The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 9, 2008 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October 9, 2008 - IA
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Fed cuts interest
rate to 1.5 percent
Wall Street bounced higher and
lower yesterday trying to make up
its mind about an unprecedented
coordinated interest rate cut by
central banks around the world. In
the end it settled on a familiar feel-
ing - fear - and plunged again.
The Federal Reserve, desperate-
ly trying to jump-start the lending
that keeps the U.S. economy mov-
ing, dropped its closely watched
federal funds rate to 1.5 percent.
The cut from 2 percent took the
i rate to its lowest level in more than
four years.
Central banks in England,
China, Canada, Sweden and Swit-
zerland and the European Central
Bank also cut rates after a series of
high-stakes phone calls over sever-
al days between Fed Chairman Ben
Bernanke and his counterparts.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
Lawmaker's son
charged in Palin
e-mail hacking
The son of a Democratic Ten-
nessee state lawmaker charged
with hacking the e-mail account of
Republican vice presidential can-
didate Sarah Palin has pleaded not
guilty.
David Kernell (kur-NEHL'), 20,
of Knoxville, Tenn., entered the
plea in federal court in Knoxville
on Wednesday. His father is long-
time state Rep. Mike Kernell of
Memphis.
-David Kernell was released
without posting bond, but the
court imposed several conditions.
Kernell, an economics student at
the University of Tennessee, is not
allowed to own a computer and can
use the Internet only for checking
e-mail and doing class work.
KANSAS CITY, Mo
Missouri officials
investigate voter
registration fraud
Officials in Missouri, a hard-
fought jewel in the presidential
race, are sifting through possibly
hundreds of questionable or dupli-
cate voter-registration forms sub-
mitted by an advocacy group that
has been accused of election fraud
in other states.
Charlene Davis, co-director
of the election board in Jackson
County, where Kansas City is, said
the fraudulent registration forms
came from the Association of Com-
munity Organizations for Reform
Now, or ACORN. She said they
were bogging down work Wednes-
day, the final day Missourians
could register to vote.
"I don't even know the entire
scope of it because registrations
are coming in so heavy," Davis
said. "We have identified about
100 duplicates, and probably 280
addresses that don't exist, people
who have driver's license numbers
that won't verify or Social Security
numbers that won't verify. Some
have no address at all."
WASHINGTON
Pelosi proposes
stimulus bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
said yesterday that a $150 billion
economic stimulus plan is needed
now because of the faltering econ-
omy and she may call the House
into session after the election to
pass it.
Pelosi told reporters that the
stock market meltdown, which has
caused an estimated $2 trillion loss
from pension funds, was afactor in
her recommendation for a second
stimulus bill. The first relief plan
sent out $600-$1,200 tax rebate
checks to most individuals and
couples this year.
The House did pass a $61 billion
economic aid proposal last month
before lawmakers left Capitol Hill
ahead of the Nov. 4 election. But a
similar plan failed to pass the Sen-
ate. President Bush had promised a
veto anyway.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
4180
Number of American service
members who have died in the
war in Iraq, according to The
Associated Press. There were no
deaths identified yesterday.
Two U.S. scientists win
Nobel Prize for cell work
GAME TIME
Chemists' work
with jellyfish
reveals cell details
(AP) - Three U.S.-based scien-
tists won a Nobel Prize yesterday
for turning a glowing green pro-
tein from jellyfish into a revolu-
tionary way to watch the tiniest
details of life within cells and liv-
ing creatures.
Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese
citizen who works in the United
States, and Americans Martin
Chalfie and Roger Tsien shared
the chemistry prize for discover-
ing and developing green fluores-
cent protein, or GFP.
When exposed to ultraviolet
light, the protein glows green. It
can act as a marker on otherwise
invisible proteins within cells to
trace them as they go about their
business. It can tag individual
cells in tissue. And it can show
when and where particular genes
turn on and off.
Researchers worldwide now
use GFP to track development of
brain cells, the growth of tumors
and the spread of cancer cells.
It has let them study nerve cell
damage from Alzheimer's disease
and see how insulin-producing
beta cells arise in the pancreas of
a growing embryo, for example.
In awarding the prize, the
Royal Swedish Academy com-
pared the impact of GFP on
science to the invention of the
microscope. For the past decade,
the academy said, the protein has
been "a guiding star " for scien-
tists.
GFP's chemical cousins pro-
duce other colors, which let sci-
entists follow multiple cells or
proteins simultaneously.
