The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, February 22, 2008 - 3A' The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, February 22, 2008 - 3A NEWSBRIEFS BELGRADE, Serbia Rioters set fire to office inside U.S. Embassy Angry Serbs broke into the U.S. Embassy and set fire to an office last night as rioters rampaged through Belgrade's streets, putting an exclamation point of violence to a day of mass protest against West- ern support for an independent Kosovo. At least 150,000 people rallied in Belgrade, waving Serbian flags and signs proclaiming "Stop USA terror," to denounce the bid by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian major- ity to create their own state out of what Serbs consider the ancient heartland of their culture. A charred body was found in the U.S. Embassy after the fire was put out, but all staff were accounted for, embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris said. Belgrade's Pink TV said the body appeared to be that of a rioter. TOLEDO, Ohio McCain denies relationship with lobbyist John McCain emphatically de- nied a romantic relationship with a female telecommunications lobbyist yesterday and said a report by The New York Times suggesting favorit- ism for her clients is "not true." "I'm very disappointed in the article. It's not true," McCain said during a news conference called to address the matter. McCain de- scribed the womaninquestion, lob- byistVicki Iseman, as a friend. The newspaper quoted anony- mous aides as saying they had urged McCain and Iseman to stay away from each other prior to his failed presidential campaign in 2000. In its own follow-up story, The Washington Post quoted longtime aide John Weaver, who split with McCain last year, as saying he met with lobbyist Iseman and urged her to steer clear of McCain. RALEIGH, N.C. Duke lacrosse players sue over emotional distress over three dozen current and for- mer Duke lacrosse players claim in a lawsuit they suffered emotional dis- tress during the furor over the now- discredited rape case against three of their teammates. Attorneys planned to file a federal lawsuit yesterday in North Carolina that accuses Duke University, the City of Durham and several school and police officials of fraud, abuse, and breach of duty for supporting the prosecution of the case. Lead attorney Chuck Cooper said the private university turned its back on the players to protect the school's image. "This lawsuit is born out of Duke and Durham's sustained wrongdoing and callous conduct against the play- ers," Cooper said while announcing the lawsuit at a news conference in Washington, D.C. CARACAS, Venezuela South American airliner missing A commercial airliner with 46 eople on board was reported miss- ing yesterday in western Venezuela, officials said. The twin-engine plane failed to contacttrafficcontrollers as expect- ed after it took off from Merida en route to Caracas' airport, said Noel Marquez, director of Venezuela's emergency management agency in Merida. "It did not make contact with the control towers," Marquez said. He said authorities were searching for the plane and confirmed that it belonged to Santa Barbara, a small Venezuelan airline that covers domestic routes. - Compiled from Daily wire reports U.S. LE .ATHS 3,969 Number of American service mem- bers who have died in the war in Iraq, according to The Associated Press. No new deaths were identi- fied yesterday. Detroit Project changes name to Clinton and Obama reflect partnerships with city debate in Texas Group wants view ourselves as in a relationship with Detroit organizations and to demonstrate often work with them to lend a , hand in ways possible to help. We partnership, not hope, that in the end, both parties acquire valuable experiences." charity The student group voted on the change Wednesday by a two- By PHILIP GUICHELAAR thirds majority vote of its roughly Daily StaffReporter 50 core members. The group works with 21 The Detroit Project, a campus schools, community centers, community service organiza- churches and nonprofit organiza- tion, has changed its name to The tions in Detroit on various proj- Detroit Partnership in an effort ects like tutoring or cleaning up to demonstrate a more reciprocal parks. relationship between its volun- Although name changes have teers and the Detroit organiza- been discussed in the past, two tions it benefits. planning committee members The name change shows an formally submitted the proposal attempt to address criticisms of earlier this month, said LSA senior similar urban renewal projects Tom Szczesny, the group's execu- that are often seen as patronizing tive director. toward the residents of the cities The change will be officially involved. announced at DP Day, the group's "We do not do charity," said most visible event, on March 29. LSA senior Michael O'Brien, the DP Day is a one-day volunteer group's spokesman. "Instead, we event in which University stu- feld," another did brainteasers STUDY like crossword puzzles and the From Page 1A last group discussed a hot-button issue in pairs. regardless of age, brain function Afterwards, when asked to improved with a higher amount of complete menial tasks like count- socializing, Ybarra said. ing backwards, those who had The second study, which ana- done brainteasers or had a discus- lyzed mostly University students, sion demonstrated slightly sharp- proved that these effects could er brain function than those who occur in the short term. had watched a TV episode. The survey participants were Burnstein said the study's goal randomly divided into three was to prove that there is a rela- groups and assigned different tionship between the richness of tasks. One group was assigned a person's social life and cognitive to watch an episode of "Sein- performance at tasks like studying dents travel to some of Detroit's most dilapidated areas and work in teams at about 50 different sites to help to clean up the city by doing things like tearing down abandoned houses or painting murals. On average, about 1,000 stu- dents participate in the event each year. Throughout the year, about 150 members also volunteer at Detroit schools and community centers on a weekly basis, Szczesny said. Szczesny, the group's executive director, said the name change will more accurately reflect the group's mission. "It emphasizes the relation- ships that we have developed in the city and the amount of collab- oration we have with our commu- nity partners," he said. "We think that 'partnership' better conveys that message." - Sutha K. Kanagasingam contributed to this report. for an exam. He said more research is need- ed to find out what level of social- izing is optimaL Ybarra said it would be a mis- take to adopt an "all work and no play" philosophy - or the other way around - because a person would miss out on a necessary dimension of brain function. LSA junior Stephen Hickner was happy to hear that finding. "What