The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, January 25, 2008 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 25, 2008 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
PEARL, Miss.
U.S. border patrol
cracks down
on the interior
Federal agents, with help from
local law officers, have begun inter-
cepting illegal immigrants and
smugglers along stretches of high-
waydeep in the U.S. interior, where
those who have slipped into the
country usually have little chance
of getting caught.
"They think they're pretty much
home free once they get up here,"
said Bill Botts, the assistant chief
patrol agent in charge of the Bor-
der Patrol's Gulfport, Miss., sta-
tion. But Operation Uniforce, as the
two-week crackdown begun Jan. 13
is called, "is pretty much a shocker
for the smuggling organizations."
More than 300 immigrants and
suspected smugglers had been
arrested as of Tuesday, more than
a week into the operation.
WASHINGTON
Rebates approved
for most taxpayers
Congressional leaders an-
nounced a deal with the White
House yesterday on an economic
stimulus package that would give
most tax filers refunds of $600 to
$1,200, and more if they have chil-
dren.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said
Congress would act on the agree-
ment - hammered out in a week of
intense negotiations with Repub-
lican Leader John A. Boehner and
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
- "at the earliest date, so that those
rebate checks will be in the mail."
The rebates would go to 117 mil-
lion families, according to a Demo-
cratic summary. That includes
$28 billion in checks to 35 million
working families who wouldn't
have been helped by Bush's original
proposal, the analysis estimated.
WASHINGTON
Bush gives House
access to secret
documents
Ending months of resistance, the
White House has agreed to give
House members access to secret
documents about its warrantless
wiretapping program, a congres-
sional official said yesterday.
The Bush administration is try-
ing to convince the House to pro-
tect from civil lawsuits the tele-
communications companies that
helped the government eavesdrop
on Americans without the approval
of a court.
The documents include the
president's authorization of war-
rantless wiretapping, White House
legal opinions going back to 2001,
and the requests sent to the tele-
communications companies asking
for their assistance, said an official,
who declined to be named because
of the sensitivity of the classified
program.
JACKSONVILLE, N.C.
Convicted Marine
might not face
death penalty
A grand jury indicted a Marine
on a first-degree murder charge
yesterday in the death of a pregnant
colleague, but a prosecutor said he
wouldn't seek the death penalty if
the man is arrested in Mexico.
Authorities believe Cpl. Cesar
Laurean has fled to his native Mex-
ico, which refuses to send anyone
back to the United States unless
provided assurances they won't
face the death penalty.
The remains of Lance Cpl. Maria
Lauterbach, 20, were found with
those of her fetus earlier this month
in a fire pit in Laurean's back yard.
Lauterbach, who had once accused
Laurean of rape, had been missing
since mid-December.
- Compiled from
Daily mire reports
U ,S. DEATHS
3,931
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.
Senate panel asks colleges for
endowment funds information
Messages reveal
Kilpatrick's affair
Committee pushes
schools to use
wealth for
financial aid
By KAREN W. ARENSON
The New York Times
The Senate Finance Commit-
tee, increasingly concerned about
the rising cost of higher education,
demanded detailed information
on yesterday from the nation's 136
wealthiest colleges and universi-
ties on howthey raised tuition over
the past decade, gave out financial
aid and managed and spent their
endowments.
It also asked about endowment-
relatedbonuses paid to college pres-
idents and endowment managers.
The move came as a record 76
colleges and universities achieved
endowments of $1 billion or more
in the last fiscal year, according
to a report released this week.
Harvard's endowment, the largest,
grew 20 percent to $34.6 billion,
while Yale's, the second largest,
grew 25 percent, to $22.5 billion.
"Tuition has gone up, college
presidents' salaries have gone
up, and endowments continue to
go up and up," said Sen. Charles
E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking
Republicanon the committee. "We
need to start seeing tuition relief
for families go up just as fast."
The committee, which has a
central role in setting tax policy,
has been pressuring universities
to use more of their wealth for
financial aid and is threatening to
require them to spend a minimum
of 5 percent of their endowments
each year, as foundations must.
The committee pointed out that
donations to universities and their
endowment earnings are both tax-
exempt.
Seekingtoheadoffcongressional
action, wealthy universities have
been rushing in recent months to
expand financial aid, in some cases
using more of their endowments to
increase assistance to low income
and upper income students alike.
Harvard recently said it would
increase aid for families earning
up to $180,000 a year and Yale said
it would help families with annual
incomes of as much as $200,000.
The request for information
came ina letter, signed by Grassley
and the committee chairman, Sen.
MaxBaucus, D-Mont. It provided a
strong indication that the commit-
tee was not backing off the idea of
requiring colleges by law to spend
more of their endowments.
Grassley said the information
gathered in the next 30 days, "will
help Congress make informed
decisions about a potential pay-out
requirement and allow universities
to show what they can accomplish
on their own initiative."
University officials expressed
surprise at the broad information
request and concern about Con-
gress mandating how they use a
portion of their endowment.
