The Statement
£ filicIgan hiIlj
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
michigandaily.com
Connerly's crusade continues
Anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives planned
for five more states in 2008
After successfully backing Pro-
posal 2, a ballot initiative passed in
November that banned affirmative
action in Michigan, the American
Civil Rights Institute is gearing up
to place similar measures before
voters in Arizona, Nebraska, Okla-
homa, Missouri and Colorado in
2008.
Twenty-three states have a bal-
lot initiative process that allows
voters to decide on proposals
that gain enough signatures to be
placed on the ballot. So far, Cali-
fornia, Washington and Michigan
have passed similar ballot pro-
posals backed by the group led by
Ward Connerly, a former member
of the University of California
Board of Regents.
Connerly said he considers
affirmative action a violation of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The
act bans discrimination based on
ethnicity, race and gender.
"It is not being obeyed by col-
leges or public agencies," Connerly
said. "We're trying to get that back
on track."
The group is targeting five
states of the remaining 20 that
should easily pass the legislation,
Connerly said.
"We feel we will do extremely
well in all those states," he said.
"We wouldn't have chosen the
states if we thought we would
lose."
Connerly said he doesn't think
the inifiatives will face as much
opposition as Proposal 2 did in
Michigan. He was particularly
critical of By Any Means Neces-
sary, a radical group aimed at pre-
serving affirmative action. He said
the media gave the group more
attention than it deserved.
"We want to avoid another
effort, like Michigan," Connerly
said.
Michigan's Proposal 2 passed
58 percent to 42 percent.
In Colorado and Oklahoma,
the ACRI is already busy gather-
ing signatures, but the ACRI has
struggled to craft its proposal for
Missouri, arguing with the Mis-
souri Secretary of State over the
wording that will appear on the
ballot. The secretary and group
must reach a consensus before it
can begin collecting signatures.
Connerly said the group is dis-
cussing language for proposals in
See CONNERLY, Page 7A
By Cathe Shubert Daily Staff Reporter
MAP KEY
States in which the American Civil Rights Institute is considering
mounting ballot initiative campaigns to ban affirmative action
States that have already banned affirmative action
Washington
Michigan
California
PARTY KEY
Missouri
Oklahoma
Democratic Governor
Democratic legislature
Republican Govenor Non-partisan House
Republican legislature * Split legislature
WHAT'S NECESSARY TO GET A PROPOSAL ON THE BALLOT
Arrests
coming
in M.NSA
scandal
Pair charged in connection with
2006 election web attack
By DAVE MEKELBURG
Daily News Editor
Michigan Student Assembly Rep. Anton Vuljaj and
Engineering senior Joel Alan Schweitzer have been
charged with felonies for allegedly crashing a rival
party's website during the March 2006 student gov-
ernment elections, according to documents obtained
by The Michigan Daily.
Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Diane
Brown said arrest warrants have been issued for two
University students in connection with the attacks.
Brown won't name the defendants until the arrests
are carried out. The pair could be arrested as soon as
today, she said.
Vuljaj and Schweitzer are each being charged with
one count of use of a computer to commit a crime, a
See ARRESTS, Page 7A
UNIVERSITY PRESS CONTROVERSY
Press delay s
decision on
U..K. publisher
Contract with Pluto Press under
fire; some cry censorship
By ANDY KROLL
Daily StaffReporter
The University of Michigan Press plans to release a
statement this week outlining its decision on whether
it will renew its contract with controversial British
publisher Pluto Press.
The University Press's executive committee made
a decision regarding the renewal of its contract with
See PRESS, Page 7A
Florida*
ARIZONA
Population:
6,166,318
Signatures needed for
ballot access: 229,594
Deadline: Within 20
months of petition
certitication and by July
4, 2008
MISSOURI
Population:
5,842,713
Signatures needed
for ballot access::
149,026
Deadline:
July 29, 2008
COLORADO
Population:
4,753,377
Signatures
needed for ballot
access: 76,047
Deadline: Within 6
months ot petition
certication and by Aug.
4, 2008
Present
Right now, 23.7 per-
cent ofthe nation's
population lives in
states whose public
universities can't se
affirmative action.
After 2008
If Oklahoma, Colorado,
Nebraska, Missouri
and Arizona all pass
affirmative action hans,
ust over31 percent of
Americans will live in
states without affirma-
tive action.
OKLAHOMA
Population:
3,579,212
Signatures needed
for ballot access:
138,900
Deadline: Within90
days of petition certifica-
tion and by Dec.10, 2007
NEBRASKA
Population:
1,768,331
Signatures need-
ed forballot access:
115,000
Deadline: Within one
year of petition certifica-
/. tion and by July 4, 2008
'The use of affirmative action by public universities in Florida was banned by the state's elected cabinet, not a ballot initiative.
sOURCES: CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
GRAPHIC: BRIDGETO'DONNELL/Daly
CAMPUS KLlNG
Jury deadlocks in EMU student murder trial
LEAF BLAZE
Judge declares
mistrial
(AP) - A judge declared a mis-
trial yesterday after the jury was
hopelessly deadlocked on the third
day of deliberating in the murder
trial of a man accused of raping
and suffocating an Eastern Michi-
gan University student.
Orange Taylor III, 21, of South-
field was charged with an open
count of murder, which gave the
jury a choice of first- or second-
degree murder, in the death of
Laura Dickinson, 22, of Hastings.
The jury began deliberations
Friday and continued Monday, but
it told Washtenaw Chief Circuit
Judge Archie Brown on Tuesday
afternoon that a decision wasn't
possible.
"Do you believe there is any
possibility you could reach a ver-
dict on one or any of the charges,"
Brown asked the jury.
Jurors answered: "No, your
honor."
"Sometimes you just can't reach
agreement," Brown told them. He
then set Jan. 28 as the date for a
new trial.
Family members of Dickinson
at the court had no immediate
comment. A message was left yes-
terday evening at a coffeehouse in
Hastings owned by the family.
As he was being led from the
courtroom, Taylor pumped his fist
in celebration toward his family.
"You have a hung jury so
See TRIAL, Page 7A
Doctors share stories of AIDS-ravaged South Africa
Diagnosis often
means despondency
By KAREY QUARTON
Daily StaffReporter
The vast majority of South Afri-
cans suffered under racial apart-
heid more than 50 years. Now they
suffer from another injustice, but
one some consider just as prevent-
able - the AIDS epidemic.
That was the subject of a talk by
the authors of a new book about
AIDS in South Africa yesterday in
Palmer Commons.
Gerald Oppenheimer and Ron-
ald Bayer spoke and read excerpts
from their book, "Shattered
Dreams? An Oral History of the
South African AIDS Epidemic."
The event was sponsored by the
University's Center for the History
of Medicine.
The book is a collection of oral
accounts from doctors and nurses
working to fight AIDS in South
Africa.
Uncooperative politicians, a
lack of anti-retroviral medication
and the legacy of apartheid com-
plicates the jobs of medical pro-
fessionals in an already perilous
situation, accordingto Bayer.
Bayer recounted one doctor's
struggle to return to work after
the death of a 5-year-old girl from
See AIDS, Page 7A
A professor was drying leaves yesterday when they caught fire and forced the evac-
uation of the Natural Science Building. For full story, see Page 3A.
TODAY'S HI: 56
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