THE BUSINESS
OF BIG NAMES
The story behind two seniors
turned concert promoters.
SEE THE B-SIDE, INSIDE
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, September 24, 2009
michigandaily.com
ACCEPTING OF THOSE IN NEED
Committee
votes toend
'Promise'
CHANEL VON HABSBURG-LOTHRIGEN/Oaily
A woman walks by White Market on East Williams Street yesterday. White Market is one oftthe few places on campus that accept Bridge Cards, which tookthe place of Food
Stamps. Eastern Michigan freshman and White Market employee, John Camfield said that about 15 percent of the store's customers use Bridge Cards - half of whom are students.
GAMEDAY SAFEcToYs
Foscuiy, Big Hou 0se U S ns bags
If proposal passes
state legislature,
some students won't
get scholarship
By KYLE SWANSON
Daily News Editor
In a 4-2 vote yesterday, a joint
conference committee of the
Michigan Legislature decided
to cut funding for the Michigan
Promise Scholarship program as
a way to help trim the state's pro-
jected $2.8 billion deficit for next
year.
Some 96,000 students in the
state receive money from the
scholarship, which was signed
into law by Democratic Gov. Jen-
nifer Granholm in 2006. The aid,
whichstudents attainbypassing a
certain mark on a merit examina-
tion given in high school, grants
students between $500 to $4,000
in total over four years to help pay
tuition,
University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald said the Ann Arbor
campus currently has 6,096 stu-
dents eligible to receive the schol-
arship.
Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for
Granholm, said the governor
considers the Michigan Promise
Scholarship of the utmost impor-
tance and will continue to fight
for its future.
"The governor is hoping to
reach an agreement with law-
makers on a budget that protects
her priorities and one of her top
priorities is the Michigan Prom-
ise Scholarship," Boyd said.
Boyd said the responsibility
of coming up with a state budget
that includes the governor's top
priorities rests on the legisla-
ture's shoulders.
"It is the responsibility of the
state House and Senate to put a
budget on the governor's desk
that she will sign into law," Boyd
said.
If the state's legislature isn't
able to reach a decision by the
Oct. 1 deadline or pass a con-
tinuing resolution of last year's
budget, there will be a partial
government shutdown similar
to the one policymakers faced in
2007, which lasted four hours.
Though Boyd would not say
whether the governor would
reject a budget that didn't include
the program, she said the admin-
istration would stand with those
who continue to fight for it.
"We respect Rep. (Joan) Bauer
(D-Lansing) for not supporting
the recommendation to eliminate
the Promise Scholarship and we
will continue to fight to retain
that scholarship," Boyd said.
See PROMISE, Page SA
Officials on alert
after Denver arrest of
terrorism suspects
By MATT AARONSON
Daily News Editor
Bags of all sizes will be prohib-
ited in Michigan Stadium for this
Saturday's homecoming football
game against Indiana University,
according to University security
officials.
The ban "includes, butis not lim-
ited to, purses, lunch sacks, binocu-
lar cases, fanny packs and diaper
bags," according to a press release
posted on the Department of Public
Safety website and e-mailed to tick-
etholders.
Exceptions will be made for
those with written permission from
medical professionals, according to
the press release.
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown
said the policy was changed as a
result of FBI and Department of
Homeland Security bulletins issued
to law enforcement officials across
the country this week.
She said the bulletins indicated
that sports stadiums, entertain-
ment complexes and hotels could
be at risk.
Brown emphasized that there
have not been any specific threats
"in our stadium or in the state of
Michigan at this point."
The stricter security at the Big
House comes after federal agents
arrested Najibullah Zazi in Den-
ver last Saturday. The airport
shuttle worker was believed to
have been plotting an attack on
New York trains with backpack
bombs. In a subsequent search
of Zazi's apartment, investiga-
tors found bomb-making instruc-
tions and evidence he had been
researching stadiums, entertain-
ment complexes and hotels on his
computer.
Backpacks and cell phones were
See BIG HOUSE, Page SA
FOOTBALL SATURDAYS
The end of State
Street pregames?
City leaders talk upside of a downturn
Pan
A
th
City attorney sends
BOX House, others
cease-and-desist
letter for tailgates
By JILLIAN BERMAN
Daily News Editor
The 900 block of South State
Street is known for its raucous tail-
gates on football Saturdays. But
if the Ann Arbor City Attorney's
Office has anything to say about it,
then maize andeblue clad fans, spill-
log into the sidewalks at the corner
of Sate Street and Hoover Street
from the BOX House and other
properties, could be a thing of the
past.
