The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

NEWS BRIEFS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Florida Dems scrap
mail-in primary plan
Facingstrongopposition,Florida
Democrats on Monday abandoned
plans to hold a do-over presidential
primary with a mail-in vote and
threw the delegate dispute into the
lap of the national party.
While the decision by Florida
Democrats left the state's 210 del-
egates in limbo, Democrats in
Michigan moved closer to holding
another contest on June 3. Legis-
lative leaders reviewed a measure
yesterday that would set up a pri-
vately funded, state-administered
do-over primary.
"A party-run primary or caucus
has been ruled out, and it's simply
not possible for the state to hold
another election, even if the party
were to pay for it," Democratic
Party chairwoman Karen L. Thur-
man Thurman said.".. This doesn't
meanthat Democrats are givingup
on Florida voters. It means that a
solution will have to come from the
DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee,
which is scheduled to meet again
in April."
Members of Florida's congres-
sional delegation unanimously
opposedtheplan,andBarackObama
expressed concern about the secu-
rity of a mail-in vote organized so
quickly. Hillary Rodham Clinton's
campaign expressed disappoint-
ment with Florida's decision.
NEW YORK
Bill Clinton says
mediaspun his
comments about race
Former President Clinton yes-
terday called the notion that he
unfairly criticized his wife's rival,
Barack Obama, "a total myth and a
mugging."
Clinton had compared Obama's
landslide victory in South Caroli-
na's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jack-
son's wins in the state in 1984 and
1988. Clinton was widely criticized
for appearing to cast Obama as
little more than a black candidate
popular in a state with a heavily
black electorate.
"They made up a race story out
of that," Clinton said of the news
media, calling the story "a bizarre
spin."
BAGHDAD
Suicide bomber kills
43 people
A female suicide bomber struck
Shiite worshippers in the holy city
of Karbala yesterday, an official
and a witness said, killing at least
43 people and leaving pools of
blood on the street leading to one
of Iraq's most revered mosques.
The blast was the deadliest
in a series of attacks that left at
least 72 Iraqis dead, including six
youths killed when mortar rounds
slammed into a soccer field in
eastern Baghdad.
Two U.S. soldiers also were
killed yesterday in a roadside
bombing north of Baghdad, bring-

ing the American death toll closer
to 4,000 as the U.S.-led war enters
its sixth year. At least 3,990 mem-
bers of the U.S. military have died
since the beginning of the Iraq
war in March 2003, according to
an Associated Press count.
WASHINGTON
Levin: U.S. should
take some blame for
Iraqi conflict

ATHLETES
From Page 1
ogy.
Psychology Prof Scott Paris,
who firstcbrought Hagen's cours-
es to the department's attention,
has drawn scrutiny from some
colleagues for bringing the issue
to light. Paris was also quoted in
The News's story.
The Michigan Daily obtained
an e-mail message yesterday
sent by Bill McKeachie, profes-
sor emeritus of the psychology
department,to the entire depart-
ment, saying he was "aghast"
that Prof. Paris would allege
academic misconduct by Hagen.
He called the allegation "a crazy
destructive thing."
Paris then responded to McK-
eachie's message in an e-mail
visible to the whole department.
In the message, he wrote that he
perceived a "'crazy destructive
thing'" happening within the
department, leading him to raise
questions about Hagen's inde-
pendent study courses.
"I did not reply to those
reports, I never said a disparag-
ing word about John, and I did
not write the story in the Ann
Arbor News," Paris wrote. "If
being concerned about academic
integrity in the department, and
following standard procedures
for reporting those concerns,
'burns my bridges' at UM, it
will be unfortunate, but I chose
to follow my principles about
teaching at UM. I can live with
that, and hope my colleagues
can also."
Contacted by phone last
night, Paris declined comment,
saying he wanted to distance
himself from The Ann Arbor
News' story.
Theresa Lee, who chairs the
Department of Psychology, said
she thought McKeachie might
have sent the e-mail to the entire
department by mistake, hitting
"Reply to all" instead of "Reply."
Nonetheless, Lee sent an e-
mail afterthe exchange between
McKeachie and Paris to say
"that this was not an appropri-
ate forum for this argument to
take place" and that "the rest of
the department doesn't want to
see flames thrown between pro-
fessors."
- Daily News Editor Andy
Kroll contributed to this report.

