The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
HARARE, Zimbabwe
Opposition party in
Zimbabwe claims
election victory
Zimbabwe's opposition claimed
victory yesterday in the elections,
while a slow trickle in official re-
sults raised fears that supporters of
longtime President Robert Mugabe
were rigging the count.
Mugabe has been accused of
stealing previous elections, but that
was before Zimbabwe's once thriv-
ing farm economy nearly collapsed
and before leading members of the
ruling party openly defied him.
Independent observers said
trends supported the main opposi-
tion party's contention that it was
leading in the presidential race, but
the monitors said the edge would
not be enough to avoid a runoff.
"We have won an election.
Mugabe's victory is not possible
given the true facts," Tendai Biti,
secretary-general of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change,
told reporters.
WASHINGTON
Amid investigation,
housing official quits
his post
Department of Housing and
Urban Development Secretary
Alphonso Jackson, his tenure tar-
nished by allegations of political
favoritism and a criminal investi-
gation, announced his resignation
yesterday amid the wreckage of
the national housing crisis.
He leaves behind a trail.ofunan-
swered questions about whether
he tilted the department toward
Republican contractors and cro-
nies.
The move comes at a shaky time
for the economy, with soaring
mortgage foreclosures imperiling
the nation's fredit markets.
In announcing that his last day
at HUD will be April 18, Jackson
said only, "There comes a time
when one must attend more dili-
gently to personal and family mat-
ters."
DETROIT
GM shuts down
another plant, cuts
e about1,800 jobs
G3eneral Motors Corp. shut
down a Detroit area sedan plant
yesterday, a sign that a strike by
supplier American Axle and Man-
ufacturing Holdings Inc. is cutting
deeper into GM's lineup and into
the larger auto industry.
GM said it shut down its Ham-
tramck Assembly Plant, which
employs 1,849 hourly workers
and makes the Buick Lucerne and
Cadillac DTS. It is the 29th plant
GM has fully or partially shut be-
cause of parts shortages due to the
monthlong strike, which has af-

fected just over 39,000 GM hourly
workers.
Previously the strike had af-
fected only plants that assemble
or supply parts for slow-selling
pickup trucks and sport utility ve-
hicles, and GM had said the strike
wasn't having much impact be-
cause it had such a large inventory,
of those vehicles.
KIEV, Ukraine
Bush, Putin look to
set aside qualms in
missiles debate
The White House raised hopes
yesterday of achieving a break-
through agreement to resolve bit-
ter differences with Moscow over
missile defenses in Europe when
President Bush meets with Rus-
sian President Vladimir Putin this
weekend.
Bush's national security adviser,
Stephen Hadley, said no deal was in
hand yet but the two leaders could
nail it down when they meet Sun-
day in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
"We may. We're hopeful," he said.
It will be the last meeting between
the two men before Putin steps
away from the Russian presidency.
iCompiled from
Daily wire reports
4,1
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.

BIOENERGY
From Page 1
that supports the renewable energy
bills, said Michigan has consider-
able potential to use bioenergy
technology, especially in the upper
peninsula.
"The upper peninsula has a big-
ger chance for prosperity in the
biomass field, just because they
have a lot of wood waste and other
cellulosic waste products from the
different types of harvesting and
forestry they do up there," she said.
"It's a bigger hot spot for biomass."
There are already centers in
Michigan that generate electricity
from wood chips.
Korpalski said there was initial
concern that companies would use
RETRIAL.
From Page 1
Security footage from Dickin-(
son's residence hall showed thatt
Taylor entered the buildingbefore
she died. DNA was also found on I
Dickinson's body that matched J
Taylor's. Along with the murder'
charge, the prosecution arguedI
that Taylor intended to commitr
sexual penetration, home inva- I
sion and larceny in a building. s
Attorney Alvin Keel, whoL
defended Taylor in the mistrialt
but has since withdrawn from thec
case, argued thatcTaylor was pres- I
ent in Dickinson's dorm room that
night but didn't kill her. e
Keel withdrew from the case ins

