The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
HOLLAND, Mich.
Glut of milk
hurting Mich.
dairy farmers
Despite a worldwide milk glut
that has sent prices plummeting,
Michigan dairy farmers continue
to produce milk at a loss, relying
on subsidies to get them by as they
wait for prices to improve.
Producers face higher costs
but less demand for milk, partly
because of a dried-up export
market.
Just two years ago, around 10
percent of the state's milk went
to Asian and other markets, but
none of it is exported now, said Ira
Krupp, a dairy expert with Michi-
gan State University Extension.
"When the world economy
went in the toilet, so did our
export market," Krupp told The
Holland Sentinel for a story pub-
lished Monday.
At the heart of the problem is
the nature of milk. Unlike grain
farmers who can hold out for bet-
ter prices by storing crops in a
silo, dairymen must sell raw milk
to processors or else it spoils. And
cows keep producing regardless
of economic conditions.
DETROIT
Detroit enrollment
campaign to end
Detroit Public Schools offi-
cials soon will learn if visits by
comedian Bill Cosby, more than
170 blue-painted doors and even
an effort to scrawl skywriting
above the city's riverfront will be
enough to boost the struggling
district's enrollment.
The $500,000 "I'm In" cam-
paign to get students into school
ends tomorrow. State aid to
each district is based on enroll-
ment numbers submitted from
Wednesday's fall count and a
winter count last February.
The district says that each
student leaving Detroit Public
Schools means $7,550 less in
state aid. Detroit dropped below
100,000 students last year and
has budgeted for 83,777 this fall.
As part ofthe campaign, emer-
gency financial manager Robert
Bobb has gone door-to-door in
recent weeks trying to persuade
parents to keep their children in
Detroit schools, or return them
to the district.
WASHINGTON
NATO official:
Additional Afghan
training needed
NATO's secretary general says
the U.S. and its allies need to in-
vest more in training and equip-
pingAfghan security forces for the
widening conflict in Afghanistan.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
(AHN'-derz FOHG RAHS'-moo-
sihn) said yesterday that "things
are going to have to change" in Af-
ghanistan to retain public support
for the stalemated war. He also
told the Atlantic Council think
tank that NATO needs to start let-
ting Afghan military and civilian
officials take the lead in securing
and building their war-torn na-
tion.
Rasmussen would not say
whether he believes the U.S.
should send more troops to Af-
ghanistan, as the Obama adminis-
tration is debating. He also gently
chastised Americans who ques-
tion allied nations' commitment to
Afghanistan.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
List shows 75
Gitmo prisoners
cleared for release
A list released by the U.S. mili-
tary shows at least 75 Guantana-
mo detainees have been cleared
for release by a task force that has
been sorting through the remain-
ing prisoners as part of an Obama
administration effort to shutter
the jail.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt,
a spokesman for the prison that
holds about 223 men, said yester-
day the list in Arabic, Pashto and
English was posted in common
areas throughout the detention
camps earlier this month.
He said the list was an initiative
by Rear Adm. Thomas H. Cope-
man III, commander of the Joint
Task Force that runs the U.S. off-
shore prison in Cuba, to communi-
cate directly to the detainees and
deter rumors about transfers.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
State budget
talks near
final deadline
This photo, released by the Iranian semi-official Fars News Agency, claims to show the launch of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Shahab-3 medium-range missile during a drill at an undisclosed location yesterday.
Irn:mis sles can reach
any place in the country
Lawmakers have less
than 36 hours to solve
$2.8 billion deficit
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michi-
gan lawmakers are running low on
time to balance the state's next bud-
get.
The Legislature is expected to
return to session Tuesday morning
and start taking key votes related
to the government's spending plan.
The House and Senate will have
just 38 hours after they reconvene to
erase a projected $2.8 billion deficit
in the next fiscalyear.
Lawmakers could pass an interim
budget to extend the current fiscal
year if they get worried they might
miss the Thursday budget deadline.
