The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
Friday, October 9, 2009 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, October 9, 2009 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Mich. lawmakers
pass budget bills
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has
signed bills establishing new bud-
gets for community colleges, courts
and military and veterans' affairs in
Michigan.
The bills signed yesterday were
passed by the Legislature before
an Oct. 1 budget deadline with
bipartisan agreement. Other bills
needed for a full state budget either
haven't been passed the Legislature
or haven't been sent to Granholm
because Republicans worry she will
veto them.
State departments are operat-
ing under a temporary budget that
expires Oct. 31. No budget is in place
foraidto K-12 schools.
The community college bud-
get remains unchanged at $299
million. The courts budget does
not include funding for a men-
tal health court pilot project but
does include some money for drug
treatment courts.
LANSING
House committee
votes to extend bar
closing time
Bars could stay open two hours
longer and stores could sell alcohol
on Sunday mornings in exchange
for paying a state fee under legisla-
tion approved yesterday by a House
committee.
TheDemocratic-ledHouseAppro-
priations Committee voted 18-12
along party lines to send the extend-
ed-hours bill to the full House, which
could vote later in the day.
Current closing time for Michigan
bars is 2 a.m. The legislation would
let bar owners pay $1,500 to sell alco-
holuntil 4 a.m.
The bill also would lift the state's
Prohibition-era ban against selling
alcohol on Sunday morning if estab-
lishments pay $1,500. Golf courses,
stores and Detroit bars catering to
Lions fans are among those hoping
to sell before noon Sunday.
Local governments could opt not
to allow local businesses to sell dur-
ing the extended hours.
LOS ANGELES
UCLA student
stabbed in chem lab
A female UCLA student was
hospitalized yesterday after a fel-
low student slashed her throat in a
chemistry lab on campus, authori-
ties said.
A man was arrested after UCLA
police got a call about the stabbing
Thursday afternoon in Young Hall.
UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton
said the victim and suspect were
among a group of students working
in the undergraduate teaching lab at
the time. They are both 20-year-old
seniors.
Officers were interviewing 30 to
40 witnesses who were in or near
the lab and might have seen the at-
tack, Campus Police Assistant Chief
Jeff Young said. No names have
been released, and the motive is un-
der investigation.
MEXICO CITY
Mexico police arrest
* FBI most wanted
One of the FBI's most-sought fugi-
tives, wanted for the 2002 killings
of his girlfriend and her two young
sons in Idaho, has been captured in
Mexico.
Federal police detained Jorge
Alberto Lopez Orozco on a highway
in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero,
Mexico's Attorney General's Office
said yesterday. He was transported
to the neighboring state of Michoa-
can and held on a U.S. extradition
request.
Lopez Orozco, 33, is charged with
three counts of first-degree murder
in the deaths of Rebecca Ramirez
and her sons, aged 2 and 4, in Elmore
County, Idaho. He was placed on the
FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in March
2005.
There was no immediate informa-
tion on whether U.S. prosecutors had
agreed not to seek the death penalty
against Lopez Orozco; Mexico refus-
es to extradite suspects who might
face execution.
According to FBI reports, Lopez
Orozco called Ramirez on July 30,
2002, and later picked her up along
with her two sons at her father's
house in Nyssa, Ore. Twelve days
later, fishermen found the aban-
doned, burned-out shell of the car
that Lopez Orozco had been driving
near the Snake River in a remote area
of Elmore County.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Lawyer shared
Kilpatrick texts
with Free Press
CHARLES REXARBOGAST/AP
In this Feb. 8, 2009 file photo, General Motors Vice President for Sale, Service and Marketing Mark LaNeve, talks about
'the future of GM, at the Chicago Auto Show in Chicago,
Lawmakers question GM
Chrysler union demands
Attorney Mike
Stefani obtained the
texts while suing
Detroit mayor
DETROIT (AP) - A lawyer who
obtained atrove of sexually explicit
text messages while suing former
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in
2007 said Thursday he gave a copy
to the Detroit Free Press, whose
Pulitzer Prize-winning stories led
to criminal charges and forced the
mayor from office last year.
Mike Stefani made the disclosure
whiletestifyingbeforethe Michigan
Attorney Discipline Board, where
he's accused of acting unethically
while representing police officers in
lawsuits against Kilpatrick.
"I gave one to the Detroit Free
Press for safekeeping ... a day or
two after I got them," Stefani
said, according to the newspaper's
account of his testimony.
During a break, he told The
Detroit News: "It wasn't something
just for the Free Press; it was just
that it needed to come out."
