The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September10, 2009 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Budget scramble
intensifies as
deadline nears
House Speaker Andy Dillon said
yesterday that Democrats who
control the Michigan House could
start passing revised budget bills
next week for the fiscal year that
starts Oct. 1.
His comments came after
Republican lawmakers and Demo-
cratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm said
they're anxious for House Demo-
crats to pass their version of leg-
islation addressing a $2.7 billion
budget shortfall so final budget
negotiations can take place. Law-
makers say they are trying to avoid
a repeat of 2007, when Michigan
was four hours into a partial gov-
ernment shutdown before the Leg-
islature signed off on a temporary
budget deal.
Speaking yesterday evening on
WJR-AM's "Ask the Governor"
program, Granholm said Michi-
gan would not go through another
shutdown like the one in 2007,
"when we had no budget and no
money. Now we have cash from
(the federal Recovery Act) but
we only have it for two years. We
won't have a cash flow problem but
we still have to get budget under
control."
BOGOTA, Colombia
Colombian police
seize millions in
cash from port
Colombian customs agents say
they seized $11.3 million in cash
from a shipping container in the
nation's largest cargo port.
National customs director
Nestor Diaz says it is the most cash
ever seized by police at a port in
Colombia, which is a major source
of cocaine trafficking. No arrests
were reported.
Diaz said yesterday the cash was
hidden in a shipment of ammo-
nium sulfate that arrived in the
Pacific coast port of Buenaventura
from Mexico. He didn't identify
the company that shipped the con-
tainer.
NEWTON, Massachusetts
Former Bush chief
of staff considers
Senate run
Former Bush White House Chief
of Staff Andrew Card said yester-
day he is "thinking very seriously"
about launching a campaign for the
Senate seat left vacant by the death
of Sen. Edward Kennedy.
"I would like very much to run for
the U.S. Senate," said the longtime
Republican stalwart, who said he
won't make a final decision until he
can discuss it further with his wife.
Card said he will announce his
final decision in the next three to
four days.
State Sen. Scott Brown, who has
been mulling a run for the Senate

seat, said yesterday that he would
urge Republicans to close ranks
behind Card. He said he would
drop his own bid if Card opts in.
"I amgoingto encourage all of you
to support Andy and to encourage
him to run," Brown told a meeting of
state Republicans in Newton, Mass.
Card's years serving in the White
House under former President
George W. Bush could prove to be
a dicey political hurdle in heavily
Democratic Massachusetts.
LOS ANGELES
Mother charged
with two counts of
murder
A mother accused of fatally slash-
ing her two daughters' throats inside
their Los Angeles home has been
charged with two counts of murder.
Antonia Gomez was also charged
yesterday with the special circum-
stance of multiple murders, making
her eligible for the death penalty if
convicted.
Prosecutors alleged Gomez
stabbed her 11-year-old daughter
Edith Moreno and her 17-year-old
sister Diana Moreno on Sept. 2
before cutting her own arms.
Relatives told the Los Ange-
les Times the 37-year-old mother
recently lost her job, could not make
mortgage payments on her Sun Val-
ley home, and had been hospitalized
for stress. Gomez also has a 14-year-
old daughter who was not at the
home at the time of the killings.
Bail was denied and Gomez'
arraignment was reset for Sept. 17.
- Compiled from
D ily wire reports

Obama tries to shift dialogue on health care

In speech before
Congress, President
lays out his plan
WASHINGTON (AP) - Shaking
off a summer of setbacks, President
Barack Obama summoned Con-
gress to enact sweeping health care
legislation last night, declaring the
"time for bickering is over" and the
moment has arrived to protect mil-

lions who have unreliable insur-
ance or no coverage at all.
Obamasaid the changeshe wants
would cost about $900 billion over
decade, "less than we have spent
on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
and less than the tax cuts for the
wealthiest few Americans" passed
during the Bush administration.
In a televised speech to a joint
session of Congress, Obama spoke
in favor of a provision for the fed-
eral government to sell insurance

in competition with private indus-
try. But in a remark certain to dis-
please liberals, he did not insist on
it, and said he was open to other
alternatives that create choices for
consumers.
Obama said he remains ready
to listen to all ideas but added in a
clear reference to Republicans, "I
will not;waste time with those who
have made the calculation that it's
better politics to kill this plan than
to improve it."

In an unusual outburst from
the Republican side of the House
chamber, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.,
shouted out "You lie" when the
president said illegal immigrants
would not benefit from his propos-
als. The president paused briefly
and smiled, but from her seat in the
visitor's gallery, first lady Michelle
Obama shook her head from side to
side in disapproval of the interrup-
tion. Wilson later apologized for
his "lack of civility."

In general, the president shied
away from providing lawmakers
with a list of particulars he wants
to see included in the legislation,
and there was nothing in the
speech to invite comparisons with
Bill Clinton's pen-waving veto
threat more than a decade ago on
health care.
Obama's speech came as the
president and his allies in Congress
readied an autumn campaign to
enact his top domestic priority.


TEXTBOOKS
From Page 1A
that it was going to make buying
textbooks cheaper."
Business sophomore Sara Jablow
said Shaman Drum was useful for
finding specialty and humanities
books, but she ultimately avoided
the store because of its high prices.
"Now people just have to buy
their books online," she said.
"Which is still easy and usually
cheaper anyway."
But despite the wide availability of
books online, many students still pre-
fer to purchase their books at a store
wheretheyknowtheyareguaranteed
to find the right edition and text.
"It's tough to get the right books

when there are a lot of editions of
the same one online," LSA sopho-
more Nicole Simovski said. "Plus
buying the books at a store like Sha-
man Drum was much easier than
spending a ton of time scouring the
Internet and hoping the book I or-
dered was in good shape."
Due to increasing complaints
about the financial burden text-
books place on students, some fac-
ulty like Ray McDaniel, an English
lecturer, have opted to use only ma-
terials that can be accessed by the
faculty and students for free.
"I no longer use textbooks of any
kind in any of my classes," said
McDaniel. "My students reported
the financial burden as unbear-
able. I now onlyuse materials that
are either in the public domain or

held in creative commons."
McDaniel's attitude signifies not
only a change in the textbook envi-
ronment, but also demonstrates the
very behavior that Pohrt said con-
tributed to Shaman Drum's demise.
Pohrt said the loss of Shaman
Drum's textbook sales, as well as
the store's other offerings, will have
a negative impact on campus. He
said the community will also miss
the author readings and workshops
it once hosted and the artsy flare
the shop provided on State Street.
"I argued that it was good to have
a store like that because it made it a

more vibrant and intellectual com-
munity in Ann Arbor."
In the wake of Shaman Drum's
closing, Pohrt uses the bookstore's
website to urge the community to
support other independent book-
shops in Ann Arbor, like Crazy Wis-
dom and Vault of Midnight, in light
of the troubles independent book-
stores are facing.
Because they were not involved
in the textbook industry, these oth-
er local businesses have not faced
the same problems that doomed
Shaman Drum.
In an effort to keep Shaman

Drum's presence on campus, Pohrt
applied for nonprofit status with
the IRS in March 2008, planning to
re-brand the business as the Great
Lakes Literary Arts Center. With
the nonprofit status, he would have
been eligible for government grants
and tax-deductible donations.
He was granted the nonprofit
status, but the business went un-
der before he could follow through
with his original goals. However,
his statement on the shop's web-
site indicates that he still intends
to pursue the Arts Center but as a
separate venture.

I


-J

--U.

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