8A - Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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I
MegaBus driver arrested on DUI
charges in Southwest Michigan
AMER SANDS AMER'S
Company offers
rides from Chicago
to Ann Arbor for as
little as $1
By JENNA SKOLLER
Daily StaffReporter
A 51-year-old MegaBus driver
en route to Ann Arbor was arrest-
ed Monday in southwest Michigan
after failing a series of sobriety
tests.
Michigan State Police pulled
over driver Kenneth Lewis of
Coach USA's MegaBus line on
eastbound I-94 just outside Ben-
ton Township after seeing the bus
swerving and speeding, police
said.
They arrested Lewis after he
failed sobriety tests administered
at the scene. He is being held at
Berrien County Jail awaiting
arraignment, police said.
State troopers then escorted
the bus to a truck stop, contacted
MegaBus, and instructed the com-
pany to bring another driver to
transport the bus and its 30 pas-
sengers to their destinations in
Ann Arbor and Detroit.
The bus was a shuttle travel-
ing from Minneapolis to Detroit
with a stop in Chicago. The
MegaBus line offers heavily-
discounted rates, making the
line popular with University
students.
LSA sophomore Elise Wanger,
returning to school from home,
was on another MegaBus making
the trip from Chicago alongside
Lewis's bus.
Wanger said her bus had to turn
around about one hour outside Ann
Arbor so the driver of herbus could
act as a representative of MegaBus
and speak with the police. Wanger
said the bus's passengers waited
at a rest stop for about two hours
until a new driver arrived to trans-
port the extra passengers.
The bus arrived in Ann Arbor
around 5:15 p.m., three hours after
its scheduled arrival time.
The legalblood alcohol limit for
someone operating a commercial
vehicle like a bus is significantly
lower than the standard alcohol
limit - .0015, compared with .08.
Lewis tested between .06 and .07,
said Sgt. Ken High of the Michi-
gan State Police Department, plac-
ing him well above the legal limit.
Dale Moser, chief operating
officer of Megabus.com, said
Coach USA has a zero-tolerance
policy regarding alcohol con-
sumption.
"This is unacceptable behav-
ior," Moser said. "We do not
accept our drivers consuming
any type of drugs or alcohol, and
we will do all we can to prevent
it from happening in the future.
The safety of our passengers has
always been and will always be
our top priority."
Lewis has been suspended from
his position at MegaBus, but the
company won't decide whether to
keep him until after an internal
investigation.
Moser said this is the first drunk
driving incident in Coach USA's
35-year history.
"I am hoping this one incident
does not surface as a reflection
of the company," Moser said.
"We will take a hard focus on
ensuring this does not happen
again and will implement pro-
cedures to mitigate future inci-
dents."
Wanger said the incident gave
her a negative impression of the
bus line, which she had used in the
past.
"It was my third time taking
MegaBus, and probably my last,"
Wanger said.
US Gov't: Cocaine, meth use dropped in 2007
MAX COLLU NS/Daily
Amer Bathish, swoer of Amer's Mediterranean Deli on State Street, sands the outside of his establishment to apply a new fin-
ish to the word workr
US confirms raid inside Pakistan
Report finds young
adults used less as
drugs became scarce
WASHINGTON (AP) - Cocaine
and methamphetamine use among
young adults declined significantly
last year as supplies dried up, lead-
ing to higher prices and reduced
purity, the government reports.
Overall use of illicit drugs showed
little change.
About one in five young adults last
year acknowledged illicit drug use
within the previous month, a rate
similar to previousyears.But cocaine
use declined by one-quarter and
methamphetamine use by one-third.
Drug use increased among the
50-59 age group as more baby
boomers joined that category.
Their past month drug use rose
from 4.3 percent in 2006 to 5 per-
cent in 2007.
"The baby boomers have much
higher rates of self-destructive
behavior than any parallel age
group we have data from," said
John Walters, director of the
White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy. Walters, 55, is
a boomer himself.
The National Survey on Drug
Use and Health, being released
Thursday by the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services
Administration, is based on inter-
views with about 67,500 people.
Overall, about 20 million people
12 or older reported using illicit
drugs within the past month.
Marijuana was the most popular
by far, with 14.4 million acknowl-
edging use of marijuana in the past
month.
Among adolescents, age 12 to 17,
drug use dipped from 9.8 percent
in 2006 to 9.5 percent last year,
continuing a five-year trend. Their
use of alcohol and cigarettes also
fell during the same period.
"The earlier youuse drugs, alco-
hol and cigarettes, the more likely
you are to have a lifelong problem,"
Walters said.
Much of the progress in curbing
drug use occurred between 2002
and 2005. Critics of the nation's
drug policies warned not to read
too much into the latest numbers.
