The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, January 3, 2008 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Musharraf
calls for Bhutto
investigation
President Pervez Musharraf
announced yesterday that Scotland
Yard will help investigate the assas-
sination of Benazir Bhutto, revers-
ing his initial rejection of foreign
help after he came under pressure
to allow a U.N. probe.
Authorities also pushed back
parliamentary elections until Feb.
18 - a six-week delay prompted by
the rioting that followed the oppo-
sition leader's death. Opposition
parties condemned the delay but
still plan to take part in the elec-
tions, seen as a key step in bringing
democracy to Pakistan after years
of military rule.
Both developments could ease
the turmoil that has gripped Paki-
stan since Bhutto's slaying in a gun
and suicide bomb attack last week,
which plunged the nation deeper
into political crisis as it struggles
to contain an explosion of Islamic
militant violence.
WASHINGTON
U.S. lags on
admitting Iraqi
refugees
U.S. admissions of Iraqi refugees
are nose-diving amid bureaucratic
in-fightingdespite the Bush admin-
istration's pledge to boost them to
roughly 1,000 per month, accord-
ing to State Department statistics
obtained by The Associated Press.
For the third straight month
since the United States said it would
improve processing and resettle
12,000 Iraqis by the end of the
current budget year, the number
admitted has actually slid, the fig-
ures show.
The steady decline - from 450 in
Octoberto 362inNovember and245
in December - means the adminis-
tration will have to allow in 10,943
Iraqis over the next nine months,
or roughly 1,215 per month, to meet
the target it has set for itself.
WASHINGTON
Justice Dept.
launches CIA tapes
investigation
The Justice Department opened
a full criminal investigation yes-
terday into the destruction of CIA
interrogation videotapes, putting
the politically charged probe in the
hands of a mob-busting public cor-
ruption prosecutor with a reputa-
tion for beingindependent.
Attorney General Michael
Mukasey announced that he was
appointing John Durham, a federal
prosecutor in Connecticut, to over-
see the investigation of a case that
has challenged the Bush adminis-
tration's controversial handling of
terrorism suspects.
"The Department's National
Security Division has recommend-
ed, and IShave concluded, that there
is a basis for initiating a criminal
investigation of this matter, and
I have taken steps to begin that
investigation," Mukasey said in a
statement released yesterday.
LAUREL, Md.
Iowa students feel lodging shortage
To encourage student night," said Schierenbeck, who is
the president of the College Demo-
turnout at caucus, crats of Iowa.
In closely contended caucuses,
group offers free the student vote could give some
candidates an advantage.
rooms, gas money Democratic contender Sen.
Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the can-
By ANDY KROLL didate wllo has emphasized the
DailyStaffReporter student vote most, has been criti-
cized for encouraging out-of-state
DES MOINES - After a long students to return to the state to
night of caucusing today, Grin- participate in the caucus.
nell College junior Alec Schie- At a private college like Grin-
renbeck plans to join nearly 100 nell, where about 85 percent of
fellow student caucus-goers who students come from outside Iowa,
will be spending the night on any form of university housing
Grinnell's campus an hour east of available to students - even if it's
the capital. a hard gym floor - is necessary
Unfortunately for Schie- to encourage students to partici-
renbeck and his peers, their pate in the caucus, Schierenbeck
housing arrangements will be said.
sleeping bags, foam pads and The University of Iowa, located
the cold, wooden gym floor of about 60 miles west of the Illinois
an old Grinnell physical educa- border, in Iowa City, is only keep-
tion building. ing two of its 10 dormitories open
Many Iowa college students during its winter break, which
participating in the caucus today lasts until Jan. 22.
face not only the tough decision of Phillip Jones, dean of students
choosing a candidate to support, at the University of Iowa, said the
but also must find somewhere to university had no plans to open
stay tonight, as many colleges have additional dorms for the caucus.
closed their dormitories for winter The two open dorms are meant
break. to accommodate international
"The gym isn't ideal, but I think students who remain on campus
it shows just how excited students during the break, Jones said.
are to come back and caucus, that Jones cited the small amount
they're willing to drive across the of students who live in the dorms
country and sleep in a gym for the during the school year -about
Drivers on cells phones
slow down commute
2,500 - compared to the nearly
25,000 students who live off cam-
pus as one of the main reasons why
the university didn't need to open
more dorms for the caucus.
Jones said only two or three
students had formally requested
university housing for the night of
the caucus before the fall semester
ended Dec. 21.
"It can be hard to judge if
there's any demand when only
one-fifth of students live on
campus," Jones said. "But as
far as I can tell, there has been
very little demand coming from
students looking to get into the
rooms that are already available
over winter break."
