The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.c0m
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, Nsvemher 19, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
NEW ORLEANS, La.
Court rules Army
at fault for Katrina
flooding
A federal judge has ruled thatthe
Army Corps of Engineers' failure
to properly maintain a navigation
channel led to massive flooding in
Hurricane Katrina.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood
Duval late Wednesday ruled in fa-
vor of residents who alleged the
Army Corps' shoddy oversight of
the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet
led to the flooding of New Orleans'
Lower Ninth Ward and neighbor-
ing St. Bernard Parish.
Many in Katrina have argued
that Katrina, which struck the re-
gion Aug.29,2005, was a manmade
disaster caused by the Army Corps'
failure to maintain the levee system
protecting the city.
GROTON, Conn.
Sleeping sailors
cause Navy ships
to collide
The crew of a U.S. submarine
made dozens of errors before the
vessel collided with an American
warship in the Persian Gulf, an
accident that exposed lax leaders
who tolerated sleeping, slouch-
ing and a radio room rigged with
music speakers, a Navy review
found.
Navy investigators placed blame
for the March collision on the sub-
marine's "ineffective and negligent
command leadership," including
what they called a lack of standards
and failure to adequately prepare
for navigating the busy Strait of
Hormuz.
The Navy Times newspaper
first reported the findings Sunday
after obtaining a heavily redacted
copy of the Navy's report through
a Freedom of Information Act
request.
A Connecticut newspaper, The
Day of New London, made a similar
request and reported the findings
Wednesday.
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich,
Father kills his son
after-learning of
sexual assault
A 37-year-old father irate over
hearing his 15-year-old son had
sexual contact with a 3-year-old
girl made the teen strip at gun-
point, marched him to a vacant lot
and shot him to death despite pleas
from the boy and his mother, a rela-
tive said.
Michigan authorities filed a first-
degree murder charge yesterday
against Jamar Pinkney Sr. in the
shooting death Monday of Jamar
Pinkney Jr. in the Detroit enclave
of Highland Park.
Defense attorney Corbett
O'Meara said prosecutors should
consider evidence of the father's
state of mind over the sex abuse
report.
"If something were to happen
that would cause a reasonable per-
son to lose control of himself, that
is somethingthe prosecution would
have to take into account," O'Meara
said outside Highland Park District
Court.
MEXICO CITY
Mexican state
passes legislation to
outlaw abortion
Lawmakers in Veracruz made it
Mexico's 17th state to pass legisla-
tion declaring life begins at con-
ception. then adopted a proposal
that requires Congress to consider
amending the constitution to out-
law abortion.
A majority of the country's 32
states have now enacted anti-
abortion measures in response to
Mexico City's legislature permit-
ting abortions in the first 12 weeks
of pregnancy.
Mexican states currently set
their own laws on abortion, but the
constitutional proposal adopted by
the Veracruz lawmakers late Tues-
day is likely to make the issue a fed-
eral one.
Under the constitution, a single
state legislature can propose an
amendment that must be consid-
ered by Congress.
Even pro-choice activists said
Wednesday that given the makeup
of Congress - and what they called
heavy lobbying by the Roman
Catholic Church - Veracruz's
proposal stands a good chance of
approval.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
GENDER NEUTRAL
From Page 1A
to increase transgender aware-
ness by posting signs on unisex
bathrooms around campus.
"People don't recognize what
they are and what the purpose of
them is, so having that sign there
promotes awareness of whatcgen-
der-neutral bathrooms are, why
they might be important to cer-
tain people on campus," he said.
The LGBT Commission would
like to see the family bathroom
sign changed back to a permia-
nent gender-neutral sign.
"The bathroom is set up as
a gender-neutral bathroom,"
Armstrong said. "We are just a
little hesitant of the fact that the
building hasn't changed the sign
quite yet."
The Spectrum Center, which
provides "education, advocacy,
and support on issues related to
sexual orientation, gender iden-
tity and gender expression, par-
ticularly as it affects graduate
and undergraduate students,"
also noticed the change in the
bathroom's signage.
However, Jacqueline Simpson,
director of the Spectrum Cen-
ter, said she believes the change
was merely "an administrative
glitch."
"The Union facilities have
always been supportive and are a
110 percent supportive," she said.
"I just really want to make it clear
that never was the administra-
tion trying to not have a gender-
neutral bathroom."
Susan Pile, director of the
Michigan Union and Univer-
sity Unions Arts & Programs,
explained how installing the
family bathroom sign was simply
MOOSEJAW
FromPage1A
on Creative Arts Project, said
that as a Michigan-based com-
pany - its headquarters are in
Madison Heights - Moosejaw
should be more in tune with the
region's concerns.
Heinen said she was particu-
larly offended by the portrayal
of female prisoners in the pro-
motional materials, especially
in light of a class action lawsuit
against the Michigan Depart-
ment of Corrections that result-
ed in an estimated $50 million
payout last summer to 18 women
who claimed to have been sexu-
ally assaulted by prison guards.
She said that in the photo-
graph from the e-mail adver-
tisement, a young, attractive
woman wearing a tight T-shirt
and hanging on to the bars of a
cell had a "come in and get me"
kind of expression.
"It has a very sexualized
vision," she said. "The ad per-
petuates the stereotype of the
sexualization of women prison-
ers as something that they want,
something they desire, when in
fact it's sexual assault."
University students involved
with the Prison Creative Arts
Project have made their opposi-
tion to the campaign known by
postingon Moosejaw's Facebook
page, sending e-mails, making
phone calls to the stores and for-
warding a petition in the form of
a letter to Harvey Kanter, presi-
a mistake during the process of
updating all of the Union's sig-
nage.
