The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, September 15, 2008 -- 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, September iS, 2008 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
GALVESTON, Texas
Hurricane Ike
death toll rises
The death toll from Hurricane
Ike rose to 25 across nine states
Sunday, as rescuers said they had
saved nearly 2,000 people from
waterlogged streets and splin-
tered houses. Glass-strewn Hous-
ton was placed under a weeklong
curfew, and millions of people in
the storm's path remained in the
dark.
As the floodwaters began to
recede from the first hurricane
to make a direct hit on a major
U.S. city since Katrina, authori-
ties planned to go door-to-door
into the night to reach an untold
number of people across the Texas
coast who rode out the storm and
were still in their homes, many
without power or supplies.
Many of those who did make it
to safety boarded buses without
knowing where they would end
up, and without knowing when
they could return to what was left
of their homes, if anything.
LA PAZ, Bolivia
Morales struggles
to maintain
control of Boliva
PresidentEvo Moralesstruggled
to assert control over a badly frac-
tured Bolivia on Sunday as pro-
testers set fire to a town hall and
blockaded highways in opposition-
controlled provinces, provoking
gasoline and food shortages.
At least 30 people have been
killed in the poor Andean nation
this week, Interior Minister Al-
fredo Rada said. All the deaths oc-
curred in Pando province, where
Morales declared martial law on
Friday, dispatching troops and ac-
cusing government foes of killing
his supporters.
The governor of natural gas-
rich Tarija, representing the four
eastern provinces that are in rebel-
lion, said before entering talks in
the capital SundaywithVicePresi-
dent Alvaro Garcia that his half of
the country was paralyzed by 35
highway blockades.
LOS ANGELES
Dispatcher tried to
warn of crash,
officials say
A dispatcher tried to warn the
engineer of a Metrolink commuter
train that he was about to collide
with a freight train but the call
came too late, rail officials inves-
tigating the crash that killed 25
people said yesterday.
The dispatcher reached the
conductor in the rear of the train,
but by then it had already crashed
into the oncoming Union Pacific
engine at 40 mph, Metrolink offi-
cials said.
The engineer was killed in the
accident, the nation's deadliest
rail disaster in 15 years.
Metrolink said the engineer ran
a red signal, but federal investiga-
tors said it could be a year before
they determine a cause.
WASHINGTON
Obama raises
$66 million in
e August
Democratic presidential nomi-
nee Barack Obama raised $66
million in August, a record for a
presidential candidate that illus-
trated his continuing appeal to
donors and his robust outreach to
new contributors.
The campaign said it raised the
money with the help of more than
ahalfmillion, first-time donors.By
comparison, Republican presiden-
tial nominee John McCain raised
$47 million in August, a personal
best for his campaign as well. The
monthly figures for both candi-
dates were especially noteworthy
because August is typically a slow
month for fundraising.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U. S. DEAt h
4,157
Number of American service
members who have died in the
war in Iraq, according to The
Associated Press. There were no
deaths identified yesterday.
Candidates differ on use of affirmative action
McCain, Obama
careful to establish
separate positions
By ESHWAR
THIRUNAVUKKARASU
Daily StaffReporter
Inapresidentialelectioninwhich
the youth vote has increasingly
taken the spotlight, little attention
has been paid to the candidates'
stances on affirmative action - a-
hot topic in the University environ-
ment.
Though never the .centerpiece
of their stump speeches, Demo-
cratic presidential nominee Barack
Obama and his Republican coun-
terpart John McCain have at
times strove to establish a contrast
between their policies.
Amid the struggle for the presi-
dential candidates to establish
between themselves a contrast in
affirmative action policy, the Uni-
versity has committed to furthering
its own agenda on the issue. For the
last five years, the University has
sought to uphold affirmative action
against judicial review and legisla-
tion.
In2003,the Supreme Courtruled
on two parallel'cases iivolving the
University's affirmative action poli-
cies for its law school and its under-
graduate admissions. The Court
struck down the points system used
in the undergraduate admissions
process, arguing that the racial cri-
teria was not "narrowly tailored"
toward the goal of diversity. How-
ever, the second ruling upheld the
law school's policy to favor minori-
ties in the admissions process.
In 2006 the state passed the
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative,
effectively banning the use of
race- and gender-based affirma-
tive action. Washington state and
California also have bans. A slew of
other states will consider bans this
fall.
Obama has been careful in voic-
ing his support on the use of affir-
mative action, asserting that both
racial and socioeconomic barriers
should be a factor in admissions. He
stipulates that he does not support
quota systems.
During a primary debate inPenn-
sylvania on April 16, Obama used
the lofty rhetoric that has charac-
terized much of his presidential
campaign to touch on his views.
"I still believe in affirmative
action as a means of overcoming
both historic and potentially cur-
rent discrimination, but I think
that it can't be a quota system and
it can't be something that is sim-
ply applied without looking at the
whole person, whether that person
is black, or white, or Hispanic, male
or female," Obama said. "What we
want to do is make sure that people
who've been locked out of oppor-
tunity are going to be able to walk
through those doors of opportunity
in the future."
In May, during an interview
on ABC's This Week with George
Stephanopoulos, the Illinois sena-
tor acknowledged the lingering
effects of racism by pointing to the
fact that many black college gradu-
ates are the first members of their
family to obtain a post-secondary
degree.