Rooms in the Iowa House Hotel
on campus are also available to stu-
dents at a discounted rate, Jones
said.
About 100 miles west at
Iowa State University in Ames,
the Department of Residence
announced in December that only
one dorm would remain open dur-
ing winter break -and only to stu-
dents with existing ISU housing
contracts.
Several other Iowa colleges,
including the University of North-
ern Iowa in Cedar Falls, also
announced in December they
would make university-owned
housing options available to stu-
dents for the night of the caucus.
Despite the lack of housing
options at major state universities
like the University of Iowa and
Iowa State University, it's unlikely
that a shortage of options will dis-
courage students - especially out-
of-state students - from returning
for the caucus.
The Young Voter PAC, a student
voting rights lobbying group, is
offering student caucus-goers free
hotel rooms and gas money in an
effort to encourage more students
to participate today.
All students have to do is fill
out a simple online application
form available on the group's
website.
The group is also organizing
carpooling groups for students
traveling to Iowa with a Facebook.
com group. As of last night, the
group "Hey Clinton, Stop Telling
Young Voters to Stay Home" had
67 people confirmed to an event
called "Come Back to Caucus in
Iowa."
Atul Nakhasi, president of the
University of Iowa Democrats, said
the Young Voter PAC had also pro-
vided his organization with sepa-
rate funding to book hotel rooms
for students interested in return-
ing to caucus.
Jane Fleming Kleeb, Young
Voter PAC's executive director,
said once it was announced that
the caucus was moved up to today,
her organization needed to take
action to ensure that all students,
both in- and out-of-state, had the
accommodations to participate in
the caucus.
"When candidates started say-
ing that students shouldn't come
back to caucus, we knew right then
we had to stand for the youth vote,"
Kleeb said.
Kleeb said over 150 students
have requested funding from
Young Voter PAC, and she added
that the total amount doesn't
include students who are carpool-
ing together to Iowa.
"We were thrilled with the
response because, as past years
tell us, small numbers can mean
a lot in the Iowa caucuses," Kleeb
said.
WANT LIVE
UPDATES FROM
THE CAMPAIGN
TRAIL?
Visit the Daily's news blog,
the Wire, for coverage of the
Iowa Caucus.
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wire
Study finds cell
phone drive slower
in heavy traffic
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Drivers talking on cell phones
are probably making your com-
mute even longer, concludes a
new study.
Motorists yakking away, even
with handsfree devices, crawl
about 2 mph slower on commut-
er-clogged roads than people not
on the phone, and they just don't
keep up with the flow of traffic,
said study author David Strayer,
a psychology professor at the
University of Utah.
If you commute by car an hour
a day, it could all add around 20
hours a year to your commute,
Strayer said.
"The distracted driver tends
to drive slower and have delayed
reactions," said Strayer, whose
study will be presented later this
month to the Transportation
Research Board of the National
Academy of Sciences. "People
kind of get stuck behind that
person and it makes everyone
pay the price of that distracted
driver."
Strayer's studybased onthree
dozen students driving in simu-
lators, found that drivers on cell
phones are far more likely to
stick behind a slow car in front
of them and change lanes about
20 percent less often than driv-
ers not on the phone.
Overall, cell phone drivers
took about 3 percent longer to
drive the same highly traffic-
clogged route (and about 2 per-
cent longer to drive a medium
congested route) than people
who were not on the phone.
About one in 10 drivers is on
the phone so it really adds up,
said Strayer, whose earlier stud-
ies have found slower reaction
times from drivers on the phones
and compared those reaction
times to people legally drunk.
Combine those factors and
Strayer figures distracted drivers
are adding an extra 5 to 10 per-
cent of time to your commute.
It's simply a matter of brain
overload. Your frontal cortex
can handle only so many tasks
at one time, so you slow down,
Strayer said.
Escaped prison
inmate dies in
shootout
An inmate who escaped from a
hospital yesterday, briefly taking a
worker hostage and stealing two get-
away cars, was cornered hours later
in a cemetery by police and killed in To play: C
a shootout, authorities said. and e
Kelvin Poke, 45, overpowered
guards at Laurel Regional Hospital Th
and fired several shots before flee-
ing, authorities said. just us
fie was' captured hours later
about 30 miles away. Officers had Drl
tailed a suspiciousvehicle - a white
Ford Explorer with flat tires - into
a cemetery shortly after 3 p.m. Poke
got out of the vehicle and opened
fire on police, who then shot back,
police said.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Number of American service mem- 5
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press, There were no new military
deaths reported yesterday.