LOPEZ
From Page 1
chapter of the controversial pro-
affirmative action group By Any
Means Necessary, is no stranger
to fighting for racial integration
and the use of affirmative action.
Since she became involved with
BAMN during her high school
years at Detroit's Cass Techni-
cal High School, she's supported
everything from ending the war
in Iraq to the Graduate Employ-
ees' Organization in its negotia-
tions with the University.
Most notably, though, she has
wholeheartedly supported affir-
mative action through BAMN
and DAAP.
Lopez is currently a plaintiff in
a case lookingto strike down Pro-
posal 2, which banned the use of
race- and gender-based affirma-
tive action at public institutions
in the state of Michigan in Nov.
2006.
Lopez, who immigrated to
Detroit from Mexico at age 4 with
her parents, said her high school
years made her a strong propo-
nent of racial integration. Because
she rarely left the heavily-Latino
southwest side of Detroit as a
child, she thought most Detroit
residents were Latino.
When she first entered Cass
Tech, a predominantly black
school, she was in shock.
"My peers had the stereotype

that I was in a gang, and for them
I had the stereotype that I'd get
mugged after class, so I'd make
sure I would have my money in
my shoes," she said. "My being
there, I got to defy the stereo-
types about Latinos, and also I got
proven wrong with many of the
stereotypes I thought about black
people - that's why I fight for the
defense of affirmative action and
integration."
Running in the first election
after a scandal that led to the res-
ignation of former MSA President
Zack Yost, a member of MAP,
Lopez said she sees potential for
change in the assembly
"Right now there are so many
things that MSA could be doing
in the interest of students that it
doesn't," she said.
Lopez said many current MSA
representatives are too linked
with the administration and don't
challenge the University enough
to take steps that will benefit stu-
dents.
Lopez said if elected she would
petition the University adminis-
tration to increase underrepre-
sented minority enrollment on
campus and eliminate the need
for high school students to take
standardized tests to gain admis-
sion into the University. Lopez
said she thinks the tests were
biased against minorities and
women.
As vice president Lopez said
she would work to make MSA

more accessible to students by
holding town hall-style meetings
for students address their con-
cerns to the assembly.
Lopez criticized MSA's cur-
rent "community concerns" time,
which allows students a five-min-
ute time limit to voice their con-
cerns to MSA representatives and
executive board members. She
said the opportunity also isn't
sufficiently publicized.
Stenvig said she believed
Lopez would make a good vice
president because of her ability
to unite different groups for a
single cause.
"She's a good organizer, and
she's had alot of experience work-
ingwithmany differentgroups on
campus and other national orga-
nizations," she said. "I think she's
really effective atbringing people
together."
Art and Design School junior
Liana Mulholland, an MSA rep-
resentative and BAMN co-chair,
said Stenvig and Lopez are the
best people for the presidency
and vice presidency.
"If Mari were to get elected
along with Kate, that would be a
really good and positive change
for the student assembly," she
said. "Having served on the
assembly for this past year, I've
been very frustrated with just
a certain level of incompetence
and corruption among the cur-
rent regime, and I'd like to see a
regime change."

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - 3
Cheney visits
Iraq, pushes
for unity
BAGHDAD (AP) - Vice Presi-
dent Dick Cheney warned yesterday
against large U.S. troop cuts that
could jeopardize recent security
gains in Iraq, as he marked the fifth
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion
with a two-day visit to the country.
Cheney used words like "phe-
nomenal" and "remarkable turn-
around" to describe a drop in
violence inIraq,andhailed recently
passed legislation aimed at keeping
Iraq on a democratic path.
"It would be a mistake now to
be so eager to draw down the force
that we risk putting the outcome in
jeopardy, and I don't think we'll do
that," Cheney said after spending
the day zigzagging through bar-
ricades and checkpoints to get to
meetings in and out of the heavily
guarded Green Zone. He spent the
night at a U.S. military base, the
second overnight stay in Iraq for the
vice president. Reporters accompa-
nying him were not allowed to dis-
close the location.
"It is good to be back in Iraq,"
Cheney, dressed in a suit and dark
cowboy boots, said after his meet-
ing with Prime Minister Nouri al-
Maliki.

Senator Carl Levin says the
United States needs to transfer
more responsibility for the conflict and e'
in Iraq to the Iraqi forces.
Levin, who leads the Senate '6f
Armed Services Committee, spent .
the weekend in Iraq. He says the justu.
U.S. needs to shift more responsi-
bility in the military and political Dffi
realm, but also on the economic
side. 9
He said the Iraqis have the sur-
plus funds to do their own recon-
struction and to purchase weap- -
ons, and they need to take a bigger 1
share of the cost.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
3,990
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. There were no deaths identi-
fied yesterday.