"Use of marijuana and other
drugs naturally fluctuates and if
you look at long-term trends, cur-
rent rates are smack in the middle
of the range they've been in for
decades," said Bruce Mirken of the
Marijuana Policy Project, which
advocates the decriminalization
of marijuana. "There is simply no
evidence that current policies ...
have made any difference."
A World Health Organization
survey of 17 countries this year*
showed that people in the U.S.
were more likely than people else-
where to have tried illicit drugs.
The U.S. tied New Zealand for the
highest rate of marijuana use and
far outpaced other countries on
cocaine use, the survey found.
The U.S. report measured drug
use over the past month, while the
WHO's looked at drug use over a
lifetime.
The WHO survey concluded:
"The use of drugs seems to be a
feature of more affluent coun-
tries. The U.S., which has been
driving much of the world's drug
research and drug policy agenda,
stands out with higher levels of
alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis,
despite punitive illegal drug poli-
cies as well as a higher minimum
legal alcohol drinking age than
many comparable developed
countries."
More than half the people who
tried drugs for the first time in
2007 used marijuana, according
to the U.S. survey. The rate of new
marijuana users came to about
6,000 people a day.
The overall rate of illicit drug
use dropped from 8.3 percent of
those 12 and older to 8.0 percent
in 2007.
Walters also acknowledged
concern about nonmedical use of
prescription pain relievers among
young adults. He urged parents
to have more awareness of where
they keep their prescriptions and
to throw them away when the
drugs are no longer needed.
The survey, which also exam-
ined mental health, indicated that
24.3 million people 18 or older
experienced "serious psychologi-
cal distress over the past year." It
stressed the link between men-
tal health and substance abuse,
noting that adults expetiencing
depression within the past year
were more than twice as like to
have tried illicit drugs during that
time than other adults.
Pakistani gov't says
American forces
caused 15 deaths
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP)
- American forces launched a
raid inside Pakistan Wednesday, a
senior U.S. military official said, in
the first known U.S. ground assault
in Pakistan against a suspected
Taliban haven. The government
condemned the attack, saying it
killed at least 15 people.
The American official, speaking
on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of cross border
operations, told The Associated
Press that the raid occurred on
Pakistani soil about one mile from
the, Afghan border. The official
didn't provide any other details.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry
protested saying U.S.-led troops
flew in from Afghanistan for the
attack on a village in the country's
wild tribal belt. A Pakistan army
spokesman warned that the appar-
ent escalation from recent foreign
missile strikes on militant targets
along the Afghan border would
furth'er anger Pakistanis and
undercut cooperation in the iar
against terrorist groups.
The boldness of the thrust fed
speculation about the intended
target. But it was unclear whether
any extremist leader was killed or
captured in the operation, which
occurred in one of the militant
strongholds dotting a frontier
region considered a likely hiding
place for Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-
Zawahri.
U.S. military and civilian offi-
cials declined to respond directly
to Pakistan's complaints. But one
official, a South Asia expert who
agreedto discuss thesituationonly
if not quoted by name, suggested
the target of any raid like that
reported Wednesday would have
to be extremely important to risk
an almost assured "big backlash"
from Pakistan.
"You have to consider that
something like this will be a more-
or-less once-off opportunity for
-which we will have to pay a price
in terms of Pakistani cooperation,"
the official said.
Suspected U.S. missile attacks
killed at least two al-Qaida com-
manders this year in the same
region, drawing protests from
Pakistan's government that its
sovereignty was under attack. U.S.
officials did not acknowledge any
involvement in those attacks.
But American commanders have
been complaining publicly that
Pakistan puts too little pressure on
militantgroupsthat are blamed for
mounting violence in Afghanistan,
stirring speculation that U.S. forces
might lash out across the frontier.
Circumstances surrounding
Wednesday's raid weren't clear,
but U.S. rules of engagement allow
American troops to chase militants
across the border into Pakistan's
lawless tribal region when they are
attacked. They may only go about
six miles on the ground, under
normal circumstances. U.S. rules
allow aircraft to go 10 miles into
Pakistan air space.
The raid comes at a particularly
sensitive time for the Pakistan
government which is trying to
overcome political divisions and
choose a new president on the one
hand, while the army is battling
the militants on the other.
In other signs of Pakistan's pre-
carious stability three days before
legislators elect a successor to Per-
vez Musharraf as president, snip-
ers shot at the prime minister's
limousine near Islamabad and gov-
ernment troops killed two dozen'
militants in another area of the
restive northwest.
Pakistani officials said they
were lodging strong protests with
the U.S. government and its mili-
tary representative in Islamabad
about Wednesday's raid in the
South Waziristan area, a notorious
hot bed of militant activity.