Failure to balance the budgetor pass
an interim budget could result in
Michigan's second partial govern-
ment shutdown in the past three
years.
The Legislature did not meet
Monday because of Yom Kippur, the
holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Democratic House Speaker
Andy Dillon and Republican Senate
Majority Leader Mike Bishop say
they will beat the budget deadline.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm
is taking them at their word.
"The governor and legislative
leaders have all said that they do not
want a shutdown of state govern-
ment," Granholm spokeswoman Liz
Boyd said Monday. "So we expect to
be open for business on Thursday
morning."
Lawmakers are helped by the
fact that federal stimulus money
will wipe out more than half of the
deficit.
Dillon and Bishop agreed ear-
lier this month to make at least $1.2
billion in spending cuts, a plan that
would make it possible to balance the
budget without tax increases. But
some Democrats want more money
to save high priority programs, caus-
ing a divide within the party.
Nearly 100,000 college students
were due at least a portion ofa Mich-
igan Promise scholarship worth
$4,000 this academic year, but that
program likely will be lost in this
budget cycle without extra revenue.
A member of Michigan State Uni-
versity's College Democrats plans to
visit the Capitol on Tuesday and ask
lawmakers for personal donations
to make up for her lost scholarship
money, drawing further attention
to the issue as the budget deadline
nears.
Hundreds of police, firefighters
and other local government employ-
ees could be laid off if revenue shar-
ing cuts are too deep. Health care
groups say that cutting Medicaid
reimbursement rates could prompt
more doctors to stop accepting low-
income patients.
The showdown between those
who want higher taxes to save those
programs and those who want to
rely solely on cuts promises to pro-
vide some tough votes in the Legis-
lature over the next few days.
Matt Marsden, a spokesman for
Bishop, said the goal remains to
stick to the agreement to "reduce
the size and scope of government
without tax increases."
Iran says long-range
missiles can reach
Israel, parts of Europe
and U.S. military bases
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran test-
ed itslongest-range missiles yester-
day and warned they can reach any
place that threatens the country,
including Israel, parts of Europe
and U.S. military bases in the Mid-
east. The launch capped two days
of war games and was condemned
as a provocation by Western pow-
ers, which are demanding Tehran
come clean about a newly revealed
nuclear facility it has been secretly
building.
The tests Sunday and again
yesterday added urgency to a key
meeting this week between Iran
and the five permanent members
of the U.N. Security Council and
Germany - an international front
seeking clear answers about the
direction of its nuclear program.
Iran's missile program and its
nuclear work - much of it carried
out in secrecy - have long been a
concern for the United States, Isra-
el and its Western allies. They fear
Tehran is intent on developing an
atomic weapons capability and the
missiles to deploy such warheads,
despite Iran's assurances it is only
pursuing civilian nuclear power.
In the latest exercise, the pow-
erful Revolutionary Guard, which
controls Iran's missile program,
successfully tested upgraded ver-
sions of Iran's medium-range
Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles, state
television reported. Both can carry
warheads and reach up to 1,200
miles, putting Israel, U.S. military
bases in the Middle East and parts
of Europe within striking distance.
The launchings were meant
to display Iran's military might
and demonstrate its readiness to
respond to any military threat.
"Iranian missiles are able to
target any place that threatens
Iran," said Abdollah Araqi, a senior
Revolutionary Guard commander,
according to the semiofficial Fars
news agency.
Iran conducted three rounds of
missile tests in drills that began
Sunday, two days after the U.S. and
its allies disclosed the country had
been secretly developing an under-
ground uranium enrichment facil-
ity. The Western powers warned
Iran must open the site to interna-
tional inspection or face harsher
international sanctions.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokes-
man, Hasan Qashqavi, maintained
the missile tests had nothing to do
with the tension over the site, say-
ing they were part of routine, long-
planned military exercises.
That assertion was rejected by
the United States and its European
allies.
White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs called the tests "pro-
vocative in nature," adding: "Obvi-
ously, these were ;pre-planned
military exercises."
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