The Free Press never disclosed
how it obtained text messages for
a blockbuster story in January
2008 that revealed a torrid affair
between Kilpatrick and his chief of
staff, Christine Beatty.
The story contradicted repeated
denials that there wasn't a sexual
relationship. The question was crit-
ical because police officers had sued
Kilpatrick, claiming they were pun-
ished when they tried to investigate
wrongdoing by his inner circle.
Free Press publisher and editor
Paul Anger declined to comment
when asked by The Associated
Press if messages supplied by Ste-
fani were the basis for its story.
Messages seeking comment were
left with Stefani and his lawyer,
Ken Mogill.
Stefani obtained text messages
from the city's communications
provider after a jury awarded $6.5
million to his clients, two officers in
a whistle-blowers' lawsuit, in 2007.
Kilpatrick vowed to appeal, but he
settled the case and another for
$8.4 million when he learned what
Stefani had.
The Free Press story followed
a few months later. Kilpatrick
and Beatty subsequently pleaded
guilty to obstruction of justice
because of their lies at trial and
were sent to jail.
Concessions made by
unions during crisis
now being seen by
some as anti-union
WASHINGTON (AP) -Months
after the government bailed out
General Motors and Chrysler,
some lawmakers are questioning
tough contract demands by the
two auto companies that union
officials argue could lead to the
replacement of hundreds of union
carhaulers with nonunion drivers.
Michigan lawmakers have
raised the issue with GM CEO
Fritz Henderson and Chrysler
CEO Sergio Marchionne in let-
ters during the past week, con-
cerned that the automakers could
reduce business with auto trans-
port companies whose drivers are
represented by the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters.
"We demand an explanation of
your position," wrote Rep. Dale
Kildee, D-Mich., in letters to Hen-
derson and Marchionne. "We do
not support your plansto abandon
your long-term carrier partners."
Union officials said GM and
Chrysler have sought cost savings
of at least 25 percent from Allied
Systems Holdings Inc. of Atlanta,
and Cassens Transport Co. of
Edwardsville, Ill., who deliver
assembled vehicles to car dealers
in the U.S. and Canada.
The Teamsters represent about
4,800 workers who deliver new
cars and trucks to auto dealers.
More than 2,000 employees work
for Allied, Cassens and Jack Cooper
Transport Co. in Kansas City, Mo.
Chrysler Group LLC's contracts
with Allied and Cassens expired
Sept. 30 and the company has
shifted some work to nonunion
contractors, affecting 129 union
drivers, including 50 in Detroit,
said Fred 2uckerman, director of
the Teamsters' automobile trans-
port division.
According to a one-page sum-
mary titled "Chrysler Vehicle
Distribution Changes," the com-
pany said some of the changes
occurred because a new facility
built in Toledo, Ohio, allowed the
automaker to mix vehicles in one
location for distribution.
Chrysler said in the document
that Allied and Cassens failed to
address uncompetitive cost struc-
tures and beginning Oct. 1 the
auto company would re-source
28 percent of its haulaway carrier
business "to improve transit time
and reduce costs by $31 million
over three years." Chrysler said
in the document that Allied and
Cassens would reduce 77 Team-
ster jobs in Michigan.
Zuckerman called it an attempt
by Chrysler to undermine union
drivers. "We don't believe for a
minute that it had anything to do
with cost," he said.
In addition to the 50 jobs in
Detroit, Zuckerman said the
Chrysler moves led to union job
losses in Winston-Salem, N.C.,
Warren, Mich., Richfield, N.J.,
Buffalo, N.Y., Miami, Jessup, Md.,
and Shelbyville, Ky.
Teamster officials are also
watchingupcoming talks between
General Motors Co. and Allied,
whose contract with the automak-
er expires Feb. 1, 2010. About 400
union drivers deliver GM vehicles
for the transport company.
Allied filed for bankruptcy in
2005 and imposed a 17.5 percent
wage cut on its workers in 2007
and 2008, Zuckerman said. He
said GM has sought cost reduc-
tions of 26 percent, cuts he said
would be unsustainable.
A GM spokeswoman declined
comment. Messages left with
Allied and Cassens officials
weren't immediately returned.
The union job losses have
caught the attention of several
Michigan lawmakers, who sought
government loans for GM and
Chrysler and pushed for a $3 bil-
lion Cash for Clunkers program to
revitalize auto sales.
"I urge you to not discriminate
against the unionized labor work
force," wrote Rep. Gary Peters,
D-Mich. "Although cutting costs
is a necessary measure, I expect
that you will not base your deci-
sion exclusively on which opera-
tors pay their employees the
lowest wage rate."