"I believe that Sens. Baucus'
and Grassley's intentions may be
admirable," said Robert J Birge-
neau, chancellor of the University
of California, Berkeley, "but under-
standing university finances is an
extremely complex matter, espe-
cially in public colleges and uni-
versities." Berkeley's endowment
is roughly $3 billion.
And Henry Bienen, president of
Northwestern University, in Evan-
ston, Illinois, said that while he
believed that putting more infor-
mation into the open "will help
eliminate many myths and misun-
derstandings," he rejected the pro-
posal that universities be required
to spend at least 5 percent of their
endowment assets each year.
"Universities are not like foun-
dations," he said. "They have
operating budgets which they can-
not easily adjust with the ups and
downs of markets. They cannot
easily turn off spigots."
Detroit mayor
denied affair with
aide last summer
DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick bristled in the witness
chair last year when asked whether
he had an affair with a top aide. No,
the mayor confidently told jurors,
the two were never romantically
involved.
But a trove of 14,000 text mes-
sages that emerged this wees cell
a different story: The mayor and
his chief of staff carried on a flirty,
sometimes sexually explicit dia-
logue about where to meet and how
to conceal their numerous trysts.
Now the mayor's indiscretion has
landed him in a Clinton-style scan-
dal that could cost him his job and
his law license and even bring per-
jury charges.
"I think the mayor needs to take
responsibility for the situation,"
City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel
said yesterday.
The Detroit Free Press did not
explain exactly how it obtained
the messages, which were sent or
received in 2002-03 from Chief of
Staff Christine Beatty's city-issued
pager. The newspaper said it cross-
referenced the messages with the
mayor's private calendar and credit
cardrecords toverify eventsinsome
of the notes.
The mayor's denial came last
summer during testimony in a law-
suit filed by two police officers who
alleged they were fired for inves-
tigating claims from two former
bodyguards that the mayor used his
security unit to cover up extramari-
tal affairs.
- Mike Stefani, a lawyer for the
officers, asked Beatty if she and Kil-
patrick were "either romantically
or intimately involved" during the
period coveredbythe case.
"No," she replied, rolling her eyes.
While still on the witness stand,
the mayor later went on the offen-
sive about the allegations, defending
his reputation and that of Beatty.
"I think it was pretty demoraliz-
ing to her - you have to know her
- but it's demoralizing to me as
well," he testified. "My mother is a
congresswoman. There have always
been strong women around me. My
aunt is a state legislator. I think it's
absurd to assert that every woman
that works with a man is a whore."
Late Wednesday, Kilpatrick
issued a statement about the mes-
sages that was more subdued.
"These five- and six-year-old
text messages reflect a very difficult
period in my personal life," he said.
Florida, Spain in treasure dispute
Acne Problem? I
Flo
Spar
St
TAM
ground
ers kee
being pi
national
be the
ever fou
brought
shipwre
A F
compan
ration,
bottom.
rida company, that the age-old law of the high
seas entitles the finders to most or
iish government all of the booty, said to be worth
around $500 million.
take claim to But the government of Spain
suspects the ship was Spanish
shipwreck and says it has never expressly
abandoned any of its vessels lost
PA, Fla. (AP) - The play- at sea. The kingdom has made
legal principle "Find- it clear that if the treasure does
pers, losers weepers" is have some connection to Spain, it
ut to the test in an inter- wants every last coin returned.
1 dispute over what could The case is being closely
richest sunken treasure watched because there could be
nd: 17 tons of silver coins more disputes like it, now that
up from a centuries-old sonar, remote-control submers-
ck. ible robots and deep-sea video
lorida treasure-hunting are enabling treasure hunters like
y, Odyssey Marine Explo- Odyssey to find ships that went
found the wreck at the to the bottom centuries ago and
of the Atlantic and argues were written off as unrecover-
able because no one could even
imagine finding anything so far
beneath the waves.
"The question is, just because
you're the first one out there to
get it, should you get to keep it -
especially if it belongs to someone
else?" said James Delgado, direc-
tor of the Institute of Nautical
Archaeology at Texas A&M Uni-
versity and a critic of commercial
treasure hunters.
For now, the spoils - some
500,000 coins, enough to fill 552
plastic buckets - are in Odyssey's
possession,tuckedawayinaware-
house somewhere in Tampa.
Odyssey created a worldwide
sensation with the announcement
of the find in May but has so far
declined to identify the wreck.
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, The U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance
University Dance Company presents
STRAVINSKY
R EVIS ITE D
Five original modern dance works set to music by Igor
Stravinsky (including "bony Concerto, and 'Norwegian
Moods"), Darrin Ross and Stephen Rush, with choreography
by guest artists Rennie Harris, Daniel Gwirtzman, and Ginger
Thatcher with faculty Amy Chavasse and Jessica Fogel.
January 31 at 7:30 PM . February 1 & 2 at 8 PM
February 3 at 2 PM." Power Center
Tickets $24 and $18.+ Students $9 with ID
League Ticket Office . 734-764-2538