The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Psych exam ordered
for man charged in
son's death
A judge has ordered a psychiat-
ric evaluation for the man accused
of fatally shooting his 15-year-old
son after the boy admitted raping a
3-year-old girl.
Wayne County Circuit Judge
Brian Sullivan ordered the exami-
nation for Jamar Pinkney Sr. yester-
day, when the 37-year-old Highland
Park man pleaded not guilty to first-
degree murder in his son's Nov. 16
death.
Authorities say that, after Jamar
Pinkney Jr. confessed to molest-
ing the girl, his father forced the
teen to strip, marched him to an
empty lot and shot him through
the head. Defense attorney Cor-
bett O'Meara has said the elder
Pinkney was immediately remorse-
ful and turned himself in to police.
LUCASVILLE, Ohio
Ohio executes
inmate with one-
drug injection
An Ohio killer was put to death in
an efficient 10 minutes yesterday in
the first U.S. execution to use a single
druginjection instead ofthe standard
three-chemicalcombinationthathas
come under legal attack because it
can cause excruciating pain.
Kenneth Biros, 51, was pro-
nounced dead shortly after one
dose of sodium thiopental began
flowing into his veins at the South-
ern Ohio Correctional Facility. The
U.S. Supreme Court had rejected his
final appeal two hours earlier.
Experts had predicted that
sodium thiopental - used in
many parts of the world to put
pets down - would take longer to
kill than the old method. But the
10 minutes it took Biros to die was
about as long as it has taken other
inmates in Ohio and elsewhere to
succumb to the three-drug com-
bination.
WASHINGTON
Ex-FBI director to
conduct review of
Fort Hood shootings
Ex-FBI director William Webster
will conduct an independent review
ofthe bureau's handling of informa-
tion gathered about the Fort Hood
shooting suspect before the deadly
rampage, officials said yesterday.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has
asked Webster to take a look at how
the bureau handled information
about Maj.Nidal Hasan in the months
before the shooting at the Texas mili-
tary base that killed 13 people.
Mueller had already ordered an
internal review of the matter, and
that review led to a secret report to
the White House in late November.
The new assignment for Webster
takes the internal review a step fur-
ther, and likely means a more pro-
longed, in-depth inquiry. Webster
is a former judge who also served as
C5A director.
In a statement, Mueller called
Webster "uniquely qualified" for the
job because he "has led independent
reviews of various FBI systems and
broader policies and provided valu-
able recommendations. In this case,
Judge Webster will have complete
access and whatever resources nec-
essary to complete the task."
TEHRAN, Iran
Students, militia
clash in 2nd day of
Iran protest
Hard-line militiamen firing tear
gas and throwing stones stormed a
crowd of thousands of university stu-
dents protesting for asecond day yes-
terday, as Iran threatened a tougher
crackdown on the opposition after
the biggest anti-government demon-
strations in months.
More than 200 people were
arrested in Tehran on Monday dur-
ing protests by tens of thousands at
universities nationwide, and Iran's
top prosecutor warned further
unrest would not be tolerated. He
hinted authorities could even pursue
the top opposition leader, Mir Hos-
oein Mousavi, an escalation the gov-
ernmenthas so farbalked at trans
postelection turmoil.
Masked motorcyclists - likely
hard-line militiamen - harassed
Mousavi athis Tehranoffice on Tues-
day. An angry Mousavi confronted
them, daringthem, "Kill me!" before
being hustled away by aides, accord-
ing to pro-opposition Web sites.
- Compiled from
[aily wire reports
Wave of coordinated attacks
kills at least 127 in Baghdad
Officials blame
Sunni insurgent alli-
ance
BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide car
bomb flattened acourtbuildingand
an explosives-rigged ambulance
blew down walls like dominos
near the Finance Ministry during
a wave of coordinated attacks yes-
terday that targeted high-profile
symbols of Iraqi authority. At least
127 people were killed.
The blasts - at least five in
total - marked the third major
strike on government sites since
August and brought uncomfort-
able questions for Iraqi leaders.