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter,
R-Mich., wrote the "intent of the
government's support for GM and
Chrysler and the 'cash for clunk-
ers' program was to keep the
automobile industry viable and
not to force companies in the sup-
ply chain like the car haul indus-
try into bankruptcy."
InalettertoCongressmanPeters,
Mike Keegan, Chrysler's senior vice
president of supply chain man-
agement, wrote that the company
explained to Allied and Cassens its
inability to continue subsidizing
their uncompetitive business mod-
els, particularly in light of the auto-
maker's recent bankruptcy action .
and the concessions made by the
UAW, CAW and dealers.
Keegan wrote that Chrysler's
business relationship with Allied
and Cassens will continue in seg-
ments and regions where they are
more competitive.
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ACORN mobilizes to save
image following scandal
Supporters make
phone calls, public
speeches to restore
credibility
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Armed
with little more than pen and pad,
ACORN organizer David Maza-
riegos hits inner-city streets to save
his embattled employer ratherthan
his usual mission of saving homes
from foreclosure.
Mazariegos approaches Jose
and Maria Rodriguez on their patio
surrounded by overflowing potted
plants and a Virgin of Guadelupe
statue and asks ifthey would speak
at a news conference about how
ACORN saved their house.
Maria Rodriguez doesn't hesi-
tate.
"The only people who helped us
were ACORN.We triedto negotiate
with the bank, but they wouldn't
listen," she says. "We paid $5,000
to a company to help us fix the loan.
They took the money and didn't do
anything."
As the nonprofit strives to
survive the worst scandal in its
39-year history - videotapes of
staffers counseling a faux pimp and
prostitute how to run a brothel -
the organization is doing what it
does best: mobilizing low-income
people. In this case, the goal is to
restore the organization's cred-
ibility.
Themobilizationeffortisunfold-
ing on several fronts. People like
Rodriguez are being asked to speak
up about how ACORN saved them.
She and her husband also agreed to
work a phone bank and bring five
new people to the next community
meeting. And ACORN officials say
people are donating more money
as they rally to the organization's
defense.
"The truth is it broke my heart,"
Mazariegos said of the scandal.
"But it doesn't faze me. It wasjust a
couple people who did this, not the
organization."
ACORN activists across the
country say being the voice for the
voiceless is the real story of their
organization. That's why they
refuse to buckle to what they see
as right-wing detractors trying to
bring down the group because it
teaches poor people to stand up for
themselves.
Their work continues, whether
its stopping bulldozing of flooded
homes in New Orleans, building
housing for the working poor in
New York City or protesting teach-
er layoffs in Los Angeles.
"Most of us have the under-
standing that we can't not do what
we do," said Tanya Harris, the
New Orleans chief organizer who
was featured in Spike Lee's 2006
Katrina documentary "When the
Levees Broke." "If we're taken out
of the equation, what is to happen
to those people? Who steps in there
and fills that void in the way we've
done? How are they heard?"
Fallout from the videotape scan-
dal has been harsh. ACORN lost
millions of dollars in federal fund-
ing and associations with institu-
the U.S. Census Bureau. Several
states, including California and
Louisiana, are investigating the
group's operations.
Inrecentyears,ithas alsoweath-
ered charges of voter-registration
fraud and a $948,000 embezzle-
ment by the founder's brother. But
the widely broadcast videotapes,
recorded on hidden camera, have
damaged the organization's cred-
ibility, perhaps irreparably.
The scandal has shaken the
group. ACORN has suspended its
tax preparation service and housing
assistance program. Foreclosure cli-
ents are now referred to counselors
at the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development.
Yet the group continues to oper-
ate.Staffers arebeingretrainedand
procedures reviewed. Activists, are
working on other types of issues,
such as the case of a New York City
woman who says she was assaulted
by a police officer.
They're also trying to drum
up cash. Last week, headquar-
ters sent a fundraising plea to
field offices under the title "Will
ACORN survive?" in a bid to make
up the loss of some $2 million in
government money. Most of the
nonprofit's $25 million annual
budget, however, comes from the
500,000 active members. They're
asked to give $10 a month, but not
all pay dues regularly.
People are responding, said
Brian Kettenring, deputy director
of national operations. He reported
a huge outpouring of online dona-
tions, but said the dollar amount
timit of 2 tickets per student, valid with student ID,regular price $35. Tickets go on sale
to the general public October 16th at 1OAM.
sDi
tions such as Bank of America and was not yet available.