people don't realize is that it is probably a good thing to get out on the weekends," said Hickner, grinning. Senators argue over differing health care coverage plans AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton accused presiden- tial rival Barack Obama of politi- cal plagiarism last night, but drew boos from a Democratic debate audience when she ridiculed him as the candidate of "change you can Xerox." Obama dismissed the charge out of hand, then turned the jeers to applause when he countered, "What we shouldn't be doing is tearing each other down, we should be lifting the country up." The exchange marked an unusually pointed moment in an otherwise civil encounter in the days before March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio - contests that even some of Clinton's support- ers say she must win to sustain her campaign for the White House. The former first lady has lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses, and trails her rival in convention delegates. Obama has won a pair of big union endorsements in the past two days. In a university auditorium in the heart of Texas, the two rivals agreed that high-tech surveil- lance measures are preferable to construction of a fence to curtail illegal immigration. They disagreed on the proper response to a change in govern- ment in Cuba in the wake of Fidel Castro's resignation. Clinton said she would refuse to sit down with incoming President Raul Castro until he implements political and economic reforms. Obama said he would meet "without precondir tions," but added the U.S. agenda for such a session would include human rights in the Communist island nation. They also sparred frequently about health care, a core issue of the campaign. Clinton said repeatedly that, Obama's plan would leave 15 mil. lion Americans uncovered. But he, in turn, accused the fort mer first lady of mishandling the issue by working in secrecy when her husband was in the White House. "I'm going to do things differ ently," he said. "We can have great plans, but if we don't change hoir the politics is working in Wash: ington, then neither of our plans are going to happen." Clintonwas combative and com- plimentary by turns, and reflected on her well-known personal strug-. gles in the debate's final moments. "Everyone here knows I've lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life," she said - a thinly veiled but clear reference to her husband's' affair with Monica Lewinsky and subsequent impeachment. But she added that nothing she had been, through matched the everyday struggles of voters. Then, offering unprompted praise to her rival, the one-time front-runner said, "No matter, what happens in this contest, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama." GEO From Page 1A turers' Employee Organization since 1998, didn't participate in negotiations yesterday but spoke on behalf of the University's bar- gaining team. While GEO officials said their salary proposals were based on cost of living figures found on the University's Office of Financial Aid website, the University's wage proposals were determined by "an internal consultation process with the leadership of the University," Frumkin said. In December, GEO representa- tives submitted their first salary proposal - 9-percent increases for all three years of their contract - but the University countered those with 2-percent increases over three years. "We still remain very far apart on the issue of salaries," said Col- leen Woods, the lead negotiator for GEO and GSI in the history department. "Although they've made some concessions in the sal- aries article, from what we heard from our members last night, they're not enough." Frumkin said he thought the University's latest salary proposal was a step in the right direction for both parties. "The proposal we made today willhelp bringus closer together, and I think it brought us closer to the union's (salary proposal)," Frumkin said. GEO negotiators lowered the proposed salary increases in the final two years of the contract from 9 percent to cost of living increases in hopes of reaching an agreement with the Univer- sity. The concessions were also an effort to ensure that graduate student salaries keep pace with increases in inflation. Byaskingforanundetermined number, the union hoped to set- tle on a figure that was dictated by the economic situation of the next few years. "We would prefer to see lan- guage that didn't peg us to a number as much as it acknowl- edged keeping pace with the rate of inflation or a cost of living adjustment," Woods said. "We would like to ensure that our sala- ry keeps pace with inflation rather than pick a number." A 2.3-percent cost of living increase was determined for 2007, and officials will announce next year's increase in October 2008. At the next round of bargaining on March 3, Woods said GEO rep- resentatives plan to resubmit their previous proposal of a 9-percent salary increase the for first year followed by cost of living adjust- ments for the second and third years. In addition to their stalemate on salary increases, the Univer- sity's negotiating team and GEO also remain far apart on the health care proposals the union wants for its members. The union originally proposed expansionsofhealthcarecoverage that gave its members improved dental, vision, physical therapy and mental health care, while also making health care coverage available for low-fraction employ- ees - GSIs who work fewer than 20 hours a week. The University rejected all of GEO's health care proposals in January. The union responded to the University's rejection by resubmitting its original health care proposals in the Feb. 14 bargaining session, only to have the University again reject GEO's health care proposals yesterday. The University's bargaining team says current health care coverage is satisfactory, and it's unlikely they'll make any major changes to the existing cover- age. "The University's response as far as the health care was essen- tially to continue the same pro- posals we have had with one exception," Frumkin said. The one exception was that both sides agreed to freeze co- pays on doctor's visits at the cur- rent amount that employees are responsible for. Woods said GEO's negotiating team would continue demanding changes to health care because it believes the University has the means to cover many of the things the organization is ask- ing for. "For the University to expand health care benefits to people working at a low-fraction does not cost the University very much in terms of their overall budget," Woods said. "It's very inexpensive for them to do that. We are disap- pointed that they haven't taken that proposal as seriously as we would like them to." REMINDER!!! Applications to run in the MSA Winter Tenn Elections are due tomorrow (March 4, 2008) at 5pm in the MSA Office (3909 Michigan Union). 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