"This is a technology that has
literally transformed medical
research," said Dr. John Fran-
gioni, an associate professor of
medicine and radiology at Har-
vard Medical School. "For the
first time, scientists could study
both genes and proteins in living
cells and in living animals."
Last year, in what the Nobel
citation called a "spectacular
experiment," Harvard research-
ers announced that they had
tagged brain cells in mice with
some 90 colors. The technique is
called "Brainbow."
GFP was first discovered by
Shimomura at Princeton Uni-
versity. He'd been seeking the
protein that lets a certain kind
of jellyfish glow green around its
edge. In the summer of 1961, he
and a colleague processed, tissue
from about 10,000 jellyfish they'd
collected near the island town of
Friday Harbor, Wash. The next
year, they reported the finding of
GFP.
Some 30 years later, Chalfie
showed that the GFP gene could
make individual nerve cells in a,
tiny worm glow bright green.
Tsien's work provided GFP-
like proteins that extended the
scientific palette to a variety of
colors. Tsien "really made it atool
that was extremely useful to lots
of people," Chalfie told reporters.
Shimomura, 80, now works at
the Marine Biological Labora-
tory in Woods Hole, Mass., and
the Boston University Medical
School. Chalfie, 61, is a professor
at Columbia University in New
York, while Tsien, 56, is a profes-
sor at the University of California,
San Diego, and an investigator
with the Howard Hughes Medi-
cal Institute.
The trio will split the $1.4 mil-
lion award.
LSA Junior Artun Kircali, LSA senior Dan Kechele, and Architecture senior Cam
Stewart participated in an intense Mario-Kart tournament at Pierpont Commons
yesterday. The winner of this dusty duel :ent home with a grand prize of $25.
Two journalists,
mtnissing.in Lebanon
Obama, MeCain would
both add to health care
An
bot
WAS]
McCain
reduce,
sured by
if fully p
Barack C
number'
sis predi
Some
presiden
plans i
can Mc
amount,
when it
uninsur(
lion. Bu
consulti
mistic s
number
health cc
lican no
McCa
to cost
from 20
Obama's
accordin
yesterda
vides sp
the total
McCa
credit o
or $5,00
health
would ri
ple now
coveragi
He also
ialysis shows across state lines when buying
insurance; that would bypass
h will expand states where insurance is more
expensive and comprehensive.
coverage The Lewin Group agreed that
many workers would lose their
HINGTON (AP) - John employer-sponsored health cov-
's health plan would erage under McCain's plan. That
the ranks of the unin- is because some companies would
about 21.1 million people discontinue coverage if most
rut in place by 2010, while workers could use the tax credit
Obama's would reduce the to get coverage elsewhere. In all,
by 26.6 million, an analy- about 16 million would lose cover-
cts. age, the firm.said.
previous reviews of the Some businesses would begin
itial candidates' health offering health insurance for
ndicated that Republi- the first time, partially offset-
Cain's proposals would ting those losses. In particular,
to little more than a wash companies with younger work-
comes to the number of ers would benefit from McCain's
ed, now at about 45 mil- proposal to let them shop in other
t The Lewin Group, a states, said John Sheils, the firm's
ng firm, drew a more opti- senior vice president. They would
cenario about the overall find that lower premiums made it
of people who would get possible to offer a health insur-
overage under the Repub- ance benefit.
minee's plan. Also, nearly 24 million people
in's plan was projected would use the tax credits McCa-
more than $2 trillion in has proposed to buy coverage
10 through 2019, while directly from insurers through
would cost $1.17 trillion, the individual market.
g to the analysis released Kenneth Thorpe, a professor at
y. Neither candidate pro- Emory University who conducts
recifics on how to cover similar analysis and advice for
1. Democratic candidates' health
in has proposed a tax plans, said he disagreed with the
f $2,500 for individuals firm's estimate for McCain's plan.
0 for a family that buys More than half of the workers
insurance. The credit who would lose employer-spon-
eplace the tax break pe6- sored coverage have a chronic
get for obtaining health health condition that would price
e through their work. them out of getting insurance in
wants to let people shop the individual market.
"They pulled the same overes-
timates for Bush last time with a
similar bill," Thorpe said.
About half the uninsured adults
are age 19-34. They are the young-
est and cheapest to cover, and the
ones who generally would gain
coverage under McCain's propos-
al, Sheils said.
"The people who are sick are
going to have a lot of trouble
affording coverage, even with the
credit," Sheils said.