These include signs al-Qaida in
Iraq is regrouping and concerns
over the readiness of Iraqi forces
to handle security alone as U.S.
forces depart.
The bombings also brought
swift accusations about the
STUDENT CODE
From Page 1A
Responsibilities.
When the amendment first
passed the assembly in October, it
was grouped with a series of other
amendments, including changing
the Statement's language to make
it gender-neutral, and designat-
ing intimate partner violence as a
distinct violation. The assembly
passed all the recommendations at
that time without debate.
After talking to University pro-
fessors and administrators from
SACUA, MSA President Abhishek
Mahanti decided the assembly
should re-visit its decision to sup-
port the change in the standard of
evidence.
Mahanti said the amendments
were presented to the assembly a
week before they were voted upon,
but the representatives did not
thoroughly look them over.
"That process assumes that
individuals would take time to
look at it and gather evidence and
arguments," Mahanti said. "What
alarmed me was that it all passed
by consent."
When a proposal is brought
before MSA, the matter is not
debated before the full body unless
there is an objection from one its
members. Without an objection,
the resolution passes by consent.
motives behind the attacks. Offi-
cials claimed a Sunni insurgent
alliance, including members of
Saddam Hussein's banned Baath
Party, seeks to undermine the
pro-Western government ahead of
elections set for March 7 and the
later withdrawal of U.S. combat
forces.
Authorities also faced angry
questions about how bombers
again found holes in Iraqi secu-
rity.
"If security falls apart, then
everything will collapse," said
Abbas al-Bayati, head of parlia-
ment's defense committee and an
ally of the Shiite government, as
lawmakers convened an emergen-
cy session.
Another lawmaker, Saadi al-
Barazanji, shouted: "If I were the
interior minister, I would resign!"
The attacks began with a sui-
cide strike on a police patrol. An
hour later, four more explosions
rumbled across Baghdad in the
MSA, along with University
executive officers and SACUA, is
given the opportunity to amend
the Statement every three years.
The changes that MSA approved
in October were sent to SACUA,
which reviews them and ultimate-
ly decides whether to recommend
them to University President Mary
Sue Coleman for implementation.
With or without SACUAs recom-
mendation, MSA's amendments
are sent to Coleman.
Hwang, co-author of the origi-
nal resolution, said that after pre-
senting these changes to SACUA
and hearing their debate on the
change, she realized that MSA
had not adequately discussed the
amendment.
"When we initially proposed it
we didn't realize that there were
so many other aspects of it and so
many other implications that we
had to consider," Hwang said.
MSA Treasurer Vishal Bajaj,
who only votes in the event of a
tie, voted in favor of the resolution.
He said that while he supports the
efforts of those trying to make the
process easier for victims of sexual
assault, he doesn't support chang-
ing the standard for all 20 viola-
tions in the Statement.
Beth Sullivan, a representative
from the Center for the Education
of Women, came to last night's
MSA meeting and urged the
assembly to support the change
span of a few minutes. Suicide
car bombings hit three sites: the
main Appeals Court, an area out-
side the Finance Ministry and
a government compound that
includes the Labor Ministry. A
roadside bomb also went off near
a university.
Iraq's Health Ministry reported
at least 513 people were wounded.
There was no immediate claim
of responsibility. However, mul-
tiple bombings are a hallmark
of al-Qaida. The past two major
strikes on Iraqi government sites
were coordinated blasts in August
and October that took more than
255 lives. Sunni groups linked to
al-Qaida eventually issued state-
ments saying they carried out the
attacks.
Iraq'sgovernment, however, has
tried to cast blame on Saddam loy-
alists - even parading three sus-
pects on national television who
gave what officials termed confes-
sions for the October attacks.
to a preponderance of evidence
standard. She said that most uni-
versities adhere to this standard.
According to Sullivan, the judi-
cial body of the Greek system uses
the preponderance of evidence
standard in all of its cases. Sullivan
read to the assembly a statement
from Max Barack, the Judicial
Vice President of the Interfrater-
nity Council. In his statement, he
urged the assembly to keep its rec-
ommendation to lower the stan-
dard of evidence.
