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Friday, September 12, 2008 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, September12, 2008 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
HOUSTON
Ike churns in Gulf,
targets Texas coast,
metro Houston
Cars and trucks streamed
inland and chemical companies
buttoned up their plants yester-
day as a gigantic Hurricane Ike
took aim at the heart of the U.S.
refining industry and threatened
to send a wall of water crashing
toward Houston.
Nearly 1 million people along
the Texas coast were ordered
to evacuate ahead of the storm,
which was expected to strike late
today or early tomorrow. But in a
calculated risk aimed at avoiding
total gridlock, authorities told
most people in the nation's fourth-
largest city to just hunker down.
Ike was steering almost direct-
ly for Galveston and, beyond
that, Houston, where gleaming.
skyscrapers, the nation's biggest
refinery and NASA's Johnson
Space Center lie in areas vulner-
able to wind and floodwaters.
KABUL, Afghanistan
Latest deaths make
2008 deadliest for
U.S. in Afghanistan
Insurgents killed two U.S.
troops in Afghanistan on the an-
niversary of the 9/11 attacks yes-
terday, making 2008 the deadliest
year for American forces since U.S.
troops invaded the country in 2001
for sheltering Osama bin Laden.
The deaths brought the number
oftroops who have died inAfghan-
istan this year to 113, according to
an Associated Press tally, surpass-
inglast year's record toll of 111.
Afghanistan was the launching
pad for al-Qaida's terrorist attacks
on Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. forces in-
vaded in October 2001 in response
and quickly drove the Taliban out
of power.
Across Afghanistan, U.S. troops
pausedinsilenceyesterdayto com-
memorate the 9/11 attacks.
SEOUL, South Korea
After stroke, North
Korean leader had
brain surgery
North Korea's Kim Jong Il had
brain surgery after a stroke last
month and could have partial pa-
ralysis on one side, media reports
said yesterday, after the South Ko-
rean government said the commu-
nist leader remained in control of
his country.
Foreign doctors, possibly from
China and France, performed the
operation after Kim, 66, collapsed
about Aug. 15, the newspapers
Dong-a Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo re-
ported, citingunidentified govern-
ment officials.
Kim's condition has improved
andheisnotsufferingfromslurred
speech, a disability often associat-
ed with a stroke, the reports said.
If Kim were incapacitated, it
could have serious implications
for international negotiations on
North Korea's nuclear disarma-
ment.
DETROIT
Source: Ford wants
to cut 4,200 jobs
Ford Motor Co. has said that it
wants to cut its blue-collar work
force by another 4,200 employees,
according to a person briefed on a
presentation to union officials.
The struggling automaker is
offering buyout and early retire-
ment packages at manufacturing
operations in Ohio, Michigan,
Kentucky and Indiana as it con-
tinues efforts to trim its factory
ranks to match lower demand for
its products.
Ford has declined to publicly
state a target number, but Joe
Hinrichs, group vice president of
global manufacturing, told union
officials the company has 4,200
more blue collar workers than it
needs, according to the person
briefed on the presentation.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U,,. DEATHS
4,155
Number of American service
members who have died in the
war in Iraq, according to The
Associated Press. There were no
deaths identified yesterday.
Feds look for suitor
for troubled Lehman
Officials mull
private, not public,
options for bank
By DAVID CHO, HEATHER
LANDY and NEIL IRWIN
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Federal
Reserve and Treasury Depart-
ment are actively helping Lehman
Brothers put itself up for sale, and
officials are hoping a deal will be
in place this weekend before the
Asian markets open on Monday,
according to sources familiar with
the matter.
The government is looking for an
agreement that would not involve
public money. One scenario that is
emerging includes multiple suitors
acquiringdifferentpiecesoftheven-
erable investment bank, which has
suffered staggering losses from its
bets on real estate and mortgages.
The situation was still fluid
Thursday, and there was no guar-
antee what form an agreement
would take or even that it would
be in place by Monday, the sources
said on condition of anonymity
because they had not been autho-
rized to speak.
Regulators have been in touch
with Lehman on an almost hourly
basis in recent days. High-ranking
officials including New York Feder-
al Reserve President Timothy Gei-
thner, Treasury Secretary Henry
M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke have
been discussing a broad range of
possibilities for Lehman, trying to
determine the risks each outcome
could pose to the financial system,
the sources said.
Securities and Exchange Com-
mission Chairman Christopher
Cox and Lehman chief executive
Richard Fuld have also been speak-
ing several times daily. Lehman
declined to comment Thursday.
The effort by regulators comes
just a few days after Treasury and
other federal officials announced
they were taking control of mort-
gage financiers Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac in one of the largest
government interventions into the
private markets in history.
A collapse of Lehman could pres-
ent many of the same systemic risks
that regulators sought to eliminate
in March when they arranged the
sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan
Chase. That deal was done over the
course of a weekend during which
Fed and Treasury officials feared
the absence of a deal could cause a
global financial catastrophe.
Lehman's problems have been
different. Bear Stearns was the
victim of a bank run, as inves-
tors refused to continue lending it
money. Lehman's problems have
developed more gradually, through
waves of losses on investments in
real estate and securities tied to
mortgages.
Lehman also has a larger cash
cushion than Bear Stearns had.
On Wednesday, Lehman reported
about $42 billion of liquidity, com-
pared with the $17billion cash posi-
tion Bear Stearns said it had in the
days before its collapse. But beyond
having cash in the bank, brokerag-
es such as Lehman need continued
access to funding to maintain con-
fidence in the institution.
