The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS LANSING, Mich. Gov.: Next round of cuts will come, but targets not decided Gov. Jennifer Granhoim said yesterday she hasn't decided where she'll make cuts in the six remain- ing budget bills on her desk. But the money she vetoed ear- lier this week from a public schools budget is still causing waves. The Democratic governor said Tuesday she was forced to veto $51 million targeted for 39 school dis- tricts from the education budget because lawmakers didn't include enough money to pay for the bill as revenues have fallen. Senate Republicans deny that and say she's using schoolchildren as pawns to push for higher taxes. The State Board of Education has moved up its regularly sched- uled November meeting to Monday to address education financing. The board originally was to meet Nov. 10. The public schools budget was cut 2.9 percent in the new budget year that just started. WASHINGTON D.C. New undercover ACORN tape released Two conservative activists released a new undercover video targeting the community organizing group ACORN yesterday, an attempt to reignite a simmering political con- troversy surrounding the Democrat- ic-leaningorganization. The new videotape shows film- makers Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend, soliciting advice about a possible housing loan from workers in the Philadelphia office of ACORN Housing Corp. Previousvideos showedthe same pair, also posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend, visiting ACORN offices in other cities. The Philadelphia visit is signifi- cant because of a dispute over state- ments ACORN has made defending what took place when Giles and O'Keefe visited the Philadelphia office last summer. ORANGE PARK, Fla. - Body found but not identified as missing girl Authorities saytheyhave not iden- tified a child's body they found yes- terday in a landfill while searching for a missing 7-year-old girl. Family members were hopeful the girl is still alive, though neighbors in the girl's community feared the worst. The partially covered body of the child was found in a Georgia land- fill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving from the neighbor- hood where Somer Thompson dis- appeared Monday. 'Sheriff Rick Beseler said investi- gators searched through 100 tons of garbage before findingthe body. He first said the body was female, then corrected himself to say he could not confirm the gender. Few other details about the body, such as a possible cause of death, were released. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an autopsy Thursday. RIO DE JANEIRO Police crack down on gangs after 32 deaths Police in Rio expanded a crack- down on gangs beyond the area hit by a wave of killings that has claimed at least 32 lives since the weekend, officials said yesterday. The clashes came less than three weeks after the city was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games. They began when a drug gang tried to invade a rival's territory and three policemen were killed when a heli- copter was shot down by gunfire over the weekend. Subsequent firefights between policeandheavilyarmedgangmem- bers have left the affected slums in chaos. Hundreds of residents fled their homes overnight, choosing to sleep in streets away from their own neighborhoods after rumors spread that drug gangs were set to battle again. While the violence began in a northern area near the Maracana stadium, which will host the Olym- pics' opening and closing ceremo- nies, police searching for suspects behind the downing ofthe helicopter launched operations in slums in Rio's south and center on Wednesday. - Compiled from Daily wire reports 2 years after trial, woman recants story Six people jailed for the torture of a woman who now admits she lied COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Megan Williams' shocking accu- sations initially strained the imagination: Seven white people beat her with sticks, forced her to eat feces, raped her and taunted her with racial slurs over several days in a ramshackle trailer in West Virginia. But the suspects eventually confessed to their actions and pleaded guilty. All but one were sent to prison. Now Williams, who is black, is taking it all back. Williams lied in 2007 because she wanted to get back at a boy- friend who had beaten her, her attorney, Byron L. Potts, said yes- terday at a news conference in his Columbus office. Williams no longer wants to live a lie, Potts said. "She told me the only thing not self-inflicted were the bruises on her face," Potts said. Williams, 22, who now lives with a caregiver in Columbus, was LEGACY From Page 1A made it clear that with his most treasured construction projects now either approved or nearing completion, it was time to step down. "We've discussed my retire- ment for a couple of years now, and I agreed to stay on to make sure the (football) stadium proj- ectwouldbe finished asplanned," Martin wrote. "In the last few months I have had the chance to make significant progress on other issues that needed to be set on a firm foundation as well, including plans for the basketball practice facility, so I think it is now time to plan for the future." Associate Athletic Direc- tor Bruce Madej said he was "caugit by surprae"._wben Mar- tin announced his retirement. Madej knew that Martin was likely planning to retire after he launched the construction of the aforementioned $23 million bas- ketball practice facility, sched- uled to be completed in 2011, but said he thought Martin would retire in Jangsry 2011 instead of next September. The regents approved