The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, January 28, 2008 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
BAGHDAD
Iraqi official blames
Libyan chief for
Mosul violence
A son of Libyan leader Moam-
mar Gadhafi is behind a group of
foreign and Iraqi fighters respon-
sible for this week's devastating
explosion in northern Iraq, a se-
curity chief for Sunni tribesmen
who rose up against al-Qaida said
Saturday.
At least 38 people were killed
and 225 wounded last Wednesday
when a huge blast destroyed about
SO buildings in a Mosul slum. The
next day, a suicide bomber killed
the provincial police chief and two
other officers as they surveyed the
blast site.
Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, who
also is a police official in Anbar
province, said those attacks were
carried out by the Seifaddin Regi-
ment, made up of about 150 foreign
and Iraqi fighters who slipped into
the country several months ago
from Syria.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
Obama says S.C.
victory is turning
point for Dems
Democrat Barack Obama said
yesterday that his landslide win in
South Carolina's presidential pri-
mary marks a turn in party history,
showing that a black candidate can
appeal to voters of all colors and in
all regions.
The Illinois senator was
responding to comments by for-
mer President Clinton that some
interpreted as an effort to diminish
Obama's win Saturday over Hillary
Rodham Clinton. Bill Clinton noted
that Jesse Jackson won the South
Carolina primary in 1984 and 1988.
Jackson never became the party's
presidential nominee.
Obama, speaking during a tele-
vision interview, said "there's no
doubt" that Jackson set a prec-
edent for blacks seeking the presi-
dency. But he noted that was two
decades ago.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
President of
Mormon church
dies at 97
Gordon B. Hinckley, the longest-
serving president of the Mormon
church who presided over one of
the greatest periods of expan-
sion in its history, died yesterday,
97.
Hinckley, the 15th president
of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, died because of
complications from age and was
surrounded by his family.
Hinckley, a grandson of Mor-
mon pioneers, was president for
nearly 13 years. He took over as
president and prophet on March
12, 1995. He oversaw one of the
greatest periods of expansion in
church history.

WASHINGTON
Treasury Secretary
pushes for action
6 on aid plan
President Bush's chief negotiator
on an economic aid deal said yester-
day the Senate should quickly get
behind a plan or risk drawing the
resentment of a frustrated public.
The president and House leaders
have agreed on a proposal to provide
tax rebate checks to 117 million fam-
ilies and give businesses $50 billion
in incentives to invest in new plants
and equipment. The goal is to help
head off a recession and boost con-
sumer confidence.
"I don't think the Senate is going
to want to derail that deal," Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson said. "And
I don't think the American people
are going to have much patience for
anything that would slow down the
process."
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
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.

Federal research A primary in which gay rights
funding rate drops are not an issue, for once

RESEARCH From page 1A
because of various factors.
"It could change a lot with the
new administration, or if a solu-
tion is reached in the Middle East,"
Katterman said, "But beyond the
next few years, it's difficult to say."
Forrest said the University has
been reaching out to private indus-
try sources to boost its research
funding. He said the University
would have sought private funding
even if federal funding had been
more abundant, though.
Unlike federal funding, which
comes without special interests,
funding from industries often
comes with a particular agenda in
mind, sometimes creating poten-
tial conflicts of interest. Katter-
man said the University addresses
these potential conflicts by hav-
ing an outside party review the
research agreement.
As the University's support
from private investors continues
to grow, funding from several gov-
ernment organizations like the
National Institutes of Health, the
National Science Foundation and
the U.S. Department of Energy has
decreased.
Donald Ralbovsky, a spokes-
man for the NIH, said the Univer-
sity's slowing research funding
could be traced back to Congress
cutting the research budget for
the federal agencies that fund the
University.
"The NIHbudget hasbeen bare-
ly at or below the inflation rate,"
he said, "This is causing a crunch
with regard to NIH funding."

