The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
KABUL
Eight U.S. soldiers
killed inAMghanistan
Roadside bombs - the biggest
killer of U.S. soldiers - claimed
eight more American lives yester-
day, driving the U.S. death toll to a
record level forthethirdtime in four
months as President Barack Obama
nears adecisiononanewstrategyfor
the troubled war.
The homemade bombs, also called
improvised explosive devices or
IEDs, are responsible for between 70
percent and 80 percent of the casual-
ties among U.S. and coalition forces
'in Afghanistan and have become a
weapon of "strategic influence," said
Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz in Washing-
ton.
The attacks yesterday followed one
of the deadliest days for the U.S. mili-
tary operation in Afghanistan - grim
milestones likely to fuel the debate in
the United States over whether the
conflictis worththesacrifice.
Obamahasnearly finished gather-
ing information on whether to send
tens of thousands more American
forces to quell the deepening insur-
gency, White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs said. A meeting Friday
with the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be
amongthe last events inthe decision-
making process, Gibbs said.
VANDERBILT, Mich.
Three men die in 2
Mich. plane crashes
Two men died after their small
plane crash-landed along a northern
Michigan freeway yesterday, just
hours after a Canadian pilot died
when his plane went down at an air-
port in southwest Michigan.
The victims of the late crash on
'Interstate 75, about 235 miles north
of Detroit, were from Gaylord, but
Michigan State Police did not release
their names or say which of them
was piloting the plane. One man was
52, the other 32.
Sgt. Jeff Gorno said in a statement
that the two-seat plane crashed
shortly before 6:30 p.m.yesterday on
southbound I-75.Witnesses reported
seeing the plane circle the freeway
before crashing along the shoulder,
the statement said.
The victims were taken to Otsego
County Memorial Hospital. The Tra-
ves* "t~ cord-Edglenrcpnrfc
that one man died at the hospital and
the other was pronounced dead at
Munson Medical Center in Traverse
City. Gorno said police aren't sure
where the plane was headed, but it
was registered to a company based
at Gaylord Regional Airport, 10 miles
southeast of the crash site.
WASHINGTON
Long-term care
insurance program
gains in House
House health care legislation
expected within days is likely to
include a new long-term care insur-
ance program to help seniors and
disabled people stay out of nursing
homes, senior Democrats say.
The voluntary program would
begin to close agap in the social safety
net overlooked in the broader health
care debate, but it must overcome
objections from insurance companies
that sell long-term care coverage and
from fiscalconservatives.
"I'm pretty confident that it will
be in there," Rep. Frank Pallone,
D-N.J., a leading sponsor, said of the
provision.
More than 10 million people cur-
rently need long-term care services,
a number that's only expected to
grow as the baby boom generation
ages. But most families whose elders
can no longer care for themselves
have to scrape to find a solution.
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran to seek changes
to UN uranium plan
Iran accepted the general frame-
work of a U.N.-draft nuclear deal
yesterday, but said it would seek
"important changes" that could test
the willingness of world powers to
make concessions in exchange for
a pact to rein in Tehran's ability to
make atomic warheads.
It was unclear how far Iran would
push for those changes.Already, Iran
has raised a potential roadblock: It
wants a step-by-step approach to
send low-enriched uranium stock-
pile out of the country rather than
the big single shipment called for
under U.N. provisions.
Western powers say it's critical for
Iran to send out at least 70 percent
of its uranium store in one load to
eliminate - atleast temporarily- its
options to make a nuclear weapon.
- Compiled from
8aily wire reports
Report: Afghan
leader's brother
on CIA payroll
JOHN BEALE/AP
Former aide to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove, left, and Howard Dean, former Democratic Governor of Vermont answer
a question at a press conference before a debate on the topic of health care at Penn State University yesterday.
Health care debate draws
Dean, Rove to Penn State
Karzai suspected
as major player in
country's illegal
opium trade
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother
of the president of Afghanistan,
gets regular payments from the
CIA and has for much of the past
eight years, The New York Times
reported yesterday.
The newspaper said that
according to current and former
American officials, the CIA pays
Karzai for a variety of services,
including helping to recruit an
Afghan paramilitary force that
operates at the CIA's direction in
and around Kandahar.
The CIA's ties to Karzai, who
is a suspected player in the coun-
try's illegal opium trade, have
created deep divisions within
the Obama administration, the
Times said.
Allegations that Karzai is
involved in the drug trade have
circulated in Kabul for months.
He denies them.
Critics saythe ties with Karzai
complicate the United States'
increasingly tense relationship
with his older brother, Presi-
dent Hamid Karzai. The CIA's
practices also suggest that thet
United States is not doing every-
thing in its power to stamp out
the lucrative Afghan drug trade,
a major source of revenue for the
Taliban.
Some American officials argue
that the reliance on Ahmed Wali
Karzai, a central figure in the
south of the country where the
Taliban is dominant, undermines
the U.S. push to develop an effec-
tive central government that can
maintain law and order and even-
tually allow the United States to
withdraw.
