0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Dow announces job
cuts, plant closings
Dow Chemical Co. announced
yesterday it is closing plants and
cutting 1,000 jobs, or about 2.3 per-
cent of its work force, as part of a
plan to rid itself of underperform-
ing businesses and boost its global
efficiency.
The Midland-based company,
one of the nation's biggest chemical
makers, said it will exit the auto-
motive sealers business within the
next nine to 18 months in North
America, Asia and Latin America.
It will look at options in its Euro-
pean operations.
WASHINGTON
Bush: Vigilance
needed if Iran has
nuclear weapons
Defending his credibility, Presi-
dent Bush said yesterday that Iran
is dangerous and must be squeezed
by international pressure despite
a blockbuster intelligence find-
ing that Tehran halted its nuclear
weapons program four years ago.
Bush said the new conclusion -
contradicting earlier U.S. assess-
ments - would not prompt him
to take off the table the possibil-
ity of pre-emptive military action
against Iran.
Nor will the United States
change its policy of trying to iso-
late Iran diplomatically and pun-
ish it with sanctions, he said.
"Look, Iran was dangerous, Iran
is dangerous and Iran will be dan-
gerous if they have the knowledge
necessary to make a nuclear weap-
on," the president told a White
House news conference a day after
the release of a new national intel-
ligence estimate representing the
consensus of all U.S. spy agencies.
DES MOINES, Iowa
Candidates
criticize Clinton
during radio debate
Democratic rivals assailed front-
runner Hillary Rodham Clinton
yesterday for a vote against Iran
that they portrayed as misguided
and dangerous in light of a new
intelligence report that says the
Iranians stopped pursuing a nucle-
ar weapon years ago.
One month before Iowa's leadoff
caucuses - in a debate broadcast
only on radio - the presidential
candidates stood together in wel-
coming the report's assessment
and criticizing President Bush's
assertion that "nothing's changed"
because of it.
They divided on the three-
month-old Senate vote to designate
Iran's Revolutionary Guard a ter-
rorist organization - a resolution
that only Clinton supported among
the Democratic candidates.
WASHINGTON
Bush, Dems battle

over war spending
President Bush and congressional
Democrats are locked in a struggle
over Iraq spending, with neither side
budging and each calculating that its
argument will be the one to resonate
with voters.
For both sides, this rhetorical
tug-of-war has become a question
of leadership on national security
issues and who is more committed to
the troops.
"It's unconscionable to deny
funds to our troops in harm's way
because some in Congress want to
force a self-defeating policy, espe-
cially when we're seeing the benefits
of success," Bush said in a Rose Gar-
den speech on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid wasted no time in responding.
"We could have already given our
troops what they need in Iraq and
funded our critical needs at home
if not for the stubborn refusal of
President Bush and his Republican
enablers to work with us," he told
reporters at a Capitol Hill news con-
ference.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
3,883
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. There were no dead service
members identified yesterday.

Tainted toys still on sale

YEARBOOK PHOTOS

DETROIT (AP) - Tests on
more than 1,200 children's prod-
ucts, most of them still on store
shelves, found that 35 percent
contain lead - many with levels
far above the federal recall stan-
dard used for lead paint.
A Hannah Montana card game
case, a Go Diego Go! backpack and
Circo brand shoesnwere among the
items with excessive lead levels in
the tests performed by a coalition
MICROLOANS
From Page 1A
She picks someone to loan her
money to. The money then goes to
the people who need it.
If things work out for the busi-
nessperson who gets the money,
your mom will getcher loan repaid
in a few months.
Chances are, things will work
out. The repayment rate for
microloans is 98 percent, accord-
ing to many of the nonprofits who
give them out.
Indian economist Muhammad
Yunus won the Nobel Peace price
last year for developing the con-
cept of microfinance at a Bangla-
deshi bank in 1976.
Advocates of microfinance say
it builds social capital, develops
community cooperation and pro-
vides women with equal entre-
preneurial opportunity.
"It's been a very hot thing in
economic development litera-
ture," said David Lam, a
Loan recipients often work in
groups and use existing resources
to start their ownobusinesses. Ide-
ally, the loans help them make
money themselves and pull them-
selves out of poverty.
Take Bayishov, the animal
breeder from Azerbaijan. Accord-
ing to his description on Kiva.org,
he isn't making enough money
CHANUKAH
From Page 1A
Because the Jewish calendar
is lunar, the dates of holidays
vary each year. This year Cha-
nukah falls earlier than it has for
several years. Usually Chanukah
falls closer to finals and Winter
Break.
"This means that campus
groups can put more focus on
the holiday this year," said Joel
Marcovitch, assistant director of
Hillel. "It's the first time we've
been able to pump Chanukah up
in a number of years."
On Thursday night on Ingalls
Mall, Hillel will attempt to break
the world for the largest num-
ber of dreidels spun at the same
time. The current record is 716
concurrently spinning dreidels,
according to the Guinness Book
of World Records.
A Southfield, Mich. franchise

