ici n 43al194 .,- ..IS FJEDIT(,"RL 1REED1 S Ann Arbor, Michigan Friday, January 16, 2009 michigandaily.com CLEANING CRISLER FOR A GOOD CAUSE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY Big names to talk on MLK Day ARIEL BOND/Daily Students in the Pre-Med and Women's Ultimate Frisbee Clubs clean up Crisler Arena last night after the women's basketball game. Proceeds from helping with the clean- up went to support Camp Make-A-Dream for cancer patients. Pictured from left to right: Ashley Daily and Engineering freshman Kelsey DeLave. For more on the basketball game, see Sports, Page 8. REBUILDING MICHIGAN'S ECONOMY Mich. leaders push for funds NAACP chair, 'Daily Show' personality to speak for symposium By ELIN BERGMAN Daily StaffReporter In an effort to reach a wide audi- ence, this year's Martin Luther King Jr. symposium will feature speakers that include NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Larry Wilmore from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Bond will deliver the keynote speech Monday morning at Hill Auditorium. Theda Gibbs, coordinator for the MLK symposium planning com- mittee, said Bond was invited to speak because of his long-standing commitment to civil rights. Bond, who was a member of the Geor- gia General Assemhly for over 20 years, has heen chair of the NAACP since 1998. "We think about current events, and we think of a person whose life and work have been creating positive change in our community," Gibbs said of the selection process. Gibbs said Bond will address a variety of topics including what changes to expect when Barack Obama becomes president. "I'm sure he'll forecast what will happenwhen (Obama) takes office," she said. In addition to Bond, Larry Wilmore, the so-called "Senior Black Correspondent" from "The Daily Show," will be speaking as part of the symposium. Though best known for his role on the Comedy Central staple, Wilmore has also written for tele- vision series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "The Jamie Foxx Show." Helen Look, chair of the Univer- sity Library MLK Day committee, said it chose Wilmore because of his ability to connect to students. "We really wanted to reach out to the student population," Look said. "We felt like we wanted to do something that would really appeal to students. I think'that the whole idea of the campus symposium is to look at different aspects of what the theme is. Granholm, Levin say bailout money would help diversify Michigan economy By BENJAMIN S. CHASE Daily StaffReporter With almost every sector of the state's economy faltering and unemployment soaring far above national levels, Michigan lawmak- ers say that the proposed federal economic stimulus package cannot be enacted quickly enough. The federal economic stimulus package proposed by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the incoming Obama adminis- tration will combine tax cuts with large-scale government spending. The plan has a total price tag of $825 billion. The stimulus, which appears likely to pass in both the House and Senate, will include projects overseen by the federal govern- ment, and large amounts of aid given directly to states based on their specific needs. "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" of 2009 was introduced as a bill in the House yesterday. A Senate version of the bill has yet to be drafted and pro- posed. In interviews and state- ments this week, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Gov. Jennifer Gra- nholm (D-Mich.) revealed some details of their planned pitches for bailout funds. At the state level, Granholm is dealing with an economic crisis not seen in decades. She said in an e-mail interview this.week that she plans to work to create jobs as quickly as possible across all sec- tors of the economy, using funding from the stimulus package to facil- itate work on ready-to-go projects statewide. "In Michigan, this package will allow us to create jobs today, create jobs and an economy for tomorrow and prevent the state from making cuts that will make the economy worse by hurting people," she said. She also said that she expects the package to create jobs in con- struction, health care and infor- mation technology sectors. Though unable to provide spe- cifics about the just how much See STIMULUS, Page 7 Look said she expects Wilmore's speech, called "Don't Take Diver- sity Seriously: Just Kidding!" to be an "honest discussion" of race rela- tions in the United States. "He knouts how to bring in humor in things," she said. "He's going to be talking about the elec- tion, the upcoming presidential inauguration, any of the current news events." Gibbs said the timing of the sym- posium with the historical inaugu- ration of the first black president will affect the atmosphere. "I think people will be excited," See MLK DAY, Page 7 CAMPUS FLOOD Water main breaks, bus routes altered 100 attend rally for Israeli cause Water