Sheils said Obama's plan is
friendlier to those with chronic
health conditions. It will cover
about half the uninsured with
chronic conditions, such as diabe-
tes. Meanwhile, McCain's plan will
cover about a quarter of the unin-
sured with a chronic condition.
Obama's plan would expand
health insurance coverage
through public programs such as
Medicaid and the State Children's
Health Insurance Program. He
requires all children to have
health coverage. In all, about 16
million people would gain cov-
erage through those programs.
An additional 10 million would
use government subsidies to buy
insurance coverage.
Neera Tanden, domestic policy
director for the Obama campaign,
disputed several aspects of the
report. In particular, she said
gains in coverage under Obama's
plan would come primarily from
people using the tax credit to buy
private insurance, not through
the expansion of Medicaid and
SCHIP.
Pair was
traveling from
Beirut to Tripoli
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Two
American journalists vacationing
in Lebanon have not been heard
from since Oct.1 and are believed
missing, the U.S. Embassy said
yesterday, appealing for infor-
mation on their possible where-
abouts.
An embassy statement said
Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor
Luck, 23, reportedly left Beirut en
route to the northern Lebanese
port city of Tripoli.
The city is a predominantly
Sunni Muslim city where mili-
tants and Islamic fundamental-
ists are known to be active. It has
witnessed sectarian fighting in
the past few months as well as
two car bombs targeting Leba-
nese troops that killed 25 people
and left dozens others wounded.
Earlier this week, the embas-
sy had issued a statement to its
citizens about potential violent
actions targeting Americans
in Lebanon and called on its
nationals to increase their secu-
rity awareness. It said the threats
were particularly high in the first
half of October. I
The embassy says the pair had
arrived in Lebanon on Sept. 29
from Amman, Jordan for a vaca-
tion and told a friend on Oct. 1
that they were traveling from Bei-
rut to Tripoli through the coastal
town of Byblos in the north that
day. They were then to cross by
land to Syria before returning to
Jordan where they were due to
report to work on Oct. 4.
"The families ... are asking for
the public's assistance in provid-
ing information on the possible
whereabouts of the two U.S. citi-
zens," the statement said.
Lebanese security officials told
The Associated Press they are
searching for the two.
The officials said authorities
are searching for the two based
on information they had gone
missing and were trying to ascer-
tain whether they had left the
country. They spoke on condition
of anonymity in accordance with
military regulations and because
of the sensitivity of the subject.
The alleged disappearance of
the two Americans was reported
earlier Wednesday by the local
Al-Akhbar newspaper, which said
they arrived in Lebanon Sept. 29,
stayed in a hotel in Beirut and
checked out the next day, without
leaving the country. They have
not been heard of since, it said.
A Jordanian security official
confirmed that the two were
believed missing. He said U.S.
authorities in Beirut were inves-
tigating and that Jordanian
authorities are not involved. He -
spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to
talk to the press.
The U.S. Embassy said it was
coordinating efforts with embas-
sies in Amman and Damascus as
well as with the State Department
in Washington.
Nimr Shalala, manager of the
Beirut hotel where Chmela and
Luck had stayed, said they left the
hotel Sept. 30 after a one-night
stay. "They checked out, took all
their belongings and didn't say
anything," he told The AP.
August Student Di
airstrike
L AT E FRI-S
l1 E.
33, saysneXt toMCh
military9
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
military now says U.S. air-
strikes in Afghanistan on Aug.
22 killed 33 civilians, far more
than the U.S. had acknowl-
edged.
A statement released
Wednesday by the commander
of U.S. forces in the Middle
East summarizes the findings
of an investigation. The state- 7
ment from Lt. Gen. Martin
Dempsey asserts that despite
those deaths, U. S. forces J
involved in the attack in west- 9
ern Herat province acted based
on credible intelligence, in self-
defense and in line with rules 5
of engagement.
The attack was on a sus-16
pected Taliban compound.
Dempsey says the investigation 1
also found that 22 insurgents 1
were killed.n
The U.S. military originally 3 1
said five to seven civilians had
died. The Afghan government
and the U.N. have said the civil-
ian toll was 90.
,.
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Your Path Continues at Lehigh.
The College of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University seeks
graduate students who will contribute to a vibrant community
of scholars and join us in exploring knowledge and practice
through innovative research. Experience the individual attention
usually found in a small, liberal arts college; yet take advantage
of state-of-the-art laboratories, libraries and research facilities
offered only at a premier research university.
Discover Our Degrees in:
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Stop by our booth at the,
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or discover us online at
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" U N I V E R S I T Y.