"If we are going to conduct a
population-centric strategy in
Afghanistan, and we are per-
ceived as backing thugs, then we
are just undermining ourselves,"
Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the
senior American military intelli-
gence official in Afghanistan, was
quoted by the Times in an article
published on its Web site.
Ahmed Wali Karzai told the
Times that he cooperates with
American civilian and military
officials but does not engage
in the drug trade and does not
receive payments from the CIA.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP)
- It sounded like the makings of
raucous political theater: Former
Democratic Party chief Howard
Dean and former Bush adminis-
tration official Karl Rove sharing a
stage to discuss health care.
They didn't disappoint, even
if the students who brought the
political heavyweights to Penn
State last night were looking for
something a bit more cerebral than
a town-hall tussle.
The hour-plus event ended up
being a primarily lively politi-
cal debate complete with good-
natured one-liners, with a
sprinkling of town hall-like verve
provided by a smattering of anti-
Rove audience members.
"Liar! Liar!," some in a crowd
of mainly students yelled at Rove
toward the end of the night, when
the former deputy chief of staff to
President George W. Bush brought
up the No Child Left Behind edu-
cation legislation as an example of
an issue that could attract biparti-
sanship.
"These people must be from
Michigan - or they must be from
Ohio State, I don't know," Rove
quipped, referring to Penn State's
biggest football rivals.
The verbose pair hammered
each other with arguments familiar
in the fractured health care fight.
Rove lambasted Democratic
proposals as being modeled on
broken government programs like
Medicare, weighed down by stag-
geringcosts. Dean implored that it
was imperative that all Americans
have the option to obtain afford-
able health care.
"All I want is the option, I don't
want to tell people what to do,"
Dean said.
AFTER THEY WALK
From Page lA
"That was my life," he said. "Get
some more money for some more
dope."
What little money he saved, Bon-
hart used for food - cheap conve-
nience store products like Little
Debbie pastries. He no longer cared
about his personal hygiene, bathing
once every two months, or when
someone told him he smelled.
Bonhartwould lie awake at night,
he remembered, shivering under
his only blanket. As he tried to fall
asleep in freezing churches with
leaky windows,he dreamed ofgoing
back to school to get an education.
~~ "I pr , said.
"Please, God, if I could just stop
smoking dope ... if I could just get
myself back together.
"But Ididn't know how."
Wendy Rhein did.
Known as "Wen" to her friends
and family, Wendy Rhein, a 1991
University alum, runs a program
for homeless men and women in
Lawrenceville, Ga., called NSPIRE.
Founded in 2007, the nonprofit
organization currently works with
30 former homeless people to teach
them the necessary skills and give
them the resources to lead a self-
sufficient life.
Rhein and her coworkers at
NSPIRE,simply put, work to change
lives.
"It could be a wide range of
issues, but we work with that indi-
vidual specifically - on how they
got there in the first place and then
what do they need to do to empower
themselves so that this won't hap-
pen again in their lifetime," Rhein
said over the phone from her office
in late July. She spoke with confi-
dence, and a firm, yet friendly tone.
More than 100 people have
sought help. from the program in
the last two years. Rhein said it's
"very intense" and that not every-
one graduates.
To graduate, participants must
pass drug and alcohol screenings,
secure a job and a place to live, open
and balance a checking account and
more. NSPIRE also works witheach
individual to set personal goals.
Rhein cited Shirley, a 58-year-old
woman who had been homeless on
and off for the last 15 years. Shirley,
whose last name cannot be pub-
lished here because of privacy con-
cerns,was an alcoholic who couldn't
keep a stable job. Since graduating
from NSPIRE in July, Shirley now
has her own apartment, recently
bought herself a car and is starting
her own cleaning company, where
she is employing other NSPIRE cli-
ents to clean houses with her.
Last year, Lawanda - a 23-year-
old woman six months pregnant
- and her partner, Char, sought
assistance through NSPIRE.
"They had literally been living in
a hole in a ditch near a construction
site downtown, and they needed a
place to live," Rhein said.
Both individuals had drug and
criminal histories, but needed
somewhere to raise their infant.
After NSPIRE sorted out their legal
situations, the woman gave birth to
a healthy, 8-pound baby girl. Rhein
attended the birth at the hospital,
whereishe coached the woman d -
inglabor. night, I might have my two, three
Nine months into the program, grams ofcrack in mypocket, $40 to
the couple reunited with their fami- $50 - I would go to church," Bon-
lies. They are now working and living hart said. "I'd sit there long enough
with Lawanda's sister in Alabama. until I just couldn't stand it, and I'd
Rhein primarily deals with have to go get me a hit, but I would
NSPIRE finances and operations, sit there, and I wanted to hear some-
but she said working with people thingdifferent.
who have lived on the streets gives "I was tired ofliving like that."
her a different prospective on life. . Bonhart first went to SafeHouse
"It can be very humbling," she Outreach, a homeless shelter in
said. "You take nothing for granted Atlanta where he met Gregg Ken-
after you work with this kind of a nard,NSPIRE founderandexecutive
population." director. Kennard was interviewing
the homeless to join his program,
--which was only a few months old at
the time. He hadyotrouble convin--
The true impact of Rhein's work ing Bonhart to participate.
