The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
Thursday, September 17, 2009 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September17, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
Rodriguez says he
didn't see Mouton's
punch
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez
says he didn't see linebacker Jonas
Mouton (MOO'-tahn) throw a
punch at Notre Dame lineman Eric
Olsen.
Rodriguez faced questions yes-
terday as video of the incident dur-
ing Saturday's 38-34 Wolverines
victory spread on the Internet.
Mouton appears to swing at Olsen's
chin after getting up from the turf
after Olsen fell on him.
Rodriguez says an official would
have called any infraction and says
Mouton won't face discipline.
Weis said Sunday he was sending
videotape of several plays to the Big
Ten offices seeking answers to why
certain calls weren't made, includ-
ing "punches to the face after plays
were over."
He says he got a response from
the Big Ten but says it's a private
matter.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Advocacy group
ACORN to
investigate video
An advocacy group says it is
ordering an independent investi-
gation after two employees were
caught on camera appearing to
advise a couple posing as a prosti-
tute and pimp to lie about the wom-
an's profession.
ACORN chief executive Bertha
Lewis said 'Wednesday that the
group will work with its advisory
council to name an independent
auditor and investigator to exam-
ine all the systems and processes
called into question by the video.
Lewis says ACORN, which
stands for Association of Com-
munity Organizations for Reform
Now, will refuse new admissions
into its service programs, effective
immediately.
ACORN's steps cospe as Repub-
licans urge the Justice Depart-
ment to investigate the group,
which in addition to the hidden-
camera video is under scrutiny for
several voter-registration fraud
SEOUL SOUTH KOREA
Chinese envoy
meets North Korea
nuclear strategist
China's presidential envoy met
with North Korea's top nuclear
strategist amid intensifying inter-
national efforts to persuade Pyong-
yang to return to stalled six-nation
talks on its atomic weapons pro-
grams.
Dai Bingguo, special envoy of
Chinese President Hu Jintao, had
a "candid and in-depth exchange
of views" on bilateral, regional and
international issues with the North's
Fist Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok
Ju on Wednesday, Pyongyang's offi-
cial news agency said.
Kang is North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il's chief foreign policy brain
and has been the main strategist for
dealing with the standoff over its
nuclear programs for decades. The
Chinese delegation also included
Beijing's chief nuclear negotiator,
Wu Dawei.
The North's Korean Central
News Agency said in a brief dis-
patch that the talks went "in a com-
rade atmosphere" but did not give
further details on their discussions.
Still, it is widely believed that the
nuclear row was a key topic among
the "international issues" they dis-
cussed.
PITTSBURGH
Google acquires
ReCAPTCHA
Google has acquired a Carnegie
Mellon University spin-offthat seeks
to cut down on spam and fraud at
Web sites while digitizing books.
ReCAPTCHA offers simple word
puzzles that users must solve when
registering at a Web site or complet-
ing an online purchase. Computers
can't decipher the twisted letters and
numbers, ensuring that real people
and not automated programs are at
the keyboard.
Unlike other word puzzles, how-
ever, ReCAPTCHA's text comes
from actual books, letting the system
create a digitized version in the pro-
cess.
Terms of the deal, announced yes-
terday, were not disclosed. Google
said the ReCAPTCHA tool will con-
tinue to be available for use on any
Web site.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Baucus unveils
health care
reform plan
GOP criticizes
long-awaited plan
from Senate Finance
Commitee chair
WASHINGTON (AP) - His calls
for compromise rebuffedby Repub-
licans, the Democratic chairman
of the Senate Finance Committee
unveiled sweeping legislation yes-
terday to remake the nation's costly
health care system largely along the
lines outlined by President Barack
Obama.
Sen. Max Baucus' proposal,
months in the making, drew quick
criticism from liberals who said his
vision was too cramped and from
Republicans who deemed it overly
expansive. Yet whatever its fate,
its mere release marked a critical
turning point in Congress' long and
tumultuous debate over Obama's
top domestic priority.
The Finance Committee is to
meet next week to vote on the
plan, and after combining it with
another panel's bill, Major-
ity Leader Harry Reid intends to
begin debate on the Senate floor
late this month or early Octo-
ber. Across the Capitol, Speaker
Nancy Pelosi has been waiting to
see Baucus' health care prescrip-
tion before advancing compan-
ion legislation toward a vote by
the House.
"We cannot let this opportu-
nity pass," Baucus, D-Mont., said
as he outlined a $856 billion plan'
designed to protect millions who
have unreliable insurance or no
coverage at all, at the same time
restraining the explosive growth of
medical costs.
