The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 3

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Auto sales show
industry beginning
to stabilize
GM reported its first monthly gain
in U.S.sales inalmosttwoyearswhile
Toyota and Ford also improved, a
sign the auto industry it starting to
crawlbackfrom ayearlongslump.
Demand for new cars and cross-
overs in October fueled better results
for General Motors Co. and Detroit
rival Ford Motor Co. GM's sales rose
4.7percent fromOctober2008,while
Ford notched a 3-percent gain. Japa-
nese rival Toyota Motor Corp. said
its sales edged up less than a percent.
Less rosy news came from Chrysler
Group LLC, whose sales fell 30 per-
cent, though they improved from
September.
The biggest winners were Hyun-
dai, based in South Korea, whose
sales jumped 49 percent to 31,005
vehicles, boosted by its fuel-efficient
Elantra sedan; and Japanese auto-
maker Subaru, which saw a 41-per-
cent surge, helped by strong sales in
its Outback and Forester models.
Automakers had said October
would be a test of the strength of the
auto market after the volatile effects
of the government's Cash for Clunk-
ers program. The industry staggered
through a tough September, hurt by
the collapse of demand following the
clunker rebates that fueled a sales
surge over the summer.
MEXICO CITY
Mexican troops
kill federal agent
in gunbattle
Police and soldiers killed a fed-
eral agent driving one of three cars
0 thatignored orders tostop innorth-
ern Mexico, triggering a chase and
gunbattle yesterday, authorities
said.
The police and troops were on a
joint patrol in the city of Chihua-
hua when they tried to stop three
suspicious vehicles, the federal
Attorney General's Office and the
Defense Department said in a joint
statement.
The three drivers ignored the
order, leading to a chase and then
a shootout when the occupants of
two cars opened fire after being
caught by the security forces, the
statement said.
The driver of the one of the cars
- later identified as federal agent
Miguel Angel Meneses - was
killed, according to the statement.
Another person inside one of the
cars was wounded.
KALAMAZOO
Western Michigan
trustees back plan
for medical school
Western Michigan University
said yesterday it will proceed with
plans for a new medical school, a
move under consideration for two
years, with help from an anonymous
$1.8 million gift.
Michigan's three medical schools
could soon grow to six with accredi-

Cation requests earlier this year
from Western, Central and Oakland
universities.
Western Michigan said an
unidentified donor has pledged $1.8
million to allow it to hire an interim
dean and pay for detailed planning.
The medical school will be private-
ly funded and won't receive state
funds, it said.
"There is still much work to do
to make a school of medicine a real-
ity, but we've already made great
progress as a community," univer-
sity President John M. Dunn said
in a statement. "Our next steps will
include extending the planning pro-
cess in a way that will take advan-
tage of even more of the expertise
available locally."
DETROIT
GM board decides to
keep European Opel
General Motors Co. says its board
of directors has decided to keep its
European Opel unit rather than sell
a 55 percent stake to Canadian auto
parts maker Magna International.
The decision came yesterday at a
daylong meeting in Detroit, ending a
year of uncertainty for the troubled
Opel brand and its English sister,
Vauxhall.
CEO Fritz Henderson says in a
statement that GM will present its
restructuring plan for Opel to the
German government soon. The
move came even though Opel's
unions yesterday reached agree-
ment with Magna for $390 million a
year in cost cuts.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports

GOP wins
Virginia race
for governor

HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AP
Republican Chris Christie addresses his supporters yesterday after beating incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine to become the 55th
governor of New Jersey,
Corzine unseated
Christie in New Jersey