In the past, Republican presi-
dential nominee John McCain
has been at odds with his party on
the issue of affirmative action. In
1998, McCain addressed a Hispanic
group in his home'state of Arizona
to discuss a ballot initiative call-
ing for a statewide ban on affirma-
tive action programs. The senator
expressed his opposition to such
"divisive" initiatives and his desire
to instead engage in "dialogue and
cooperation."
The initiative failed to make the
ballot.
In July of this year, though,
McCain reversed his stance in an
interview on This Week. McCain
said he supported a new anti-af-
firmative action ballot initiative
in Arizona led by Ward Connerly
- one of the nation's most notable
opponents of affirmative action
who was instrumental in funding
and orchestrating Michigan's ban.
McCain's move to contradict his
earlier position has sparked criti-
cism that the senator is seeking to
placate his conservative base. The
senator has maintained that he has
"always opposed quotas" - a point
on which he and his opponent (and
most mainstream American politi-
cians) agree.
Although the University can no
longer use race and gender data as
a factor in admissions, the level of
minority enrollment has remained
relatively stable. Underrepresented
minorities compose 10.5 percent of
the class of 2012 - about a 2 percent
drop from the class of 2010's num-
bers, the last to be chosen prior to
the ban.
Twin shocks hit Wall Street as turmoil grows
Lehman set to file
for bankruptcy,
Bank of America
buys Merrill
NEW YORK (AP) - A failed plan
to rescue Lehman Brothers was
followed Sunday by more seismic
shocks from Wall Street, including
a government-brokered takeover of
Merrill Lynch by the Bank of Amer-
ica for $50 billion.
A forced restructuring of the
world's largest insurance company,
American International Group Inc.,
also weighed heavily on global mar-
kets as the effects of the 14-month-
old credit crisis intensified.
A global consortium of banks,
working with government officials
in New York, announced late Sun-
day a $70 billion pool of funds to
lend to troubled financial compa-
nies. The aim, according to partici-
pants who spoke to The Associated
Press, was to prevent a worldwide
panic on stock and other financial
exchanges.
Ten banks - Bank of America,
Barclays. Citibank. Credit Suisse,
Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs,
JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan
Stanley and UBS - each agreed to
provide $7 billion "to help enhance
liquidity and mitigate the unprec-
edented volatility and other chal-
lenges affecting global equity and
debt markets."
The Federal Reserve also chipped
inwithmorelargesseinitsemergen-
cy lending program for investment
banks. The central bank announced
late Sunday that it was broadening
the types of collateral that financial
institutions can use to obtain loans
from the Fed.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke said the discussions had
been aimed at identifying "potential
market vulnerabilities in the wake
of an unwinding of a major financial'
institution and to consider appropri-
ate official sector and private sector
responses."
Futures pegged to the Dow
Jones industrial average fell more
than 300 points in electronic trad-
ing Sunday evening, pointing to a
sharply lower open for the blue chip
index Monday morning. Asian stock
markets were also falling.
The stunning weekend devel-
opments took olace as voters, who
rank the economy as their top con-
cern, prepare to elect a new presi-
dent in seven weeks. It likely will
spur a much greater focus by presi-
dential candidates - Republican
John McCain and Democrat Barack
Obama - and members of Congress
on the need for stricter financial
regulation.
Samuel Hayes, finance profes-
sor emeritus at Harvard Business
School,said the Bush administration
may get a lot of blame for the situa-
tion, which could benefit Obama.
"Just the psychological impact
of this kind of failure is going to be
significant," he said. "It will color
people's feelings about their well-
being and the integrity of the finan-
cial system."
Lehman Brothers may be forced
to seek an orderly unwinding of its
businesses. All potential buyers
walked away after the U.S. Trea-
sury refused to budge on its refusal
to provide any takeover aid, as it
had done six months ago when
Bear Stearns faltered and earlier
this month when it seized Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac.
Expectations that the 158-
year-old Lehman would survive
dimmed after Barclays PLC with-
drew its bid to buy the investment
bank. Barclays and Bank of America
were considered front-runners to
buy Lehman, which is foundering
under the weight of $60 billion in
soured real estate holdings.
Employees emerging Sunday
night from Lehman's headquar-
ters near the heart of Times Square
carried boxes, tote bags and duffel
bags, rolling suitcases, framed art-
work and spare umbrellas. Many
were emblazoned with the Lehman
Brothers name.
TV trucks lined Seventh Ave-
nue opposite the building, while
barricades at the building's main
entrance attempted to keep workers
and onlookers from gumming up
the steady flow of pedestrians flow-
ing in and out of Times Square.
Some workers had moist eyes
while a few others wept and shared
hugs. Most who left the building
quietly declined interviews.
People snapped pictures with
cameras and their phones. Observ-
ers pressed up against a police bar-
ricade drew the ire of one man who
emerged from the building and
shouted: "Are you enjoying watch-
ing this? You think this is funny?"
Merrill Lynch, another invest-
ment bank laid low bythe crisis that
was triggered by rising mortgage
defaults and plunging home values
in the U.S., agreed to be acquired
byBank of America for $29 a share,
according to a person briefed on
the deal who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the agreement
had not yet been finalized. That's a
premium to its closing price on Fri-
day of $17.05,.but only a fraction of
its price of almost $100 a share early
in 2007.
S Ul
f,
*