the bills as incentives to cut down
forests for biofuel, but the bills
specify that any bioenergy pro-
duced from lumber must come from
wood waste that would otherwise
be thrown out.
Many experts are debating the
feasibility and efficiency of bioen-
ergy fuels, or sources that can be
used to make ethanol or biodiesel
for transportation. The most com-
mon form of ethanol production
uses corn, but School of Natural
Resources and Environment Prof.
Donald Scavia said the environ-
mental costs of using corn for fuel
outweigh the benefits.
"The environmental impacts are
enormous," he said. "Corn is a very
leaky crop, and alot of the fertilizer
ends up in groundwater." .
The nitrogen and phosphorous
December because Taylor's fam-
ily could no longer afford his ser-
vices, The Detroit News reported.
Assistant Public Defender Laura
Graham is representing Taylor in
the upcomingctrial.
During the first trial, Keel said
his client had been smoking mari-
uana with a friend in another
dorm room and wandeied into
Dickinson's room looking for
more drugs. He said that when
Taylor saw Dickinson, he thought
she was passed out and then ejac-
ulated on her. Keel argued at the
time that physical evidence alone
couldn't prove Taylor raped or
killed Dickinson.
"(Physical evidence) doesn't
even mean you touched the per-
son," he said.

pollution generated from fertilizer
used to grow corn contaminates
groundwater, Scavia said, which
can cause an oxygen deficiency syn-
drome in infants called blue-baby
syndrome.
The fertilizer also contains an
herbicide, atrazine, which is known
to cause cancer.
Scavia said the nitrates from
corn ethanol production flow down
the Mississippi River into the Gulf
of Mexico, contributing to what is
known as the Dead Zone - a region
of water that can't sustain aquatic
life because of its low oxygen con-
centration.
A boost in corn ethanol produc-
tion would increase the number of
corn plantations, which would then
increase nitrogen pollution.
Scavia said research has shown

that corn ethanol production, at
times, releases too much carbon,
hurting the argument that ethanol
production emits less greenhouse
gases.
"There's a better energy balance
with switchgrass and willow," Sca-
via said. "Most of these issues will
go away."
Duncan Callaway, a researcher at
the Center for Sustainable Systems
in the School of Natural Resources
and Environment, said switchgrass
has more promise in producing eth-
anol than corn because the crop is
more energy efficient.
"To produce switchgrass theo-
retically requires less energythan it
does to produce ethanol fromcorn,"
he said. "But the problem is that in
order to be an economically viable
source for ethanol, the chemical

engineering and bio-engineering
need to be further refined."
Callaway said he thinks it would
be feasible to use switchgrass and
willow in the long-term but in the
meantime, Michigan will still pri-
marily use corn to produce ethanol.
University researchers are also
looking at how to use willow as an
alternative to corn in bioenergy fuel
production. -
Greg Keoleian, co-director of
the Center for Sustainable Systems
in the School of Natural Resources
and Environment, said researchers
have found promising results with
willow asa source for fuel.
"When youlook at the fossil ener-
gy that goes into producing willow,
you're going to get 10 times more
electricity back than from conven-
tional grid," Keoleian said.
tudy courses
by the Provost?"
Other members of SACUA were
hesitant to support Smith's task
force proposal, saying such a group
wasn't necessary because there are
already third-party evaluation pro-
grams within different schools or
colleges.

Group discusses independent s
SACUA From Page 1 different schools or colleges.

Classical Studies Prof. David Pot-
ter said that because the office of
the Provostissues guidelines on how
independent study courses should
be operated, SACUA could evaluate
the efficacy of those guidelines in

"A reasonable question, a three-
part question, is are the Provost's
guidelines functioning?" Potter said.
"Do they have colleges responding
to them in a waythat prevents abus-
es of the issue, and are the colleges
following the guidelines put forth


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