Earlier this week, Lehman
reported a $3.9 billion third-
quarter loss and said it would sell
a majority stake in its investment-
management division, cut its divi-
dend and spin off about $30 billion
of real estate assets.
SAID ALSALAH / Daily
-The Delta Tau Delta bus drove fans to different stops on campus, then to the football game against Miami University on Saturday.
New fraternity rolls out
'party bus' for gamedays
Official: Pakistan never
agreed to new U.S. plan
By KAREN DEYOUNG Meanwhile, Afghan President
The Washington Post Hamid Karzai said at a news con-
ference in Kabul that he approved
WASHINGTON - New rules of the new U.S. strategy, citing
of engagement authorizing U.S. the need to "remove and destroy"
ground attacks inside Pakistan, insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan.
signed by President Bush in July, But NATO said it had no intention
were not agreed to by thatcountry's of sending any of the 48,000 troops
civilian government or its military, under its command in Afghanistan
according to U.S. and Pakistani offi- across the border. NATO's United
cials. Nations mandate does not include
Pakistani Army Chief of Staff "ground or air incursions ... into
Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani was informed Pakistani territory," said spokes-
last month by senior U.S. defense man James Appathurai.
officials that if Pakistan failed to Therearecurrentlynearly31,000
stem the flow of Taliban and other U.S. troops in Afghanistan, divided
militant fighters into Afghanistan, between the NATO command and a
the United States would adopt a separate force under the U.S. Cen-
new strategy, one that included tral Command.
ground strikes on targeted insur- A senior European official said
gent encampments. A senior Paki- the NATO allies shared U.S. con-
stani official said Kiyani believed cern over the deteriorating situ-
the strategy was still under dis- ation in Afghanistan and were
cussion and that Pakistan's coun- aware new U.S. rules were under
terinsurgency performance was consideration, but that they were
improving. unaware the rules had been
News of Bush's order, following approved. Bush's July order, first
a strike last week by helicopter- reported Thursday by the New
borne U.S. commandos on a village York Times, was confirmed by sev-
about 20 miles inside Pakistan, eral U.S. officials.
brought denunciation Thursday Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's
from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza ambassador to Washington, said
Gillani, who echoed Kiyani's ear- that U.S. officials assured him
lier charge that the attack violated Thursday that "no such order had
Pakistani sovereignty. been given."
Delta Tau Delta
hopes bus will raise
its profile on campus
By JILLIAN BERMAN
Daily StaffReporter
Some students consider the
walk to the Big House an excit-
ing part of football Saturdays,
reveling in the maize-and-blue-
lined crowds and Hoover Street
cheers.
But others - especially those
trekking from distant corners of
campus - deem it hot, exhausting
and altogether terrible.
Delta Tau Delta, a fraternity
that came to campus in 2006, has
revved up a solution.
The fraternity now offers stu-
dents game-day transportation on
a "party bus" complete with air-
conditioning and leather seats. The
bus is an effort to boost the house's
recruitment numbers and make it
better known around campus.
Starting about three hours
before kickoff, the bus, adorned
with large magnets bearing the
fraternity's name, shuttles stu-
dents from stops at Mary Markley
residence hall, Bursley residence
hall and the C.C. Little Building
to a tailgate at DTD's house on
Geddes Avenue.
An hour before the game, the
bus takes students from the tail-
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gate to the stadium.
Anyone, regardless of class
year or Greek affiliation, can use
the bus.
LSA senior Will Doyle, a mem-
ber of the fraternity, said the ser-
vice is an easy sell, especially to
people waiting for the usual bus
from North Campus.
"It's not hard to convince,
people to really get in there. It's
air-conditioned,, so people are
immediately willing to get on," he
said. "It's basically like a limou-
sine. Here's the standard blue bus
taking kids to the game," he said,
motioning with his hands, "here,
come to our bus."
The atmosphere in the bus
from the house to the Miami
University game was relatively
subdued.
There were no raucous chants
being echoed out the windows or
renditions of the fight song, but
those might come in time.
"We're the only fraternity that's
ever done this before, so there'sa
learning curve," College of Engi-
neering junior Derek Geiger said.
Engineering senior Brandon
Geiger, the fraternity member
who pitched the idea and Derek's
brother, said the bus attracted
quite a bit of attention, even lur-
ing away a spectator partying at a
nearby tailgate.
"The house on the corner (of
Geddes Avenue and Observatory
Street) was having a tailgate and
we kept driving by it," he said.
"One guy was like 'Hey can I get
on?' He left his own tailgate to get
into our limo."
Doyle said the party bus has
been successful in combating the
main problem with getting stu-
dents to tailgate at their house:
location.
Though the DTD house has
a large lawn for the tailgate, it's
away from the path most people
take to the stadium.
The bus is sponsored by Adri-
an's T-shirt Printery, Luxury
Limousine, and Express Sign
Design. The fraternity is absorb-
ing the other costs of about $1,500
to $2,000 each game day.
Engineering junior Emily
Orban, a member of Alpha Gamma
Delta sorority that partners with
DTD for football game pre-party-
ing, said the bus made the trip to
the house much easier.
"It was fun," she said. "A lot
of people could fit in it, so it was
cool."
LSA junior Jordan Nelson,
another AGD member, agreed.
"It's very relaxing and luxuri-
ous," she said. "It's a nice little
ride early in the morning with
heat and AC."
DTD plans to provide the bus
for the next home game against
Wisconsin, but they're not sure
if they will continue running the
service once the weather cools
down.
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