McDonnell's win
comes a year after
Obama won the state
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Repub-
lican Bob McDonnell wooed Virgin-
ia's independent voters yesterday to
win a landslide election for governor
just a year after the state bucked tra-
dition and voted for Barack Obama.
McDonnell, a conservative for-
mer state attorney general, had
about 60 percent of the vote with
most precincts reporting. He takes
back the governor's office after
eightyears of Democrat control.
The election largely turned on
independent voters, who preferred
McDonnell by nearly a 2-1 ratio
over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds,
exit polls showed. It was a shift
from 2008, when independents in
the state split about evenly between
the parties.
"I just got tackled by my five kids
and my wife, and there are a lot
of tears on my cheeks right now,"
McDonnell told The Associated
Press.
The race, along with one in New
Jersey, has been closely watched as
a potential referendum on Obama
and his policies. Obama was the
first Democrat in 44 years to carry
Virginia ina presidential race.
Virginia voters were split on

Obama's job performance, exit
polls showed. While many said the
president was not a factor in their
votes for governor, about a quarter
said their vote for McDonnell was
also a rejection of Obama.
"I hope this will kind of send a
message to Congress that you bet-
ter do what we want or we won't re-
elect you," said Linda Doland, 60, a
nanny in suburban Richmond who
voted for McDonnell.
"You're supposed to represent
us," she said. "I don't think the
present administration is really lis-
tening to the people."
Voters expressed angst about
major Obama initiatives such as
health care, energy and stimulus
spending. But McDonnell dominat-
ed the campaign's central issues:
jobs and the economy.
In Associated Press surveys at
polling places statewide, about
eight in 10 voters said they were
worried about the direction of the
nation's economy, and the majority
of those favored McDonnell.
McDonnell, 55, never trailed
in polls, even though his lead nar-
rowed in September after news
reports of a graduate thesis he
wrote in 1989 that disparaged
working women, gays and unmar-
ried "cohabitators." He dismissed
it as a forgotten academic exercise
and said raising three daughters
had changed his views.

Christie is first
Republican to win in
'NJ statewide
election in 12 years
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Repub-
lican Chris Christie, a former
corruption-busting prosecutor,
unseated the deep-pocketed but
unpopular Gov. Jon Corzine on
yesterday in a bruising contest
that focused on New Jersey's ail-
ing economy, its highest-in-the-
nation property taxes and even
Christie's weight.
Christie, 47, became the first
member of his party in a dozen
years to win a statewide contest in
heavily Democratic New Jersey.
"Tomorrow, starting tomorrow,
we are going to pick Trenton up
and turn it upside down," Chris-
tie said in his acceptance speech
in Parsippany in front of cheering
supporters.
President Barack Obama
invested heavily in the race, cam-
paigning with Corzine five times
on three separate visits. A Repub-

lican captured the only other
governor's race in the country,
in Virginia, a troubling sign for
Obama heading into next year's
midterm elections.
With 99 percent of precincts
reporting, Christie had 1,135,181
votes, or 49 percent, compared with
1,033,522, or 45 percent, for Cor-
zine. Independent candidate Chris
Daggett, who at one point had been
feared as a potential spoiler, had
132,245 votes, about 6 percent.
Daggett may have cut into Cor-
zine's base. Two-thirds of Daggett
voters approved of Obama, sug-
gesting they were more likely to
lean Democratic, according to an
Associated Press exit poll.
Corzine also failed to swayunaf-
filiated women voters, a majority
of whom voted for Christie despite
being courted by Corzine.
Corzine said he called Christie
just before 11 p.m. last night "and
congratulated him on becoming
New Jersey's next governor." He
pledged to work with Christie to
ensure a smooth transition.
"We might be retiring from
politics," Corzine said in his
concession speech, "but we are

not retiring from the fight or for
speaking up for the things we
believe in."
Christie accepted public financ-
ing in the race againstthe wealthy
incumbent and was outspent $23
million to $11 million. He did get
financial help from the Republi-
can Governors Association and
other national Republican groups,
which bought television time in
the pricey New York and Philadel-
phia media markets.
Christie ran on a platform of
smaller government and relent-
lessly criticized Corzine for what
he called poor economic steward-
ship. State unemployment was at
9.8 percent in October and prop-
erty taxes averaged $7,045 per
household, the nation's highest.
But he was criticized during the
campaign for remaining vague
about how he would solve New
Jersey's chronic fiscal problems.
"For me and for most of you,
we've already had a great New
Jersey life," he said in his accep-
tance speech. "What we want to
do is make sure that everyone in
New Jersey gets the opportunity
for a great New Jersey life."