expands beyond the confines of her "Once I listened to what Gregg
office. Besides meeting with cli- had to say - how they would move
Off s-she visl - '-nice s
less outreach programs once a living in a house and then move to
month where she serves meals and an apartment, itwas just like an 'a
encourages the homeless to join her ha' moment."
program. Bonhart spent the next seven
Now40, Rheinhas workedinnon- and a half months in the program
profits her whole life. After graduat- and was part of its first graduating
ing from the University with degrees class. Now a truck driver for the
in Women's Studies and Communi- clothing company that partners
cations Studies, she moved to Chi- with NSPIRE, the 47-year-old is
cago and worked with the Chicago starting to get his life back togeth-
Christian Industrial League - the er. And he said he has Rhein, one
largest homeless outreach program of his favorite people, to thank for
in the Midwest at that time. that.
The CCIL provides short- and -"Wendy is my biggest cheer-
long-term shelter for the homeless leader," he said. "She is probably
men, women and children in the the reason I have my own apart-
Chicago area. It was her first job out ment, a job and I've got money in
of college, and Rhein worked as a the bank."
donor services person, writingthank Bonhart said Rhein was pres-
you notes and tracking financial con- ent when he signed the lease on his
tributions. Although she was doing apartment, and she has helped him
behind-the-scenes work, Rhein said work through his self-esteem issues.
the job gave her the opportunity to "I just listened to Wendy ... tell-
see how a nonprofit functions. ing me 'yeah, you are worth it. You
As it was her first experience do deserve a good life,' "he said.
working with the homeless, she said In August, he was accepted
the job gave hera different perspec- to Georgia State University's
tive of people living on the streets. Andrew Young School of Policy
"It was a great eye-opener Studies, where he is working
because some people have this pic- toward a Ph.D. in economics.
ture of what a homeless person is Bonhart said he would not
in their head, and as I've seen now be where he is today without
as well, they're people that have NSPIRE - or without Rhein.
really fallen on hard times and for "When Wilkes first came into
a variety of reasons just can't keep NSPIRE," Rhein said, "I think he
an apartment or haven'tbeen able to had about a week of clean time
secure a job," she said. after decades of crack use.
Rhein explained that it's almost "He was clearly smart and tal-
impossible for homeless people to ented and shrewd and needed the
get jobs or apartments because they opportunity to take some chances
don't have a permanent address. on himself and regain a sense of
Because of the bad economy, purpose that he had lost in his
Rhein said she has seen more home- early twenties."
less individuals and families than Rhein admits they clashed aslot
ever before. She said many people - in the beginning as Bonhart test-
mostlythe unemployed - who can't ed the limits of the program. But
provide for their families have had she said "he stuck with it, hum-
their homes foreclosed on or have bled himself and has unveiled
been evicted from their apartments this incredibly driven, committed
because they cannot afford the rent. and thoughtful person."
Rhein said she's frustrated that
there's not more she can do, but said
it's more frustrating from a recipi-
ent'sperspectivetoknowyoucannot Rhein's sister, Robin Hurwitz
take care of yourself or your family. - a 1988 University graduate -
"I can't imagine how that must said that although their parents
feel to know you're educated, you've had always taught them to do
had a job, you've done everything good deeds, it wasn't until college
right and you still can't manage to that her sister found her passion
find a way to feed yourself or feed for helping those less fortunate.
your family," she said. "Truthfully, I think when she
got to Michigan, that is where a
--- lot of this started," Hurwitz said.
The two girls lived together
After10years oflife on the streets, during Hurwitz's junior year at
in the winter of 2007, Bonhart said the University. Hurwitz recount-
he decided to make a change in his ed that her sister would wake up
life. He started attending church, early on the weekends to work
where he could escape his life of against people trying to block
drugs, thefts and shootings. women from entering Planned
"Even when I was geekin' - it Parenthood:
might have been a hood Friday "She w ld come home and
NSPIRE official Wendy Rhein (right) with p
be so bruised from blocking people
whoweresomuchbigger, especially
adult men who were trying to block
these women from getting the edu-
cation they wanted," Hurwitz said.
"But it was so important for her."
Hurwitz added that the protests
"started opening her (sister's) eyes
to other things" and may have led
her to where she is today.
Hurwitz said she could never do
the kind of work her sister does.
"I think emotionally it would
be way too hard for me," she said.
"Especially having kids of my own, I
think I would just fall apart, but she
has an inner strength that not many
other people have."
program participant Wilkes Bonhart.
NSPIRE would not run as
smoothly or change so many lives if
it were not for Rhein, Kennard said.
"She has a great big heart and
passionto help people to make a dif-
ference," he said.
Rhein said all the various expe-
riences she has had working with
disadvantaged populations during
the last 18 years have culminated in
her current job and said she is driv-
en by knowing her small deeds can
change a person's fate.
"The ability to touch people's
lives, to help them get from one
place to another, it's kind of like
watching a year of a miracle happen
in somebody's life," she said.
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