MSA Vice President Mike Rorro,
who voted against last night's
proposal, said that the assembly
should take into consideration
that the Greek system has already
made this change and MSA.should
recommend the University do the
same.
Rules and Elections Chair
Michael Benson said this change
would endanger those accused of
violating the code.
"We have to also look out for
the right of the innocently accused,
as well as the rights of the guiltily
accused," Benson said. "Everyone
deserves their fair day in court."
- Scott Suh contributed
to this report.
STEM CELLS
From PageA
"Before today, we didn't have
all of the approvals (from the
Institutional Review Board),"
Sue O'Shea, director of the Uni-
versity's Center for Human
Embryonic Stem Cell Biology,
said in an interview yesterday.
"Today we've finally cleared all
the hurdles."
The University's Consortium
for Stem Cell Therapies - an
organization that brings together
researchers from across campus
and from Michigan State Univer-
sity and Wayne State University
- will be responsible for deriving
the stem cell lines.
The consortium is now able
to accept donated embryos that
were created for reproductive
purposes but were discarded
either because they weren't
needed anymore or they couldn't
be used, according to the release.
The consent of the donor must
be documented in writing before
the stem cells can be turned over
to the consortium, in accordance
with federal and state laws.
Two million dollars of fund-
ing for the new research will
come from two private organi-
zations, the Alfred A. Taubman
Medical Research Institute and
the Consortium for Stem Cell
Therapies. -
A current federal law states
that taxpayer dollars, including
those from the National Insti-
tutes of Health, cannot be used to
develop new stem cell lines. Once
lines are developed, however,
government funding can be used
to cover the research.
According to the release, Uni-
versity researchers expect to cre-
ate their first embryonic stem cell
line by 2010.
In addition to deriving embry-
onic lines, consortium scientists
will also work on techniques
to convert adult skin cells into
induced pluripotent stem cells,
which function like embryonic
cells, making them extremely
valuable for research purposes.
Accordingto O'Shea, the recent
approval allows University scien-
tists to begin this groundbreak-
ing research.
"It's tremendously important,"
O'Shea said. "For one, the exist-
ing stem cell lines out there don't
represent the world's population
so now we have the tools to let us
make more genetically diverse
lines."
With the approval, consortium
scientistshcan also begin the pro-
cess of creating stem cell lines
fromhdisease-carrying patients,
which will help them develop
treatments for a variety of dis--
eases.
"We want to obtain cells from:
diabetics or people with Par-"
kinson's because once there's an'
embryonic stem cell line, we have"
thousands of cells and we can try
different treatments, so we can"*
study disease progression along'
with new medications," O'Shea
said.
Although the loosening of-
the research restrictions was
approved last year, groundwork
for this project began long before-
the votes were cast.
"We've been working on this
project for several years - even-
before Proposal 2 was on the bal-.
lot," O'Shea said. "We couldn't
do any of the work we're doing if
Proposal 2 had failed because it
was illegal to make new lines in
the state of Michigan."
Feldman said researchers will-
start collecting embryos at the'
beginning of the new year and*
will progressively increase their
intake of donors' embryos.
"We need to understand and
become efficient with making
lines before I cansay we canmake
30 or 40 lines," Feldman said.
"We'll start in a very measured
way to make sure we have all the
operating procedures worked out-
correctly."
According to Feldman, in the
past year, many potential donors
have expressed interest in donat-
ing their embryos for research.
"We estimate we will receive
between 40 and 200 donors
over the first year or so. We will
begin by accepting embryos from
donors where we expect the
embryos to be normal so we can
develop initial lines," she said.
Though the state constitu-
tional amendment passed last'
year, there is still some opposi-
tion to stem cell research in the
state. A group of state legislators,
led by Sen. Tom George (R-Kal-
amazoo), will present bills to the
Senate Health Policy Commit-.
tee today that could restrict the
state's stem cell research.
"It would certainly hinder our
project in a big way," O'Shea said.
"It's just an attempt to further
regulate stem cell research. It
will impede our recruiting efforts
and make it harder for us."
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