"The wrong sign went up out-
side that bathroom. There was
never any intent to change the
title ofthatspace," she said. "Since
then we had atemporarysignover
it that keeps disappearing ... final-
ly, what we have done is bolted
down the temporary sign."
Pile said anew, permanent sign
has been ordered for the bath-
room and should arrive sometime
in early December.
Simpson said that the Union
facilities got feedback from the
Spectrum Center in regards to
what the most appropriate sign
should be for the gender-neutral
bathroom.
According to Simpson, the
Spectrum Center chose a sign
that said "gender neutral" and
has a figure that represents gen-
der neutrality.
"It's just one stick figure and
when it comes down sort of half
of the body looks like a skirt and
then half of the body looks like
it's a pair of pants," explained
Simpson.
Simpson said the sign is one of
many possible ways to properly
represent a gender-neutral bath-
room.
"There are lots of different
ways that a particular identity
could be represented," she said.
"This is one way and so we chose
that way."
However, Armstrong said the
LGBT Commission does not nec-
essarily support the symbolism
of the new sign.
"The sign was a little bit offen-
sive just because it had one per-
son that was half female half
male," he said. "And that was just
a little bit insensitive we felt."
dent and CEO of Moosejaw.
Harris said she became
involved with PCAP in 2002 and
has remained actively involved,
despite living in California. It
was this continued enthusi-
asm that led her to "mobilize as
many people as (she) could to
get in touch with Moosejaw to
clarify just how problematic the
ad is."
Harris's main issue with the
campaign was the company's
attempt to capitalize on human
suffering to sell a product.
However, she noted that
Moosejaw has been extremely
responsive to all of the e-mails
and comments she has sent.
Wohifeill said the companyhas
"responded to every person who
has e-mailed and have published
responses on Facebook."
Moosejaw plans to move
ahead with the Jail campaign.
Wohlfeill said that while the
company changed certain ele-
ments of the campaign and
removed some shop signage
after the feedback started com-
ing in, they have no plans to
remove the ads or catalogs.
But for Weitzer, that might
not be enough. She wrote that
while she has shopped at Moose-
jaw in the past, she refuses to do
so again until the campaign has
been recalled and a formal apol-
ogy has been issued.
"I'll be happy to continue sup-
porting a community company
when it ends an advertisement
campaign that is destructive to
our community," she said.
FEAGIN
From Page 1A
of Florida to deliver to another
University student, Timothy
Burke. A falling out between
the two students occurred, and
when the drugs had not arrived
by March, Burke set fire to a
hallway in West Quad to scare
Feagin.
Feagin left the University
shortly afterbeing dismissed from
the football team in July for what
Michigan head football coach
Rich Rodriguez called "a violation
of team rules."
Burke, who also had his pre-
liminary exam scheduled for
this afternoon, requested to have
the exam adjourned until a later
date. The defense requested the
rescheduling in order to review
tapes that had not yet been thor-
oughly examined.
Burke's exam has been resched-
ue 'sr Dexa has9 Former Michigan quarterback Justin Feagi n in court yesterday.
uled for Dcc. 9.
PROMISE
From Page 1A
Byrnes said legislators should
look into larger-scale changes that
would more adequately address
the problem, instead ofpushingthe
problem further down the road.
"I think we need to be looking
at overall tax reform that would
require a ballot initiative or would
have to be passed by two-thirds of
the legislature," Byrnes said. "If
that fails you would have a refer-
endum, a ballot initiative, where
people would want to put it on the
ballot."
Byrnes added, if the program is
restored, she thinks the Michigan
Promise Scholarship may shift to a
need-based program in the future.
"Right now, somebody's family
who earns $200,000 versus some-
one whose family earns $30,000
- they're all entitled to the same
money," Byrnes said. "Because
our money is restricted or so tight
now, some people are suggesting
we should make it needs-based and
academic-based as well, based on
your abilities."
In a statement released yester-
day, Vice Presidentfor Government
Relations Cynthia Wilbanks wrote
that though the state scholarship
program has been eliminated, she
believes it is still possible for the
program to be restored in the near
future.
"There's always a chance," Wil-
banks wrote. "Discussions con-
tinue in Lansing on a number of
priorities that both legislators and
the governor would still like to
address this year."
However, Wilbanks acknowl-
edged that identifying a funding
source maybe difficult in the state's
tough economy.
"The key to bringing back the
scholarships or any other program
is identifying the revenue to sup-
port them," Wilbanks wrote. "Gov.
Jennifer Granholm and other elect-
ed officials are urging the public
and students to contact their legis-
lators to support a revenue plan to
fund the program."
Regardless of happens in Lan-
sing, administrators at the Univer-
sity say they are already planning
for how they will accommodate
student financial aid next year if
the Promise Scholarship is not
restored.
Wilbanks released revised esti-
mates yesterday that 6,172 students
at the University would have been
eligible for the Michigan Promise
Scholarship this year - of whom
1,984 demonstrate financial need
for the scholarship, while 4,188 do
not.
In an-interview yesterday, Pro-
vost Teresa Sullivan re-empha-
sized the University's commitment
to meeting the full demonstrated
financial need for all in-state stu-
dents, despite the Michigan Prom-
ise Scholarship's elimination.
-"We did cover this year the stu-
dents who had financial need who
had Promise Scholarships and we'll
just go forward with that," Sul-
livan said. "If you are a Michigan
resident, we will meet full demon-
strated need. We're not backing off
of that promise."
After finishing her comment,
Sullivan laughed and said it would
probably be more appropriate for
her to use the word "commitment"
than "promise."
More than 96,000 college stu-
dents across the state were set to
receive money from scholarship
program, which provides $500 to
$4,000 - as determined by a stan-
dardized test taken in high school
- over the course of four years of
higher education to offset tuition. If
the program had been continued, it
would have cost the state approxi-
mately $100 million this year.
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