S The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Friday, September 26, 2008 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Obama, Biden
and theirwives to
campaign in Detroit
Barack Obama, Joe Biden and
their spouses willhold a campaign
rally Sunday afternoon in front of
the Detroit Public Library.
The Democratic presidential
and vice presidential candidates
will be joined by their wives,
Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.
Obama and Biden are expected
toremindpeopleaboutMichigan's
Oct. 6 voter registration deadline.
Michigan is one of the key battle-
ground states in the presidential
campaign.
Campaign officials said yester-
day the rally starts at 1:30 p.m.,
with gates opening at 11 a.m. No
tickets are required.
LANSING
Poll: Obama leads
in Michigan by 13
points
A new poll shows Democrat Ba-
rack Obama leading Republican
John McCain in Michigan by 13
percentage points.
The Detroit Free Bress-WDIV
survey of 602 likely voters polled
from 'Monday to Wednesday
showed Obama with 51 percent
and McCain with 38 percent. Lib-
ertarian Bob Barr got 1 percent
and independent Ralph Nader, less
than 1 percent. Ten percent were
undecided in the poll released yes-
terday.
The telephone poll was conduct-
ed by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines,
Iowa. It has a margin of sampling
error of plus or minus 4 percentage
points.
A previous Free Press-WDIV
poll, conducted Aug. 17-20, showed
Obama leading McCain 46 percent
to 39 percent. That poll's margin of
sampling error was plus or minus 4
percentage points.
WASHINGTON
Number of jobless
claims reach highest
level in sevenyears
Weekly jobless claims surged
to the highest level in seven years,
durable goods orders took a bigger-
than-expected tumble and new
home sales plunged to the slowest
pace in 17 years, according to gov-
ernment data released yesterday.
The latest trifecta of bad news
about the economy raised new
worries about a possible recession
and underscored the concerns
that are driving Congress and the
White House to reach agreement
on an historic bailout of the finan-
cial system.
The Labor Department report-
ed that jobless claims jumped by
32,000 to a seasonally adjusted
493,000 last week, the highest level
since shortly after the Sept.11, 2001
terrorist attacks and far above what
economists had been expecting.
JIUQUAN, China

Chinese launch
three-man crew
into space
China successfully launched a
three-man crew into space yester-
day to carry out the country's first
spacewalk, beginning the nation's
most challenging space mission
since it first sent a person into
space in 2003.
The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft,
China's third manned mission,
blasted off atop a Long March 2F
rocket shortly after 9:00 a.m. EDT
under clear night skies in north-
western China.
The spacewalk by one of the
astronauts is expected to take place
either on Friday or Saturday.
Underscoring the mission's
heavy political overtones, Chinese
President and Communist Party
head Hu Jintao was shown live on
state television hailing the astro-
nauts at the launch site near the
northwestern town of Jiuquan.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
S DEAT HIS
4917
Number of American service
members who have died in the
war in Iraq, according to The
Associated Press. The following
death was identified yesterday:
Col. Sidney J. Marceaux Jr., 69,
Beaumont, Texas

Campus charity run to
end at Big House Sunday

JPMorgan, government to
take over Wash. Mutual

Event raised
$200,000 last year
By JILLIAN BERMAN
Daily StaffReporter
The Michigan football team
isn't the only group taking the Big
House by storm this weekend.
On Sunday, Ann Arbor will
play host to the second annual Big
House Big Heart race, a charity
run that drew nearly 5,000 par-
ticipants and raised more than
$200,000 last year.
Entry fees will benefit the C.S.
Motts Children's Hospital and
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
research at the University, but par-
ticipants are encouraged to form
their own teams and raise money
for any charity of their choice.
University alum Kim McDowell
is headingup a team that will benefit
the University Center for the Devel-
opment of Language and Literacy,
an organizationcthat offers language
FASTING
From Page1A
that was motivation."
MSA President Yamaan Saadeh,
an LSA senior, said fundraising
isn't the only goal of the program.
"One part of it is, by fasting from
food and water, appreciating the

and literacy training to adults with
brain injuries and children with
language-related disorders.
McDowell said she's excited to
be part of the event because it gets
University students involved in the
Ann Arbor community. Her team
includes students, clients at the
center and even client parents.
"I think that what makes this
event so different is it does a really
good job uniting the student popu-
lation and the Ann Arbor com-
munity," she said. "You have the
people who want to do it because.
it's in the Big House, and then you
have people that are involved in
non-profitorganizations."
Mike Highfield, a University
alum and Ann Arbor resident, who
started the event, developed the
charity run after his law partner
was diagnosed with ALS in 2005.
A longtime runner with a love for
Michigan athletics, Highfield saw
a need for a race that ends in the
Big House.
Last year's course went through
bring positives, and building your
self-control," he said. "If you lie or
you cheat or you steal or do some-
thing immoral, it takes away from
your fast."
Saadeh also said that sexual
activity is prohibited during the
fast.
LSA junior Brad Sisson, a non-
Muslim student who participated