the con- struction of the basketball prac- tice facility in January 2009 and approved schematic designs 0' September 2009. "If you read between the lines, after the (Michigan) Stadium ren- ovations, he had one more project that he wanted to do - the basket- ball facilities that he got off the ground," Madej said. "Once that was set, I knew he had accom- plished what he wanted to." Martin also oversaw the con- struction of the Al Glick Field House, a $26.1 million indoor football practice facility that opened in August 2009. Other Martin-led projects have includ- ed the completed Alumni Field ($5.5 million) and Fisher Stadium ($9 million) renovations and the $6 million construction of a new soccer stadium, approved by the regents in May 2009. But even while dealing with teams that haven't needed as much hands-on leadership or massive facility overhauls, Mar- tin's business sense has been apparent. "I showed him my idea of put- ting a balcony in Yost (Ice Arena), and he said, 'It's a no-brainer, we have to do it,"' Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson said. "I'd been talking about that for five years and nobody listened. But Bill Martin could see, 'Look, this will pay itself off in three years and it'll make the building that much more hospitable and add so much to the building.' He's been very supportive of anythingwe've needed in the hockey program." Over the past decade, Martin has also had a hand in bring- ing many of Michigan's current coaches to Ann Arbor. But his reputation for selecting coaches may rest most on the success of football coach Rich Rodriguez, who was hired by Martin in December 2007. Rodriguez's hiring came after Martin had been intensely scru- tinized by the national media for how he handled the coaching search.4 in the office with Potts, but she did not appear before reporters. Potts said she has received several anon- ymous phone calls from people threatening her life. "She is recantingthe entire inci- dent. She says it did not happen, and she's scared," Potts said. Seven white men and women were convicted in the case, in which Williams had also said that hot wax was poured on her and that two of her captors had forced her to drink their urine. Policesaidthe assaults occurred at a trailer owned by Frankie Brewster in a rural area of Logan County, about 50 miles from Charleston, W.Va. Williams was rescued after an anonymous caller alerted authorities. Potts said that Brewster's son, Bobby, was the boyfriend who had beaten Williams and that she had stabbed herself with a straight razor to help embellish the story of being tortured. Prosecutors, who knew about the relationship even during the case, dismissed Williams' new claim, and lawyers for the defen- dants would not discuss their plans. Williams' supporters were cautious about responding to the statement by a woman whose Martin had received permis- sion to talk to current Louisiana State University coach Les Miles after his Southeastern Conference championship game, but ESPN reported on the day of the game that Miles had already accepted an offer with Michigan. Miles angrily called a press conference to refute the rumors and later signed a contract extension with LSU, which left Martin to answer a barrage of questions relating to his interactions with Miles and his coaching search etiquette. In the end, Martin hired Rodriguez, who led Michigan to its worst record in school history (3-9) in 2008. The team is cur- rently 5-2 in 2009. "We've had probably a lifetime of stories in less than two years. I think that's natural when you have a transition," Rodriguez said beo visterday's football prac-, tice. "We had a lot of laughs and we've had a few tough moments, but I'm hoping that we, over the next 10 to 12 months that he has left as athletic director, have a lot of good moments to share as well. We've been through some pain together, and we'd like to have some good moments for sure." Martin's other big hires include Michigan basketball coach John Beilein, who led the Wolverines to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years last season, and Michigan baseball coach Rich Maloney, who has coached Michi- gan to three Big Ten titles and an NCAA Regional title in 2007. "We were all kind of shocked," Maloney said of Martin's retire- ment. "I mean, we knew at some point this would happen. He didn't have to have this job. He's a very successful businessman, and he really took the job because he loves Michigan. And that's been very apparent to me in working with him over the years - his love is very, very deep. "I'm very appreciative he gave me a chance to come to Michi- gan, and this was a place where I dreamt of coming to as a student athlete and didn't get the oppor- tunity. And to come back as a coach, I will always be indebted to Bill for that." Martin's legacy of construction and hires maybe more impressive given the conditions in which he entered the post of athletic direc- tor. As soon as he took the job, he immediately found himself faced with digging Michigan out of a financial hole and repairing the school's damaged reputation. After former University Presi- dent Lee Bollinger forced then- Athletic Director Tom Goss to resign, Martin took over the ath- letic director post on an interim basis on March 6, 2000. He was permanently named athletic director on Aug. 1 of the same year. The multimillionairebusiness- man, who successfully founded the real estate firm First Martin Corporation in 1968 and the Bank of Ann Arbor in 1995, wasn't accustomed to seeing a business so deep in the red. The Athletic Department suffered a $2.8 mil- lion deficit