gushed down Murfin Avenue, causing buses to take detours By JILLIAN BERMAN Daily News Editor Yesterday morning, a water main on Murfin Avenue between Hubbard Street and Duffield Drive burst, shutting down traffic for a block and forcing detours for many University bus routes. Bitsy Lamb, a manager for Park- ing and Transportation Services, said she expects that bus service will be affected at least through the rest of today. Lamb said that though most buses will be making detours and some bus routes won't be run- ning at all, students shouldn't be concerned because buses will still service all stops. "We're not missing any stops, we're covering them with some- thing," she said. "There is some coverage. There is just not what (students) are expecting so they just have to re-group." Lamb said the Bursley-Baits bus route, which rusps from Cen- tral Campus to Bursley Hall, will take a detour on Plymouth Road to avoid the shut-down block. The Northwood Express route, which runs between Northwood Hous- ing and Central Campus, won't be running at all. Instead, those buses will run on the Diag-to- Diag route, which takes students between the North Campus and Central Campus Diags. Lamb said students should expect delays, especially during rush hour. "We will be probably pretty negatively affected at rush hour time on Maiden Lane," she said. "It's very congested, it's a one lane in, one lane out. It's pretty ugly at rush hour, and we're just going to make it worse." Engineering graduate student Yi Qing Qu felt the effects of the slow down yesterday while he was waiting at the C.C. Little bus stop. Qu said he was originally planning to go to Pierpont Commons, but was surprised when thebus driver announced that there was goingto be a detour. "They dropped us off near Glen See WATER MAIN, Page 7 Students defend Israel's military advances into Gaza By AMY MUNSLOW Daily StaffReporter About 100 people gathered in front of the Hatcher Graduate Library last night to participate in a rally to support Israel. The event, held last night by Israel Initiating Dialogue, Edu- cation, and Advocacy (IDEA), was in defense of Israel's military advances in Gaza over the past 20 days. IDEA's chair, Ben Kaminsky, said in an interview before the rally that the purpose was to show support for the country of Israel. Students read the names of Israeli soldiers killed in the con- flict as well as prayers for Israel. "We hope to show Israel that America stands united behind Israel's actions and their right to defend themselves," he said. The participants were mainly University students holding Israe- li flags and signs. Rally-goers also wore buttons, which read, "Sup- port Israel, Support Peace." Ari Parritz, president of the Interfraternity Council, gave a speech defending the military advances of Israel and urging American citizens to stand behind its actions. As of last night, The Associated Press reported that See ISRAEL RALLY, Page 7 Ari Parritz speaks to a group of pro-Israel supporters during a rally on the steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library last night. RESEARCH AT THE 'U' 'U' prof. helps develop artificial bone marrow 7-year project leads to new instrument for medical research By AMY MUNSLOW Daily StaffReporter A collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch and the Uni- versity of Michigan was the first to successfully produce functional artificial bone marrow, paving the way for future research on human reactions to new drugs. The venture - a joint effort between a University of Michigan biomedical engineering professor and two researchers from the Uni- versity of Texas Medical Branch - took seven years to complete and was funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The project is currently being used as a model to test the human immune system's response to new drugs. Joan Nichols, one of the UTMB researchers, said the artificial bone marrow system is a step forward for drug testingbecause it provides a far more accurate response than tests on bone marrow from mice or rats. She added that further possi- bilities for potentialuses of the arti- ficial bone marrow are endless. "It willhelp scientiststhat design vaccines to treat infections or envi- ronmental exposure to chemicals that cause leukemiaor other diseas- es," Nichols said. "It could even be used to test the immune response to cosmetics or foods." For the project, Kotov created a matrix that mimics the tissues that See BONE MARROW, Page 7 TODAY'S HI:20 WEATHER LU:19 GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. ONTHEDAILY BLOGS INDEX NEWS...................... ........2 SUDOKU...............................5 Pitch your suggestions for the new Daily website. Vol. CXIX, No.75 OPINION..............................4 C LASS I F I E DUS .............6 EDITORSPAGE.BLOGS.MICHIGANDAILY.COM 02009 The Michigan Daily ARTS......SPORTS. . . . 8 michigandoilp~com R S...., P R S.... A