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New York Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg walks on the stage at the Sheraton New York Hotel yesterday to address sup-
porters after he beat his opponent.
Bloomberg wins third
term as NYC mtay or

LSA
THE UNIVERSITY of MICHIGAN COLLEGE of LITERATURE, SCIENCE 6
THE ARTs presents a public lecture and reception

Bloomberg to New
Yorkers: you 'ain't
seen nothing yet'
NEW YORK (AP) - Billionaire
Michael Bloomberg won a third
term as New York mayor yester-
day ina closer-than-expected race
against a Democratic challenger
who stoked voter resentment over
the way Bloomberg changed the
city's term-limits law so he could
stay in office.
Bloomberg, the richest man
in New York and founder of the
financial information company
Bloomberg LP, defeated William
Thompson Jr. 51 percent to 46
percent - a difference of less than
51,000 votes.
The mayor called it a "hard-
fought victory in a very difficult
year," and promised that New
Yorkers "ain't seen nothing yet"
from him.
"I'm committed to working
twice as hard in the next four
years as I did in the past eight,"
Bloombergsaid.
In the days leading up to the
election, polls showed Bloomberg
with as much as an 18-point lead,
an edge so big that critics accused
the mayor of overkill in his strat-
egy of bombarding the city with
campaign ads.

His actual margin of victory was
far smaller thanthe nearly 20-point
blowout he pulled off in 2005.
When all the bills are paid,
Bloomberg will probably have
spentmorethan$1oomilliononhis
campaign, the mostexpensive self-
financed campaign in U.S. history.
Thompson, the city's comptroller,
relied on donations and matching
funds for his mayoral bid, and was
on track to spend about a tenth of
Bloomberg's staggering total.
"This campaign was about
defying conventional wisdom....
this campaign was about stand-
ing strong, standing tall and never
backing down in the face of a for-
midable challenge," Thompson
said after conceding defeat.
Thompson ran up huge margins
in black and Hispanic neighbor-
hoods, winning by a 3-to-1 margin
in some districts.
He beat Bloomberg handily in
predominantly black neighbor-
hoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant in
Brooklyn and Jamaica in Queens.
He won Harlem and East Harlem
easily, along with other heavily
Hispanic districts in upper Man-
hattan and the Bronx.
By contrast, Bloomberg won
easily on Staten Island, which has
a much larger white population.
He also fared better in Manhat-
tan, particularly on the Upper East
Side, where he lives.

The tiny margin could weaken
his power and make his third term
more difficult at City Hall, where
Democrats poised to sweep into
citywide offices indicated they
would notshy away from disagree-
ing with the mayor.
"You'll see a lot of strong voic-
es as checks and balances," said
Democrat Bill de Blasio, who won
the job of City Hall ombudsman
Tuesday. "It will be a very differ-
ent experience than what he expe-
rienced the last eight years."
Bloomberg is just the fourth
mayor to win a third term, after
Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Wag-
ner and Ed Koch.
Bloomberg was a Republican but
left the party in 2007 to explore a
presidential bid, a dreamhe eventu-
ally abandoned. For his third may-
oral run, he ran again on the GOP
and Independence Party lines.
While Bloomberg was often
described as having every advan-
tage in the race, including his esti-
mated $17.5 billion fortune and
consistently high approval ratings,
his campaign did have to overcome
some obstacles.
The mayor, who has close ties
to Wall Street and development,
was running for re-election at a
time when finance and real estate
were falling apart and those rela-
tionships were not necessarily
seen as positives.

ACTION PRINCIPLES AND THE DYNAMICS OF
Spinning, Rolling, and Skating
ANTHONY BLOCH, Alexander Ziwet Collegiate Professor of Mathematics
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2009
4:10PM, RACKHAM AMPHITHEATER