for the 1999 fiscal year, according to a Feb. 14, 2000 article in the University Record. In the 2001 fiscal year, the introduction of varsity women's water polo and varsity men's soc- mother described her during the 2007 case as "slow." Potts urged prosecutors in West Virginia to re-evaluate the case and he said that Williams wants people convicted to be released from prison. Brian Abraham, the former Logan County prosecutor who pursued the cases, said authori- ties realized early in the investi- gation that they could not rely on statements from Williams, who tended to embellish and exagger- ate details. Instead, he said, the seven defendants were convicted on their own statements and phys- ical evidence. "If she's going to say that she made it all up, that's absurd," Abraham said. "This looks like another attempt to generate more publicity." Potts said he did not know why the defendants have pleaded guilty to something they did not do. He said Williams is aware that she could face legal conse- quences for fabricating the story and that he wants to have her psychologically evaluated. He said Williams told him certain people were controlling her and influencing her during the case. He did not elaborate. FULBRIGHT From Page 1A language and literature, with geographic locations spanning the globe - everywhere from Sri Lanka to Guatemala. University alum Salem Ghan- dour spent the lastyear in Malaysia on a Fulbright scholarship study- ing energy policy reforms in the country. He wrote in an e-mail that he sat down with Malaysia's prime minister and other top government officials during his time there. Ghandour wrote that although he is disappointed that the Uni- versity's Fulbright office does not interview candidates, he thinks one of the reasons the University is so successful in the Fulbright process is because the office is so organized. "Despite my complaints about the Fulbright office at Michigan, I have to admit that they orga- nized, on a very regular basis, lots of information session about Ful- bright and were very clear with deadlines and when to get the application started," he wrote in the e-mail. "I knew, after attending a few sessions, that discipline was key. And indeed, the info sessions were spot on." WANT TO WRITE FOR THE MICHIGAN DAILY'S NEWS SECTION? Send an e-mail to smilovitz@michigandaily.com to get started. cer cost the Athletic Department an extra $600,000. The same A A year, the University had to pay Nike $760,000 to purchase ath- letic equipment after it couldn't manage to sign a contract with ZARAGON the supplier, according to a 2004 U'S FINEST T E article in The Michigan Daily. E F 2 21 After Martin took over, his 'Z ' business savvy started to speak '2 - E for itself. He gave his first year's salary back to the University, negotiated a seven-year contract EU U E" U with Nike and sealed a $1 mil- lion radio contract. At the end of the 2002 fiscal year, the Athletic Department had already reversed its deficit and was projected to 1 4 9 6 7 have a $5.5 million surplus. But the Michigan Athlet- ic Department's image issues 6 stretched beyond balance sheet woes. In 2000, the Wolverines 2 3 7 were reeling from numerous off- the-field issues, including the investigation of a basketball scan- 3 dal that involved four players - Louis Bullock, Maurice Taylor, R obert Traylor and Chris Web- ber - taking money from former 587 team booster Ed Martin in the late 1980's. The Michigan basket- ball program was placed on pro- 8 6V bation in 2002, and Bill Martin found himself partly responsible 7 for cleaning up the stain on the University's reputation. S 9 3 1 8 "First of all, and some people might not agree, hiring (for- 1* * mer Michigan basketball coach) Tommy Amaker (in 2001) was a smart move," Madej said. "He brought continuity and strength of leadership that helped create some of the respectability. And then John Beilein has moved it to the next level. I mean, his record speaks for itself." Martin fired Amaker in 2007 all record (43-53 Big Ten), say- ing in his press conference that "this basketball program is better today than it was before he took the job;but we both know that it is not in the position either one of us wants it to be after his sixth year." : Beilein, Amaker's successor, finished 10-22 in his first season but, in 2009, took the Wolverines PI to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years. The team's surprising success finally pro- vided the revitalization the team P A 3T3 desperately needed when Martin took over nine years earlier. Martin's decision to announce his retirement early will give Uni- versity President Mary Sue Cole- man almost 10 months to find a suitable replacement, which will ensure the Athletic Department will not need to scramble to find a successor. He is leaving behind a budget surplus and multiple con- struction projects in the works, A even during the current econom- ic recession, which means the s transition to a new athletic direc- tor will surely be easier than it was when Martin took the helmA ARBOR in 2000. 929 E. ANN ST. ~734.913.9200 "I think his greatest strength 600 PACKARD ~734.741.9200 is bricks and budgets," University 1207 S. UNIVERSITY 734.827.2600 Lecturer and Michigan sportshis- torian John U. Bacon said. "He has no doubt attracted some critics, as 3365 WASHTENAW AVE. ~734.477.0000 any AD will over that stretch, but2 PLYMOUTH it's got to be said, the department is in much better shape now than YPSILANTI when he found it." - i . .CO S -Daily Sports Writer Ryan Kartje, Daily Sports Editor Andy Reid and Daily News Editor Kyle Swanson Ontributed to this report.