The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
. DETROIT
GM begins white-
collar layoffs with
160 pink slips
Dreaded white-collar job cuts at
General Motors Corp. started yes-
terday as the wounded automaker
began to deliver on promises to
the government to shrink its work
force so it can be profitable at lower
sales levels.
Yesterday morning, GM told 160
people at its manufacturing engi-
neeringoperations inWarrenMich.,
that they would be laid off as of April
1, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said.
It's the beginning of 3,400 sala-
ried layoffs in the U.S. and part of
the 47,000 job cuts that GM wants
to accomplish worldwide by the
end of the year, Wilkinson said.
"It will impact every area of
" the business. Some of those will
be through normal attrition, but
there will be a significant number
of involuntary separations coming
from now through the early part of
May," Wilkinson said.
WASHINGTON
Iverson ordered to
pay $260K for
bar fight in 2005
NBA star Allen Iverson must pay
$260,000 for standing idly by and
watching his bodyguard beat up
another man in a 2005 bar fight, a
federal appeals court ruled yester-
Wday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit
rejected the Detroit Pistons guard's
attempt to throw out the verdict
decided by a jury in 2007.
Bar patron Marlin Godfrey
accusedIverson'sbodyguard,Jason
Kane, of punching, kicking and hit-
ting him with a bottle because he
refused to vacate the VIP section
at Washington club Eyebar to make
way for the basketball star and
his entourage. Godfrey suffered a
concussion, a ruptured eardrum, a
burst blood vessel in his eye, a torn
rotator cuff, cuts and bruises, and
emotional injuries.
A three-judge appeals court
panel wrote that Iverson stayed out
of the fray in the back corner of the
VIP area, standing on a couch or
bench and observing.
DETROIT
Woman gets three
years probation for
hosting sex party
A woman accused of hosting a
party at her Detroit home featur-
ing lap dances, sex and her par-
tially nude 16-year-old daughter
has been sentenced to three years'
probation.
Wayne County Circuit Judge
Thomas Jackson yesterday sen-
tenced the woman, who pleaded
guilty last month to maintaining or
operating a house of ill fame.
Jackson also sentenced Samuel
Benning, who was arrested at the
Dec. 7 party, to at least one year in

prison. The Detroit man pleaded
guilty to drug and other charges.
Jackson found Stanley Ferguson
of Detroit guilty in a bench trial of
an alcohol charge. He will be sen-
tenced April 16.
FARGO, N.D.
City comes together
in race against river
As the swelling Red River lapped
within 30 feet of his back door, Car-
lis Kramer's property resembled
nothing so much as a bustling con-
struction site.
In a well-ordered ballet, four
people loaded sandbags, four others
hauled them to the house and anoth-
er person stacked them into a dike.
This is how Fargo responds to
the threat of record flooding: Hun-
dreds of people from all walks of
life have joined forces to shield the
community from the rising river,
racing to fill 2 million sandbags.
The effort has drawn football
players, soldiers, high school stu-
dents, even a Microsoft engineer
- all fearful of enduring another
disaster like the devastating floods
of 1997.
"A friend of mine brought his
neighbor's kids, and friends of
family bring boyfriends and girl-
friends," Kramer said.
The 1997 floods forced tens of
thousands of people to flee homes
in North Dakota, Minnesota and
southern Canada in one of the cost-
liest and largest flood evacuations
in U.S. history before Hurricane
Katrina.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Insurers offer to stop
charging the sick more

Proposal introduced
in a letter to key
senators yesterday
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
health insurance industry offered
yesterday for the first time to
curb its controversial practice
of charging higher premiums to
people with a history of medical
problems.
The offer from America's
Health Insurance Plans and the
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Asso-
ciation is a potentially significant
shift in the debate over reforming
the nation's health care system
to rein in costs and cover an esti-
mated 48 million uninsured peo-
ple. It was contained in a letter to
key senators.
In the letter, the two insurance
industry groups said their mem-
bers are willing to "phase out the
practice of varying premiums
based on health status in the indi-
vidual market" if all Americans
are required to get coverage.
"The offer here is to transition
away from risk rating, which is
one of the things that makes life
hell for real people," said health

economist Len Nichols of the
New America Foundation public
policy center. "They have never
in their history offered to give up
risk rating."
Insurers are trying to head
off the creation of a government
insurance plan that would com-
pete with them, something that
liberals and many Democrats
are pressing for. To try to win
political support, the industry
has already made a number of
concessions. Last year, for exam-
ple, insurers offered to end the
practice of denying coverage to
sick people. They also said they
would support a national goal of
restraining cost increases.
The latest offer goes beyond
that.
Insurance companies now
charge very high premiums to
people who are tryingto purchase
coverage as individuals and have a
history of medical problems, such
as diabetes or skin cancer. Even if
such a person is offered coverage,
that individual is often unable to
afford the high premiums. About
7 percent of Americans buy their
coverage as individuals, while
more than 60 percent have job-
based insurance.