Central Campus, but because of
the increased traffic that will
accompany the afternoon start
time of this year's race, it will
run through the athletic complex
instead. The race ends with a dash
through the Michigan Stadium
tunnel. Runners will be able view
their finish on the stadium's big
screens.
He expects this year's event to
draw at least 7,500 participants
and a bigger haul for charities
than last year. Holding the race
in the afternoon as opposed to the
morning should entice more stu-
dents to participate, he said.
"We're trying to reach out to
the students and we thought we
might even have a better chance of
gettingstudents on a Sunday after
a football game," Highfield said.
"Everybody's hopefully out of bed
and sobered up by 10, so they can
get out to the race."
Participants can register online
for either the 5K or the one-mile
race.
in Fast-a-thon for the first time
yesterday, said nixing the nega-
tives were more difficult for him
than not eating or drinking.
"For me, it's basically a regular
day. I mean, I don't eat breakfast
and I don't usually eat until din-
ner," he said. "Trying not to think
negative thoughts and stuff like
that, it's really a challenge."

NEW YORK (AP) - JPMorgan
Chase & Co. Inc. came to the res-
cue of Washington Mutual Inc.
yesterday, buying the thrift's bank-
ing assets after WaMu was seized
by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. in the largest failure ever of
a U.S. bank. This is the second time
in six months that JPMorgan Chase
has taken over a major financial
institution crippled by bad bets in
the mortgage market.
The . deal will cost JPMorgan
Chase $1.9 billion, and the bank
said in a statement it planned to
write down WaMu's loan portfo-
lio by approximately $31 billion.
JPMorgan Chase, which acquired
Bear Stearns Cos. last March, also
said it would sell $8 billion in com-
mon stock to raise its capital posi-
tion.*
The FDIC, which insures bank
deposits, said it would not have
to dip into the insurance fund as
a result of the seizure. There had
been concerns that the fund, which
took a big hit after the seizure of
IndyMac Bank, could be depleted
by a WaMu seizure.
WaMu "was under severe liquid-

ity pressure," FDIC Chairman
Sheila Bair told reporters in a con-
ference call.
"For all depositors and other
customers of Washington Mutual
Bank, this is simply a combination
of two banks," Bair said in a state-
ment. "For bank customers, it will
be a seamless transition. There will
be no interruption in services and
bank customers should expect busi-
ness as usual come Friday morn-
ing.
The government measures bank
failures by an institutions's assets;
Seattle-based WaMu has roughly
'$310 billion in assets. The previous
record was the failure of Continen-
tal Illinois National Bank in 1984,
with $40 billion in assets when it
closed. IndyMac, seized in July, had
$32 billion.
WaMu was searching for a
lifeline after piling up billions of
dollars in losses due to failed mort-
gages. WaMu has seen its stogk
price plummet by 87 percent this
year, and it suffered a ratings down-
grade by Standard & Poor's earlier
this week that put it in danger of
collapse.

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what it's like to not have food and
water," he said. "We're hoping to
share that with non-Muslims."
Ramadan also involves
abstaining from some undesir-
able habits, including swearing,
arguing and thinking negative
thoughts. Saadeh said applying
those practices can help students
in their daily lives, even after the
holy month ends.
"It's not just fasting from food
and water - it's also a spiritual
exercise, as well. It's supposed to

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Dems slam Ho o K
McCain


campaign
stoppage
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen.
John McCain's self-portrait as
a bold leader willing to set poli-
tics aside to save an endangered
financial bailout plan took a
pounding yesterday from top
Democrats and even some fellow
Republicans.
His efforts to re-energize his
presidential campaign will part-
ly turn on who wins. the public
relations battle, destined to play
out for days. Things didn't go too
wellfor McCain onThursday.
Top Democrats in Congress
ridiculed his role after a cha-
otic end to a White House sum-
mit meeting that McCain had
requested, and which included
Democratic nominee Barack
Obama. McCain's own campaign
said the session "devolved into a
contentious shouting match."
The campaign statement sug-
gested Obama was at fault. But
Democrats were disdainful.
"John McCain did nothing
to help," said Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who
attended the meeting. "He only
hurt the process."
Hours later,whennegotiations
hastily resumed in the Capitol,
House Republicans refused to
send a representative authorized
to bargain.
"This is the president's own
party," said Rep. Barney Frank
of Massachusetts, a chief Demo-
cratic negotiator. "I don't think
a president has been repudiated
so strongly by the congressional
wing of his own party in a long
time."
"We still don't know whether
Sen. McCain works with them or
not," he added.
Negotiations that had centered
on a $700 billion plan the Bush
administration presented last
Saturday seemed to fall apart. An
alternative plan drafted by con-
servative House Republicans was
discussed at the White House
meeting, but McCain's level of
interest was unclear.
"At this moment, the plan
that has been put forth by the
administration does not enjoy
the confidence of the American
people as it will not protect ..
taxpayers andwill sacrifice Main
Street in favor of Wall Street,"
the McCain campaign said in a
statement. "We are still optimis-
tic that a bipartisan solution will
be found," it said.

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Tuesday, September 30 * 10 AM - 4 PM
Wednesday, October 1-* 10AM - 2 PM
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