann Arbor. Cafe Ambrosia frequent-
ly displays work by local artists.
Trip from Howell to Ann Arbor
would take 20 minutes eachway
MSA wants to
revive homecoming
PARADE From page 1A
held Oct. 8 and 9. Once elected,
the royal court will make a grand
appearance at both the parade and
the football game.
Some students, however, are
not as excited about these events
as MSA might hope.
"Ithinka lotofstudentsaregoing
to pass by thinking, 'What the hell,
I don't care about a king and queen.
Didn't I just leave high school?' "
LSA senior Matt Son said.
Other students seem excited
- a Facebook group dedicated to
homecoming already has over 600
members.
Some students expressed con-
cern about homecoming being
scheduled the same weekend as
Fall Break, when many students
go home.
Other students aren't exactly
thrilled, but they are intrigued.
"I didn't even know we had a
homecoming," LSA junior Emily
Grekin said. "I think it would be
successful because there's already
a lot of school spirit on campus."
Baydoun cited school spirit as
the reason for planning a home-
coming
"This is an important year to
engulf the homecoming spirit,"
Baydoun said. "(The football
team) had a rocky start. That's
an important reason to keep the
homecoming spirit and Michigan
spirit alive."
DATA
From page 1A
versity Hospital spokeswoman
Kallie Michels said.
DPS spokeswoman said there
were no signs of forced entry in
the room.
Michels said a system admin-
istrator noticed the box was
missing on a Monday morning,
Baydoun said that a return to
the tradition of homecoming will
excite students.
"Every other Big Ten school
has a type of homecoming cel-
ebration," Baydoun said. "We're
obviously the best Big Ten School
for spirit, athletics, academics. We
should be the best Big Ten school
in celebration of homecoming."
Purdue, the football team's
opponent on homecoming week-
end, is no exception.
Courtney Freeland, an Engi-
neering junior at Purdue, said her
school's homecoming celebration
is similar to the plans unfolding in
Ann Arbor.
"The parade is pretty cool," she
said, though she admitted most
people don't pay attention to the
homecoming court unless they
know someone on it.
MSA is hosting float-making
workshops today and Friday.
It has contacted more than 800
student groups through e-mail to
advertise for the event. However,
because many student groups
have still not registered with
MSA, MSA will continue advertis-
ing throughout the month.
"We're expecting a big turnout,
especially because we're getting
as many student groups involved
as we can," Baydoun said.
Nomination forms for the king
and queen election are due by
Sept. 26 and are available at msa.
umich.edu.
and called the Department of
Public Safety after realizing that
it could have been stolen. Nurs-
ing School Dean Ada Hinshaw
notified ITSS.
The School of Nursing office
sent out letters to the patients
with stolen information, detailing
how to report a possible identity
theft.
Police have no suspects in the
case, Brown said.
RAIL From page 1A
tribution to the new rail line was
comparable to its practice of sub-
sidizing van pools for University
employees.Director of Community
Relations Jim Kosteva compared
the rail line to the University's
MRide bus program, which allows
free passage on city busses with a
University ID.
"(The railways would be) anoth-
er potential method for faculty,
students and staff to gain access
to the University without having
to rely on individual automobiles,"
he said.
These efforts are part of a larger
University and city push to reduce
fossil fuel usage and carbon emis-
sions.
"One of the reasons I want the
train is because it will reduce
greenhouse gasses," Hieftje said.
Brown said the train is an
opportunity to reduce the number
of cars coming to campus as well
as overall congestion and energy
usage.
"Parking those vehicles is a
challenge for us and we'd like to
see land not going to more parking
structures," she said.
Brown said the rail effort is sup-
ported in large part by Livings-
ton County residents. Livingston
County-located just north ofAnn
Arbor's Washtenaw County - is
home to about 11,000 people who
commute to Ann Arbor.
"They got a real kick in the pants
when they found out this summer
that there would be so much more
road work on US 23," she said.
Brown said Livingston County
residents had hoped that the fed-
eral Department of Transporta-
tion would add lanes to US 23, but
that never happened.
"Congestion still reigns, morn-
ing and night, on US 23," Brown
said.
Hieftje said the train would be
one way to relieve the congestion.
"I don't want to see more lanes
on 23," Hieftje said. "I think that
leads to more sprawl and more pol-
lution."
Washtenaw and Livingston
Counties are in the process of
establishing a Commuter Rail
Authority Board that would
bring together leaders from both
counties to head the operation.