The Foreign Ministry called the
strike "a gross violation of Paki-
stan's territory," saying it could
"undermine the very basis of coop-
eration and may fuel the fire of
hatred and violence that we are
trying to extinguish."
Prior to the U.S. military con-
firming the U.S. raid, Pakistan gov-
ernment and military officials had
insisted that either the NATO force
or the U.S.-led coalition in Afghan-
istan -both commandedby Amer-
ican generals - were responsible.
A spokesman for NATO troops in
Afghanistan denied any involve-
Auto sales fell in Aug., but some say worst is over
ment.
The army's spokesman, Maj.
Gen. Athar Abbas, said the attack
was the first incursion onto Paki-
stanisoil by troops fromthe foreign
forces that ousted Afghanistan's
hard-line Taliban regime after the
Sept. 11 attack on the U.S.
He said the attack would under-
mine Pakistan's efforts to isolate
Islanc extremists and could
threaten NATO's major supply
lines, which snake from Paki-
stan's Indian Ocean port of Kara-
chi through the tribal region into
Afghanistan.
"We cannot afford a huge upris-
ing at the level of tribe," Abbas
said. "That would be completely
counterproductive and doesn't
help the cause of fighting terrorism
in the area."
The Pakistani anger threat-
ens to upset efforts by American
comma ders to draw Pakistan's
military into the U.S. strategy of
dealing harshly with the militants.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met last
week with Gen.AshfaqKayani, the
Pakistani army chief. Mullen said
he came away encouraged that
Pakistanis were becoming more
focused ontheproblemof militants
using the country as a safe haven.
However, Abbas, the army
spokesman, said' Wednesday that
cross-border commando opera-
tions were not discussed and he
reiterated Pakistan's position that
its 'forces should be exclusively
responsible for operations on its
territory.
Pakistani officials say the U.S.
and NATO should share intelli-
gence and allow Pakistani troops
to execute any raids needed inside
Pakistan. However, Washington
has accused rogue elements in
Pakistan's main intelligence ser-
vice of leaking sensitive informa-
tion to militants.
American officials say destroy-
ing militant sanctuaries in Paki-
stani tribal regions is key to
defeating Taliban-led militants in
Afghanistan whose insurgency has
strengthened every year since the
fundamentalist militia was ousted
for harboring bin Laden.
But there has been debate in
Washington over how far the U.S.
can go on its own.
Citing witness and intelligence
reports, Abbas said troops flew
in on at least one big CH-47 Chi-
nook transport helicopter, blasted
their way into several houses and
gunned down men they found
there.
He said there was no evidence
that any of those killed were insur-
gents or that the raiders abduct-
ed any militant leader, but he
acknowledged Pakistan's military
had no firsthand account.
There were differing reports
on how many people were killed.
The provincial governor claimed
20 civilians, including women and
children, died. Army and intelli-
gence officials, as well as residents,
said 15 people were killed.
Habib Khan Wazir, an area resi-
dent, said he heard helicopters,
then an exchange of gunfire.
DETROIT (AP) - Nearly every
major automaker saw its U.S. sales
drop in August, but many are see-
ing signs that the worst slump in
recent history may have bottomed
out.
Most upbeat were executives
from General Motors Corp.,
which posted a 20.3 percent sales
decline from a year ago but a 31
percent improvement over July's
totals.
Much of the gain came from
offering all buyers employee dis-
counts on many models, but Mark
LaNeve, GM's vice president of
North American sales, said there's
hope that June and July were the
trough for U.S. sales.
"We are very encouraged by
what we saw in August. It gives us
reason to think that we are start-
ing to pull our way out of this," he
said yesterday in a conference call
with reporters and industry ana-
lysts.
Overall, U.S. sales fell 15.5 per-
cent compared with August of
last year but rose 10 percent from
July's dismal figures, according to
Autodata Corp.
The seasonally adjusted annual
sales rate for August was 13.7 mil-
lion, up from 12.5 million in July,
the worst month in 16 years.
Chrysler LLC said its U.S.
sales fell more than 34 percent
last month, while Ford Motor Co.
reported a 26.5 percent decline.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales dipped
9.4 percent, and Honda Motor Co.
saw a 7.3 percent slide.
Nissan Motor Co. was the only
major automaker to report an
increase over August 2007: Its
sales climbed 13.6 percent.
But the increase over July
buoyed most automakers, with
sales executives saying that
lower fuel prices were starting
to ease consumers' minds.
They also reported the market
shiftingalittlebitbacktowardtrucks
and sport utility vehicles, driven by
incentives and lower gas prices.
Automakers said consumer sen-
timent was improving, housing
price declines and manufacturing
production are stabilizing, and
exports continue to be strong.
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