Kirsten Brost, a spokeswoman
for Congressman David Obey (D-
Wis.), who heads the House of
Representatives Committee on
Appropriations, which allocates
federal funding, said the budget
for researchhas decreasedbecause
research funding is not a top prior-
ity for President Bush.
When Democrats gained con-
trol of Congress in 2006, the com-
mittee tried to increase funding,
but Bush vetoed its efforts, Brost
said.
This year, Congress cut the $4
billion it had planned to allocate
for research by about $1.5 billion
dollars. The cut was unexpected
because federal research agen-
cies had all proposed requests for
increases, said Jeff Sherwood, a
spokesman for the U.S. Depart-
ment of Energy.
"Congress cut this agency's bud-
get for science," he said, "That will
affect work both at laboratories
and at universities."
In petition for funding for
the its 2009 fiscal year, set to go
through in about two weeks, the
Department of Energy plans to ask
for more money than in the past,
Sherwood said.
President Bush promised to
double federal research for the
physical sciences in 2006, but
Congress has not allocated any
money for that cause yet.
"We're hoping Congress will
budget more money to the bill at
their next meeting," Katterman
said.

Top three Dems show
little difference in
political stances
By ANDREW JACOBS
The New York Times
NEW YORK - The impromptu
debate, over light beers and dirty
martinis, was at once mundane and
remarkable. Provoked by a reporter,
four middle-aged men at a Green-
wich Village gay bar made fiery
pitches for the Democratic presi-
dential front-runners. Two backed
Sen. Barack Obama, one argued for
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a
third made an emotional plea for the
cause of John Edwards, the former
senator from North Carolina.
"Edwards is the only one who
really cares about the underdog,"
one of the men, Farid Martinez, 41,
a clothing designer from Brooklyn,
shouted above the din at the bar,
the Monster. His friend Edmund
Taylor, 37, disagreed, and nearly
sputtered with rage: "The guy is a
millionaire lawyer obsessed with
his hair. Obama is the only one who
can reallytransform this country."
What was notable about the
exchange last week was what was

not mentioned: the word "gay."
For the first time in two decades,
gay voters find themselves in an
unusual, if happy, predicament.
The three leading Democrats have
stakedoutsimilarpositionsonissues
that resonate with gay men and les-
bians. Although none of the three
candidates back gay marriage, they
all support same-sex civil unions
and say they would fight to repeal
the military's "don't ask, don't tell"
policy. And each of them says he or
she would champion a federal anti-
discrimination law that would pro-
tedt lesbians and gay men.
"You would need a magnifying
glass to see any real or substantive
differences between the three can-
didates," said Alan Van Capelle, the
executive director of the Empire
State Pride Agenda, a gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender civil
rights group in NewYork.
The Republican slate is a differ-
ent story. All of the candidates hold
opposite positions from the Demo-
crats on those matters, and although
gay rights have not dominated the
Republican contest so far, if past
elections are any guide, they will
become an issue after the primaries,
political strategists say.
For the moment, however, gay
voters in New York are looking past

the issues that have long guided
them toward a candidate. They are
talking about-the conflict in Iraq,
universal health care and whether
it is more important to have a presi-
dent with experience or exuber-
ance.
"I think there's also a lot of
excitement over having someone
other than George Bush in the
White House," said Matthew W.
Carlin, president of the Stonewall
Democratic Club, a gay political
group that endorsed Clinton in
October. "And there's a feeling that
people could be happy with any of
the Democrats."
In what many gay leaders
described as a fairly momentous
occasion, Clinton, Obama and
Edwards showed up at a forum in
August sponsored by the gay cable
channel Logo and talked about
the bravery of gay soldiers, adop-
tion rights for same-sex couples
and the problems faced by home-
less gay teenagers. All three candi-
dates employ gay strategists at the
national and state levels, and in the
two weeks leading up to the New
York primary on Feb. 5, represen-
tatives from each campaign said
they planned to concentrate on the
state's gay vote through mailings
and rallies.


WHAT DO
IHODES/MARSHALL/MITCHELL
SCHOIARS
DO AFTER THEIR STUDIES

Come to a Rhodes/Marshall/Mitchell Orientation Session:

To learn more, please contact the Provost's Council on Student Honors at
734-763-8123 or visit the website at
www.provost.umich.edu/scholars/

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