of environmental health groups
across the country.
Only 20 percent of the toys
and other products had no
trace of lead or harmful chemi-
cals, according to the results
being released Wednesday by
the Michigan-based Ecology
Center along with the national
Center for Health, Environment
and Justice and groups in eight
other states.
from selling dairy, meat and
calves to feed his family. That's
why he wants to expand into
sheep breeding as well.
Sociology lecturer Ian Rob-
inson, a research scientist in the
Institute of Labor and Relations,
said that part of the reason for
the consistent repayment is the
strong social impact.
"The veryprocess creates these
new structures, these groups of
women who already knew each
other and trust each other to
some degree beforehand," he
said. "It's not like making social
capital out of nothing, it's insti-
tutionalizing and strengthening
social capital."
Robinson warned, though,
against putting too much faith
in microfinance as a cure for the
problems of some of the world's
poorest people.
"It makes a bad situation mar-
ginally more tolerable for the
people that are in it," he said. "In
the larger scheme of things, it's
not a remedy for poverty."
Colombo said that the group's
goal is to inform students about
microfinance in general and
mobilize people who want to be
involved in helping the poor.
"Our organization will never
take your money, that's what
microfinance is - you're not giv-
ing it," she said. "You're taking an
active role in someone else's life."
of Dunkin' Donuts has donated
1,000Kosher donutstotheevent.
Each participant will receive a
donut, a menorah, a dreidel and
Gelt which is a chocolate with a
gold wrapper made to look like a
coin. Anyone is invited to attend
the event.
Marcovitch said he hopes it
will raise awareness about Cha-
nukah around campus.
"It's such a showy Jewish
holiday," he said. "We wanted to
bring campus together."
So far, Zwiebel said response
to Chanukah Wonderland has
been positive. She said that
young children, students and
even older people have visited
the store.
"People are just so happy to
have it," Zwiebel said. "We've
had great reviews."
On Sunday, the store will host
Chanukah and the Chocolate
Factory, with chocolate fountains
and dreidels made of chocolate.

ROB MIGRIN/Daily
LSA senior Laura Swanson has her yearbook picture taken yesterday in the Michigan Union by Mike Juntti of Carl Wolf Studio.
The company is scheduled to continue taking photographs for the Michiganensian through Friday.

MSA PRESIDENCY
From Page 1A
"I wouldn't trade my MSA expe-
rience for anything," Yost said.
According to the MSA Compiled
Code, the vice president - in this
case, Dar - takes over as president
of the assembly when the president
resigns. At the end of his speech,
Yost expressed his confidence in
Dar, who would soon take his place.
"I've never met anyone who
serves the campus with more dili-
gence and with greater integrity
than you, Mohammad," Yost said.
Stepping down from the podi-
um, Yost embraced Dar. During
the hug, Yost had a few words of
encouragement for Dar.
"You go get 'em, you under-
stand?" he said into Dar's ear.
Immediately after delivering
his resignation speech, Yost left.
A recess was called to allow some
representatives to exchange a few
last words with Yost inthe hallway.
Dar was sworn in to the presidency
as Yost walked out of the door.
"I want to be your worker, your
guide, your well-wisher and more,"
Dar said.
Dar has been one of the most
active assembly members during
his tenure. He coordinated a rally
in Lansing with most of the state's
public universities to protest a
drop in higher education fund-
ing. He's also one of the primary
assembly members working with
landlords and the Ann Arbor City
Council on the lease-signing ordi-
nance.r
Later in the meeting, several MSA

representatives expressed frustra-
tion that the situation had escalated
to the pointwhere Yost resigned.
"I'm really disappointed, well,
surprised that it had to come to this,"
said Nate Fink, MSA chief of staff.
Not every member was as posi-
tive about Yost. MSA Rep. Liana
Mulholland said she was disap-
pointed in the assembly for the way
it spoke about Yost.
"What I don't understand is why
there was all this tearful sorrow -
kind of like a love-Zack fest. No one
talked about Tim at all," she said
after the meeting. "Everyone was
acting like Zack was the victim, and
that what happened was sort of like
a natural disaster and not some-
thinghe did himself."
Several MSA members have said
that Yost was a tremendous moti-
vator for the assembly and acted
as a connector, bringing together
administrators, student groups and
MSA representatives.
Yost helped create an MSA
internship program to familiar-
ize freshmen with the assembly,
plan the rally in Lansing and work
with faculty and bookstore owners
to reduce textbook prices. He is a
member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and
the senior honor society order of
Angell.
Several assembly members said
during the meeting that they hope
MSA could get over the scandal
and move forward. In an interview
after the meeting, Hull echoed this
sentiment and expressed relief that
the situation was finally coming to
a close.
"I would say that I'm glad we
will be able to move on," he said.

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