Congressional budget experts
estimated the proposal would
reduce the ranks of the uninsured
by 29 million over a decade. They
also predicted the plan would trim
federal deficits by $49 billion over
the same period and suggested sav-
ings in the range of hundreds of bil-
lions of dollars might result for the
decade that follows.
Many of the bill's major provi-
sions would be delayed until 2013,
SUSAN WALSH/AP
Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) explains his health care proposal ata press conference in Washington, D.C. yesterday.
after the next presidential election.
But the impact of one of the
key concessions Baucus made in
a so-far-unsuccessful search for
Republican support - allowing
cooperatives, rather than the fed-
eral government, to sell insurance
in competition with private indus-
try - was judged harshly.
"They seem unlikely to establish
a significant market presence in
many areas of the country," wrote
Douglas W. Elmendorf, head of the
Congressional Budget Office.
Supporters claim the co-ops
would compete effectively with pri-
vate companies and help hold down
the cost of insurance, but CBO's
assessment is likely to re-energize
advocates of direct government
competition.
White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs called the overall
legislation an "important building
block" that "gets us closer to com-
prehensive health care reform."
Reid, too, described it as
"another important piece to the
puzzle" on the road to health care
legislation.
Pelosi said that while the bill
would do less than House legisla-
tion to make coverage more afford-
able, its emergence "will move this
historic debate forward."
Senate Republican leader Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, who has
labored to keep his rank and file
united in opposition, called ita par-
tisan proposal that "cuts Medicare
by nearly a half-trillion dollars and
puts massive new tax burdens on
families and small businesses, to
create yet another thousand-page,
trillion-dollar government pro-
gram. Only in Washington would
anyone think that makes sense,
especially in this economy."
FBI searches Colorado house in terror probe
Denver man with
suspected links to
al-Qaida questioned
over possible New
York City bomb plot
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - Federal
agents yesterday searched the home
of a suburban Denver man identi-
fied by law enforcement as having
a possible link to al-Qaida, carting
away several boxes of evidence.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task
Force went through the home of
NajibullahZazi, as well as the near-
by residence of his aunt, Rabia Zazi,
FBI special agent Kathleen Wright
said Wednesday.
Zazi denies that he's a central
figure in a terrorism investigation
that -fed fears of a possible bomb
plot and led to several police raids
in New York City on Monday.
Zazi, 24, was being interviewed
at FBI headquarters in Denver
late Wednesday but was not under
arrest, according to his attorney,
Arthur Folsom. Zazi provided
authorities a DNA sample, a fin-
gerprint, handwriting samples and
information about his travel his-
tory, Folsom said.
"My client is not involved in any
terror plot," Folsom declared. "He
answered every question they had."
The U.S. Attorney's Office in
Denver said it had no immediate
comment.
One agent wearing protective
clothing escorted a dog belonging
to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives into Zazi's
apartment. FBI agents left Zazi's
apartment with at least six boxes.
One box was labeled "swabs," and
others were marked "fragile" and
"glass."
Agents also escorted three
women and a man from the apart-
ment. Two of the women covered
their faces with headscarves, and
the third used a canvas chair to
shield her face. All were driven
away in an SUV.
The searches came a day after
two law enforcement officials told
The Associated Press that a joint
FBI-New York Police Department
task force had put Zazi under sur-
veillance because ofsuspectedlinks
to al-Qaida.
The task force also feared Zazi
may be involved in a potential plot
involving homemade hydrogen per-
oxide-based explosives like those
cited in an intelligence warning
issued Monday, said the officials,
who spoke on anonymity because
they were not authorized to speak
about the investigation.
After Zazi traveled to New York
City over the weekend, FBI agents
and police officers armed with
search warrants seeking bomb
materials searched three apart-
ments and questioned residents in
a predominantly Asian neighbor-
hood in Queens.
Naiz Khan, an Afghan immi-
grant who grew up with Zazi in
New York City, said the FBI ques-
tioned him for about two hours
about Zazi, whom he said stayed at
his apartment last week.
No arrests were announced, and
the FBI and NYPD have refused to
discuss the case.
New York Police Commissioner
Raymond Kelly and FBI Direc-
tor Robert Mueller said Wednes-
day there are no specific terrorist
threats to the city.
"There are no guarantees. We
live in a dangerous world," said
Kelly, who called New York the
world's best-protected city.
ijiji
th