w e 13idigan Bail

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

michigandaily.com

MAKIN' LOVE TO THE CAMERA

CITY HOUSiNG
Affordable
housing to
come to A
Plans mulled to planning to replace any loot
parking space by either build-
convert one of three ing underground parking lots or
additional levels to the parking
parking lots into lot on the corner of Ann Street
and Ashley Street.
low-income housing The housing site would include
60 to 100 single, one-bedroom
By LARA ZADE units, Hall said. She added that
Daily Staff Reporter the project requires a minimum of
60 units so that the revenue from
Washtenaw County and the rent can support various services,
city of Ann Arbor are teaming up like social work and security, for
to combat the lack of low-income its residents.
housing downtown. Hall said building on city- or
Community development offi- county- owned property is erd-
cials from both the city of Ann nomically beneficial because
Arbor and Washtenaw County there are no land acquisition
are proposing the conversion of costs. In addition, downtown
three downtown parking lots location offers readily available
into future sites for low-income services for special-needs tenants
housing. The development will be nearby.
especially targeted at residents The development costs to build
who make tO to 15 percent of the 60 units can range from $6.3 mil-
Ann Arbor area's median income. lion to $10.8 million and $7.4 to
Jennifer Hall, housing man- $14.7 million for 100 units, Hall
ager for the Washtenaw commu- said. Service costs range from
nity development department, $5,583/unit per year for 60 units
said the plans are geared towards to $4,848/unit per year for 100
people who have been displaced units.
by rising rents in the downtown Federal tax credits would
area and the closing of the city's cover 80 percent of the .build=
former YMCA, which used to ing's construction. Rent would
house low-income residents. be subsidized by project-based
The parking lots, which are vouchers, which are funded by
all city- or county-owned, are the federal Department of Hous-
located at the northwest corner ing and Urban Development.
of Catherine Street and Fourth Hall said developing low-
Avenue, the southwest corner income housing in a college
of Catherine Street and Fourth "town like Ann Arbor can be
Avenue and the southwest corner challenging because of the large
of Ann Street and FourthAvenue. student population. On the one
City and county officials are See HOUSING, Page 7A

Samantha Stencel and Matt Plonsker, self-proclaimed "sexperts" and hosts of WOLV-TV's "Turned On," offer their insights into the sex lives of students last night.
ICE HOCKEY AFTERMATH
DPS toreview-.o .n-ice clash

Two Michigan State
players leave team,
i one leaves school
By TREVOR CALERO and
CHRIS MESZAROS
Daily StaffReporters
On the same day that two Michi-
gan State players involved in an
on-ice attack on a Michigan defen-
seman decided to leave the team,
the Department of Public Safety
confirmed that they would be look-
ing into a possible criminal investi-

gation of the incident.
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown
said yesterday that University
Police will review the on-ice con-
duct of both Michigan State play-
ers, Andrew Conboy and Corey
Tropp, to determine whether or .
not to proceed with an investiga-
tion. The confirmation comes just
hours after Michigan State coach
Rick Comley announced the depar-
ture of both players at his weekly
press conference.
With less than a minute left
in Saturday's 5-3 win against the
Spartans, Michigan junior Steve
Kampfer laid a clean hit on Tropp.

Seconds later, Kampfer was hit
from behind into the boards by
Conboy and, while laying motion-
less on the ice, was slashed in the
head and neck areas by Tropp.
Comley called the hits "cheap"
and "uncalled for" after the
game.
Brown said that intent would be
a determining factor when consid-
ering whether or not to investigate
the incident, something that can be
hard to do in an athletic setting.
Many actions considered com-
monplace on an athletic playing
field would be viewed completely
differently in normal, everyday

life, Brown said. She added that
University Police must determine
if the players' actions contain ele-
ments of a crime, even in an on-ice
environment.
Both Conboy, a freshman, and
Tropp, a sophomore, decided to
leave the team a day after both
were suspended for the rest of the
hockey season, Comley said at his
weekly press conference yester-
day.
Conboy will also be withdraw-
jng from Michigan State University.
It is unclear if Tropp will remain
at Michigan State, but Comley said
See FALLOUT, Page 7A

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH
Students design gadget I
with power to save lives

Battery-powered
surgery lamp needed
for energy outages
By STEPHANIE STEINBERG
Daily StaffReporter
A surgeon is performing open
heart surgery in the Philippines.
But halfway through, the hospital
loses power. The lights go out. The

nurses fumble around in the dark
until they find a flashlight. With
no other option, the doctor con-
tinues the surgery with only the
flashlight's single beam of light for
guidance.
This is not a fictional story.
Hospitals in the Philippines and
across the world frequently expe-
rience blackouts in the middle of
surgeries and use flashlights as
their only light source. A Univer-
sity student group, Michigan's

Health Engineered for All Lives
(M-HEAL), is trying solve this
problem.
Last January, a group of 12
M-HEAL members, all College of
Engineering students, began con-
structing a design for a battery-
operated surgical lamp.
Julia Samorezov, president and
co-founder of M-HEAL, said the
group thought of the idea after
meeting technicians from World
See LAMP, Page 7A

ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN
University economists say Obama's
stimulus rebates won't do much

Michigan Student Assembly members, led by Sabrina Shingwani (center), watch as a man voiced his concerns about Gaza.
MSA passes trio of resolutions

Professors say
tax rebates fail to
achieve intended
'bang for the buck'
By BENJAMIN S. CHASE
Daily StaffReporter
While politicians in Washing-
ton D.C. debate over how to lead
the United States out of its current

recession; two University profes-
sors have their own ideas to add to
the discussion.
According Business Prof. Joel
Slemrod and Economics Prof.
Matthew Shapiro, tax rebates
shouldn't be a significant part of
the federal economic stimulus
package under consideration in
the U.S. Congress.
Though the $825 billion Ameri-
can Recovery Reinvestment Plan,
proposed by President Barack
tbama and Congressional Dem-

ocrats includes $275 billion in
rebates for taxpayers, Shapiro and
Slemrod's research shows that the
plan isn't likely to have a substan-
tial economic impact.
Research by the two profes-
sors on the last year's $152 billion
Economic Stimulus Act - which
provided tax rebates for low- and
middle-income families and tax
incentives for business investment
- found that the package didn't
provide the intended economic
See ECONOMISTS, Page 7A

Proposals seek to
solve problems for
student groups,
student-athletes
By JENNA SKOLLER
Daily StaffReporter
During last night's Michigan
Student Assembly meeting, mem-
bers passed resolutions to form
committees to address challenges

facing campus groups and help
better relations between students
and student athletes.Theyalsoput
in a bid to host a conference deal-
ing with gender identity issues.
Early into the meeting, mem-
bers voted to approve a student
organization task force designed
to "investigate any and all chal-
lenges facing student organiza-
tions on campus."
The resolution to create the
task force was authored by LSA
Reps. Gibran Baydoun and Chris
Armstrong.

The task force will conduct
interviews with student organi-
zations and provide reports with
recommendations for, improve-
ments to the assembly. The task
force will address challenges
including recruitment, funding,
advertising and findingvenues for
events.
Armstrong said he believed the
task force would prove useful in
fosteringmore involvementinstu-
dent organizations.
"There's a lot of red tape for
See MSA, Page 7A


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