The Commuter Authority would
then be in charge of maintain-
Iraqi report sa
Blackwater shl
ing a contract with Great Lakes
Central Railroad, the company
that owns the majority of the
tracks the train would run on.
The tracks are currently used to
transport freight.
Mike Bagwell, the company's
president, was enthusiastic about
the new railroad. He said he would
like his company tobe in charge of
operations and track maintenance,
providing the train cars and any
other rail service that would be
needed.
Bagwell said committees are
being formed to map out details of
the project like marketing, financ-
ing, scheduling and the construc-
tion of platforms at train stops.
Construction of platforms
would take about 90 days once
the project receives the necessary
funding, Bagwell said.
The scheduling committee is
considering running an express
train that would travel directly
from one end of the line to the
other in addition to a train that
would stop at each station. The
express train is projected to take
20 minutes each way - about 45
minutes less than the trip would
take at rush hour on US 23.
Sys
_ot first
Embassy officials said on Monday
that the Blackwater guards had
been responding to a car bomb,
but Dabbagh said the bomb was so
far away that it could not possibly
have been a reason for the convoy
to begin shooting.
Instead, he said, the convoy ini-
tiated the shooting, when a car did
not heed a traffic policeman and
moved into an intersection.
"The traffic policeman was try-
ing to open the road for them," he
said. "It was a crowded square.
But one small car did not stop.
It was moving very slowly. They
shot against the couple and their
child. They started shooting ran-
domly."
In interviews yesterday, six
Iraqis who had been in the area at
the time of the shooting, including
a man who was wounded and an
Iraqi army soldier who helped res-
cue people, offered roughly similar
versions.
The Iraqi soldier who said he
wasstandingat acheckpointonthe
edge of the square said he thought
the convoy believed the small car
was a suicide bomber, and opened
fire. According to the wounded
man, recuperating in Yarmouk
Hospital, the car with the family
was drvino the wrong ide of
the road.
The convoy began throwing
non-lethal sound bombs, several
witnesses said, to keep people
in the area away. That drew fire
from Iraqi army soldiers man-
ning watchtowers that are part of
an Iraqi army base on the square.
Iraqi police, witnesses said, also
appeared to be shooting.
Document says
private guards
weren't ambushed
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
and JAMES GLANZ
The New York Times
BAGHDAD - A preliminary
Iraqireportonashootinginvolving
a U.S. diplomatic motorcade said
yesterday that Blackwater security
guards had not been ambushed, as
the company reported, but instead
fired at a car when it did not heed
a policeman's call to stop, killing a
couple and their infant.
The report, by the ministries of
Interior and Defense, was present-
ed to the Iraqi Cabinet yesterday
and, though unverified, seemed to
contradict an account offered by
Blackwater USA that the guards
were responding to gunfire by
militants. The report said that
Blackwater helicopters had fired
and that 20 Iraqis were killed, a
far higher number than had been
reported before.
In a sign of the seriousness of
the standoff, the U.S. Embassy
here suspended diplomatic mis-
sions outside the Green Zone and
throughout Iraq on yesterday.
"There was notshooting against
the convoy," said Ali Dabbagh, the
Iraqi government's spokesman.
"There was no fire from anyone in
the square."
A U.S. State Department spokes-
man, Edgar Vaszuez, said he had
not heard of the report and reiter-
ated that the department was con-
ni.
ducting an investigation supported
by the U.S. military.
A spokeswoman for Blackwater
responded to an e-mailed request
for comment as follows: "Let these
folks do the investigation and get
all the facts and if dept proce-
dures were not followed after the
facts have been gathered we would
decide what action to take."
The U.S. Embassy said of diplo-
matic missions: "This suspension
is in effect in order to assess Mis-
sion security and procedures, as
well as a possible increased threat
to personnel traveling with securi-
ty details outside the International
Zone."
The shooting, which occurred
Sunday, has angered Iraqi officials
and touched off an angry debate
about private security companies,
which operate outside Iraqi law, a
privilege extended to them by U.S.
officials while Iraq's government
was still under U.S. administra-
tion. Blackwater, which guards
all top U.S. officials here, had its
work suspended, and Iraqi offi-
cials on Tuesday agreed to rewrite
the rules to make the companies
accountable.
"We do understand that the
security companies are subject to
high levels of threat and they do a
good job at protection, but his does
not entitle them to immunity from
Iraqi laws," Dabbaghsaid. "This is
what the Iraqi government would
like to review."
He said the Iraqi and U.S. gov-
ernments had set up a joint com-
mittee to investigate the deaths.
The preliminary report offered
a different version of events. U.S.
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