The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS Solai
WASHINGTON
Blackwater guards win (
promised immunity After
The State Department prom- momer
ised Blackwater USA bodyguards
immunity from prosecution in its race, th
investigation of last month's deadly
shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The team fini
Associated Press has learned.
The immunity deal has delayed By RYAN
a criminal inquiry into the Sept. 16 Daily S
killings and could undermine any
effort to prosecute security con- The Panas
tractors for their role in the inci- Challenge in
dent that has infuriated the Iraqi tersweet endi
government. Michigan sola
"Once you give immunity, you Continuum, f
can't take it away," said a senior law place out of 41
enforcement official familiar with Before the r
the investigation. back began on
State Department officials the University
declined to confirm or deny that in the race wer
immunity had been granted. One But just fiv
official - who refused to be quoted miles into the
by name - said: "If, in fact, such collision betw
a decision was made, it was done the team's esco
without any input or authorization ly ended any
from any senior State Department winning the co
official in Washington." Having just
the Stanford s
OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. denly stopped
Michigan veh
Fire that killed 7 transports cr
stand by to
started on deck stop.
Without en
For the group of college buddies Continuum re
spending a late-season weekend Michigan vehi
at a friend's beach house, the deck ing in Continu
overlooking a canal was the center canopy and s
of their good times. of the front
It was where they talked, lis- the front solar
tened to music and danced late replacements.
into the night. But investigators While the t
fear the deck just two blocks from tinuum's dama
the beach may also have been the road, a local
starting point of a fast-moving fire stopped to as
that killed seven people, including needed any hel
a group of high school friends who "We starte
went off to college together. asked what kin
"It sounded like they were hav- said Bob Culve
ing a good time. Unfortunately, the advisor. "I said
fire didn't show any mercy," said posite,' and he
Terry Walden, whose 19-year-old guy in town t
daughter, Allison, died in the blaze. that. "'
"They probably never woke up." Culver said I
The storm of fire and smoke - so the stranger up
daunting, that firefighters radioed Culver said th
for backup before they even arrived friend who wa
at the scene - enveloped the home
early Sunday, killing six students
from the University of South Caro-
lina and one from Clemson Uni- RAND
versity. Six other South Carolina
students in the house survived. I
NEW YORK
Witness: FBI
used mob to
solve 1964 case
The FBI used mob muscle to
solve the 1964 disappearance of
three civil rights volunteers in Mis-
sissippi, a gangster's ex-girlfriend Call to
testified yesterday, becoming the
first witness to repeat in open court
a story that has been underworld
lore for years.
Linda Schiro said that her boy-
friend, Mafia tough guy Gregory
Scarpa Sr., was recruited by the FBI
to help find the volunteers' bodies.
She said Scarpa later told her he
put a gun in a Ku Klux Klansman's
mouth and forced him to reveal the
whereabouts of the victims.
The FBI has never acknowl-
edged that Scarpa, nicknamed
"The Grim Reaper," was involved
in the case. The bureau did not
immediately return a call for com-
ment yesterday.
WASHINGTON
Hillary YouTube
video attracts about
2 million hits
First came the Orwellian mash
up YouTube video that portrayed To play: C(
Hillary Rodham Clinton as Big and e
Brother. Then came a clip of her off-
key rendition of "The Star-Spangled
Banner." Now a stinging 13-minute
video by a bitter Clinton foe is find- just u5
ing its own Internet audience.
The clip, a preview of a longer
film by one-time Clinton donor
Peter Paul, has scored more than
1.4 million hits on Google Video and
about 350,000 on YouTube during
the past week.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports 3
7
CA J CSATES
3,840 2
9
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. There were no new casual-
ties identified yesterday.
r car's hopes of a
dashed in Outback
HAIR STYLING
r a crash
its into the
te solar car
shes seventh
N A. PODGES
taffReporter
onic World Solar
Australia had a bit-
ng Sunday for the
r car team. Its car,
inished in seventh
cars.
ace across the Out-
Oct. 21, hopes for
's first-ever victory
e high.
e minutes and 2.5
1,800-mile race, a
een Continuum and
ort vehicle essential-
chance of Michigan
ampetition.
passed Continuum,
olar car team sud-
, causing the lead
icle - a car that
ew members who
make repairs - to
ough time to halt,
ar-ended the lead
icle, causing crack-
uum's concentrator
eparation of some
bulkheads, leaving
modules in need of
eam assessed Con-
ge on the side of the
man riding his bike
k the team if they
p.
d talking and he
id of parts we had,"
r, the team's faculty
, Carbon fiber com-
said, 'Oh, I know a
hat's pretty good at
they decided to take
on his offer for help.
e man even called a
s out sailing to come
help repair the solar car.
Culver said the man "really
helped us get the car back on the
road in a couple hours so that we
could get some sleep, where we
all thought we would be up all
night."
"So after our accident we meet
a guy on a bike on the side of the
road who knows a guy that's a
carbon fiber expert in Darwin. I
mean, who knows how this stuff
happens?" Culver said.
Race officials allowed the Mich-
igan team to take the solar car
back to the small racetrack outside
of Darwin where the qualifying
races were held to rWake the neces-
sary repairs.
The man who had been sailing
came to the track to help the team
make repairs.
Through the team's blog, the
Michigan team kept its fans
updated about the accident and
Continuum's progress through
the remaining stages of their race
within hours. While the seventh-
place finish was lower than expect-
ed, teammanager Tom Carroll said
he was happy with Continuum's
performance.
"We must admit, from the
beginning our goal was to place
with a different finish than we
ultimately placed," Carroll said.
"But at the end of the day we are
very happy with how Continuum
performed."
Culver was proud of the way
his team regrouped and worked
together.
"I was amazed at how quickly
the team got back out on the road,"
he said.
Culver said the accident had
a definitive effect on the team's
chances of winning.
"I don't blame the accident on
anyone," he said. "It was an acci-
dent, and it happens, but it certain-
ly set us back tremendously."
The team will use Continuum
in its next race, the North Ameri-
can Solar Challenge. The 2,400-
mile race from Dallas, Texas to
Calgary, Alberta will begin in July
2008.
Nancy Herlocher gives Corrine Tailford a hair cut at Nogginz on South University Avenue yesterday afternoon.
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