"This changes everything,"
said Karen Ignagni, president
of America's Health Insurance
Plans, the leading trade group.
"When you have everyone in
the system, and you can bring
(financial) assistance to working
families, then you can move away
health status rating."
The companies leftthemselves
several outs, however. The letter
said they would still charge dif-
ferent premiums based on such
factors as age, place of residence,
family size and benefits pack-
age.
And importantly, the industry
did not extend to small business-
es their offer to stop charging
the sick higher premiums. Small
employers who offer coverage
can see their premiums zoom up
from one year to the next, even if
just one worker or family mem-
ber gets seriously ill.
Ignagni said the industry is
working on separate proposals
for that problem.
"We are in the process of talk-
ing with small business folks
across the country," she said. "We
are well on the way to proposing
a series of strategies that could be
implemented for them."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, left, looks on as Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Decrying AG
top offi'ecials ask
for -more control

Israel's Labor Party leader Ehud Barak gestures, during a meeting of the party's central committee in Tel Aviv.
Labor Party votes to join
new Israeli government

Geithner, Bernanke
call for increased
oversight of U.S.
financial companies
WASHINGTON (AP) - Point-
ing with dismay to the AIG deba-
cle, the nation's top economic
Sofficials argued yesterday- for.
unprecedented powers to regulate
and even take over financial goli-
aths whose collapse could imperil
the entire economy. President
Barack Obama agreed and said he
hoped "it doesn't take too long to
convince Congress."
Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner and Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a
rare joint appearance before a
House committee, said the messy
federal intervention into Ameri-
can International Group, an
insurance giant, demonstrated
a need to regulate complex non-
bank financial institutions just
as banks are now regulated by
the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp.
"AIG highlights broad failures
of our financial system," Geithner
told the House Financial Services
Committee. "We must ensure that
our countrynever faces this situa-
tion again."
But the two appeared divided
over where the authority should

reside. Geithner suggested his
Treasury Department's powers
be expanded. Bernanke was non-
committal, even suggesting the
FDIC.
Both officials sought to channel
the widespread public outrage over
the millions of dollars AIG spent
in post-bailout bonuses into sup-
port for regulatory overhaul. Gei-
thner was expected to lay out more
details on the administration's plan
Thursday when he appears again
before the committee.
Democrats in the Senate say
the administration wants the
proposal on taking over non-
banks to move separately from
the larger financial industry reg-
ulatory bill, to get it going more
quickly.
At the White House, Obama
told reporters, "We are already
hard at work in putting forward
a detailed proposal. We will work
in consultation with members
of Congress. That will be just
one phase of a broader regula-
tory framework that we're going
to have to put in place to prevent
these kinds of crises from hap-
pening again."
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,
the committee chairman, said
that "when nonbank major finan-
cial institutions need to be put
out of their misery, we need to
give somebody the authority to
do what the FDIC can do with
banks."

Dec
680
ro

-ision passed by a
-507 vote, makes
om for broader
government

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's
Labor Party voted yesterday to
join the incoming government
of Benjamin Netanyahu, lending
a moderate voice to a coalition
dominated by hard liners and eas-
ing concerns of a head-on con-
frontation with Washington over
Mideast peacemaking.
Chants of "Disgrace! Dis-
grace!" echoed through the
convention hall after Defense
Minister Ehud Barak pushed
through the proposal despite
angry opposition from party
activists who feared Labor would
give only a superficial gloss to a
government little interested in
movingtoward peace.
Labor's move gives Netanya-
hu's coalition a majority of 66 in
the 120-seat parliament.
Labor's decision, by a 680-
507 vote, paves the way for a
broader government than the
narrow and hawkish one Netan-
yahu would otherwise have
had to settle for, increasing his
chances of gaining international
acceptance.
Barak was set to remain
defense minister, a key position
in the new Cabinet, that could
allow Labor to promote peace
efforts with the Palestinians.
On the other hand, the
expected appointment of Avig-
dor Lieberman as foreign min-
ister could overshadow Barak's
input. Lieberman is widely per-
ceived as a racist because of his
demands that Israel's minority
Arabs take a loyalty oath or for-
feit their citizenship.
Yesterday, Jewish extremists
marched through the north-
ern Israeli-Arab town of Umm
el-Fahm, demanding residents
show loyalty to Israel and set-
ting off stone-throwing protests
by Arab youths that police dis-

persed with stun grenades and
tear gas. No serious injuries were
reported, butresidents denounced
the march on one of Israel's larg-
est Arab communities.
In Israel, the prime minister
sets the tone for his government,
and Netanyahu remains deeply
skeptical about negotiations with
the Palestinians. The past year of
U.S.-backed talks have produced
no discernible results, because
the leadership of both sides
appeared too weak to make the
necessary concessions on vital
issues like borders, refugees and
settlements.

Netanyahu claims the Palestin-
ians are not ready for statehood
and suggests economic develop-
ment instead. The Palestinians
reject that and have received the
backing of Secretary of State Hil-
lary Rodham Clinton. She empha-
sized several times during a visit
here this month that the Obama
administration's goal is creation
of a Palestinian state that would
live in peace next to Israel.
Yesterday's contentious vote
drove a wedge through Barak's
Labor party, opening the way for
a possible split - if not now, then
in the future.

GR 1iSAT MT TnO AT Only Kaplan Offers: Kaplan's programs
The MostPersonalized Prep go virtual! GMAT prep
Unmatched Expertise is now available Live
GuaranteedResults Otline.
Visitkaptestcom/I5orebate
or cl1-00KAP-TEST
PREER O OE