On Tuesday, Senior Assistant
City Attorney Kristen Larcom
sent a letter to Michelle Grobler
of Arch Realty Company, asking
the residents of 917, 927 and 933 S.
State St. to "cease and desist from
engaging in illegal and dangerous
conduct."
The letter goes on to say that
city officials are prepared to file
lawsuits against the landlord if the
behavior continues.
"We appreciate your willing-
ness to pass on to your tenants that
there is 'zero tolerance' for illegal
activities, such as possession of
open intoxicants in public, minors
in possession, littering, excessive
noise and other disorderly con-
duct," the letter states.
In an interview yesterday, Lar-
com said the City Attorney's Office
has sent similar letters to landlords
in years past, adding that the office
sent the same letter to the entire
block.
"We sent them to houses where
the problems occurred," she said.
In the letter, Larcom writes that
the office will take action if the
block continues to be a "public nui-
sance" on football Saturdays.
"Rooftop activities and crowds
spilling onto the public sidewalk
are among the behaviors thatcrete
significant public safety hazards,"
the letter states. "A failure to volun-
tarily discontinue such dangerous
behaviors will require the city to
take more forceful action."
But despite the warning, LSA
senior Alex Girard, who has lived at
933 S. State St. - better known as
the BOX house - for three years,
said students walking by his house
on Saturday won't notice much of a
change.
Girard added that the "sole rea-
son" he chose to live in the house
was because of its Saturday tradi-
tions.
"I don't really think that we have
to do much," he said. "Really just
keep people off the roof and keep
people off the sidewalk."
Girard said he's "not really con-
cerned" about the letter and he
See TAILGATES, Page SA
tel discusses Ann The panel, comprised of Mayor
John Hieftje and other communi-
rbor's future in ty leaders and activists, discussed
numerous issues, including health
ie energy sector care, housing, the environment
and food.
By EMILY ORLEY "We have to do something dif-
Daily StaffReporter ferent, what we've been doing in
Michigan isn't working," Hieftje
t night, at a town hall meet- told the crowd.
titled "Michigan's Economic Hieftje said solutions to Michi-
ion: Crisis or Opportunity?," gan's problems can be found in our
el argued that the current own backyard.
mic recession is, in fact, "One of the things I think we
itive opportunity for Ann, miss doing in Michigan is looking
's future. around the way we should and if
we wanted to find examples we
only need to look across the lake to
Ontario," he added.
Hieftje explained that Sault Ste.
Marie, Ontario has built wind tur-
bines, which have allowed the city
to decrease its carbon footprint.
Additionally, the structureshelped
to increase employment, since all
of the steel for the operation was
produced locally.
"It's difficult to say you can't
do something when someone is
already doing it," Hieftje said.
Across the board, members
of the panel said that an overall
transformation, rather than a basic
recovery, was essential to the city's
long-term economic development.
Economics Prof. Tom Weissko-
pf, said the nature of today's eco-
nomic crisis in many ways mirrors
the Great Depression of the 1930s
with high unemployment rates
and decreasing economic activ-
ity. However, he stressed that the
currentsituation is not as severe as
the one of the past.
"Whether it's amatter of rein-
vigorating the economy or trans-
forming it, it's going to call for
See PANEL, Page SA
Las
ing ent
Situati
a pan:
econoi
a pos
Arbor
University students rally at G-20 Summit
Financial leaders are
meeting to discuss
clean energy options
By MALLORY BEBERMAN
Daity StaffReporter
Early yesterday morning about
two dozen University students
embarked on a six-hour bus ride
to Point State Park in Pittsburgh.
They were on a mission to bring
their concerns about climate poli-
cy to attention of, banking officials
and business leaders from around
the world who were in town for
the G-20 Summit.
The rally precedes the G-20
Summit - a meeting between both
industrial and emerging-market
countries on key issues related to
global economic stability - which
will be held in Pittsburgh today
and tomorrow.
According to a press release dis-
tributed by The Alliance for Cli-
mate Protection, the rally's goal is
to promote the passage of compre-
hensive clean energy and climate
legislation that will provide mil-
lions of jobs, help end U.S. depen-
dence on foreign oil and aid in a
solution to the climate crisis - all
at the same time.
The rally is a collaboration of
The Alliance for Climate Protec-
tion's Repower America campaign,
the United Steelworkers and the
Blue Green Alliance's Clean Ener-
See RALLY, Page SA
ARIEL BOND/Daily
Students board a bus headed for a clean energy rally at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh.
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