. The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 3A
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The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
" Lawmakers mull
changes to Mich.
medical pot law
Patients authorized to use
marijuana for medical purposes
in Michigan would no longer be
allowed to grow their own supply
under legislation discussed Tues-
day in a state Senate committee.
The proposal could develop into
the first move to change a state
law approved by voters in Novem-
ber 2008. Republicans who back
the new legislation say it's not an
attempt to undo the law, but their
measures would tighten control
" over how the drug is distributed.
Under the new proposal, the
state would license up to 10 mar-
ijuana-growing facilities rather
than letting thousands of autho-
rized patients or caregivers grow
their own. Marijuana would then
" be distributed through pharma-
cists after patients get a prescrip-
tion from a doctor.
Critics say that's an unwork-
able proposal that would make
getting marijuana more difficult
for patients who use it to relieve
pain and other symptoms.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.
Asian carp DNA
found in Lake
Michigan
A federal official says DNA from
Asian carp has been detected in
Lake Michigan for the first time
- but it's still not certain whether
the fish themselves have entered
the lake.
Gen. John Peabody of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers says one
sample of genetic material from
the invasive carp has been found
in Calumet Harbor, which is part
of Lake Michigan.
He says the Army Corps of
Engineers still doesn't intend to
close the locks and gates that form
the final barrier between water-
ways near Chicago and the lake.
The Supreme Court had refused
yesterday to order their immedi-
ate closure.
Asian carp have been migrat-
ing up the Mississippi and Illinois
rivers. Scientists fear if they reach
the Great Lakes, they could dis-
rupt the food chain and endanger
the $7 billion fishery.
ATLANTA
* Man found guilty
for slapping a child
in Ga. Walmart
A Georgia man has been found
guilty of second degree child cru-
elty for slapping a crying 2-year-
old at a Walmart.
Roger Stephens of Stone Moun-
tain was convicted yesterday in
a Gwinnett County bench trial,
which is held without a jury.
Stephens, who was 61 when
arrested, will spend six months
in jail followed by six months of
home confinement.
Authorities say the girl and her
mother were shopping on Aug. 31,
when the toddler began crying.
The police report says Stephens
approached the mother and said,
"If you don't shut that baby up, I
will shut her up for you."
Authorities say Stephens then
slapped her four or five times.
Accordingto police,Stephens said:
"See, I told you I would shut her up."
A call to Stephens' court-
appointed lawyer was not immedi-
ately returned.
CAIRO
Death toll rises to 7
in Egyptian storms
A second day of heavy rains and
flooding in Egypt's Sinai Desert
killed a woman and destroyed
hundreds of homes, raising the
toll for two days of storms to seven
dead, the government said.
Spokesman Magdy Rady said
yesterday a woman died and 12
people injured in southern Sinai
and 250 homes were damaged.
Six people, including a Brit-
ish tourist, were killed Monday
in Egypt during the storms. One
person died in Israel when her car
was trapped in a flash flood.
Egypt's state news agency said
all 75 patients at the El-Arish gen-
eral hospital in the Sinai had to
be evacuated when the first floor
was flooded. Some 300 families
were also displaced.
In the southern city of Aswan,
floods and strong winds disrupted
power in several neighborhoods.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
San Diego Mayor
Sanders defends
gay marriage
Massachusetts State Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) celebrates in Boston on Tuesday night after winning a special election
held to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Brown defeated Democratic Massachusetts
Attorney General Martha Coakley and independent Joseph L Kennedy.
GOP's, Brown wins
Sen. Kenn11edys s eat
Victory eliminates
Dems' filibuster-
proof majority
in the Senate
BOSTON (AP) - In an epic
upset in liberal Massachusetts,
Republican Scott Brown rode a
wave of voter anger to win the
U.S. Senate seat held by the late
Edward M. Kennedy for nearly
half a century, leaving Presi-
dent Barack Obama's health
care overhaul in doubt and mar-
ring the end of his first year in
office.
Addressing an exuberant
victory celebration last night,
Brown declared he was "ready
to go to Washington without
delay" as the crowd chanted,
"Seat him now." Democrats
indicated they would, deflat-
ing a budding controversy over
whether they would try to block
Brown long enough to complete
congressional passage of the
health care plan he has prom-
ised to oppose.
"The people of Massachu-
setts have spoken. We welcome
Scott Brown to the Senate and
will move to seat him as soon as
the proper paperwork has been
received," said Majority Leader
Harry Reid, D-Nev. Massachu-
setts Secretary of State Wil-
liam Galvin said he would notify
the Senate on Wednesday that
Brown had been elected.
The loss by the once-favored
Democrat Martha Coakley in
the Democratic stronghold was
a stunning embarrassment for
the White House after Obama
rushed to Boston on Sunday to
try to save the foundering can-
didate. Her defeat yesterday sig-
naled big political problems for
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the president's party this fall
when House, Senate and guber-
natorial candidates are on the
ballot nationwide.
Brown's victory was the third
major loss for Democrats in
statewide elections since Obama
became president. Republicans
won governors' seats in Virginia
and New Jersey in November.
"I have no interest in sugar-
coating what happened in Mas-
sachusetts," said Sen. Robert
Menendez, the head of the Sen-
ate Democrats' campaign com-
mittee. "There is a lot of anxiety
in the country right now. Ameri-
cans are understandably impa-
tient."
Brown will become the 41st
Republican in the 100-member
Senate, which could allow the
GOP to block the president's
health care legislation. Demo-
crats needed Coakley to win for
a 60th vote to thwart Republi-
can filibusters. The trouble may
go deeper: Democratic lawmak-
ers could read the results as a
vote against Obama's broader
agenda, weakening their sup-
port for the president. And the
results could scare some Demo-
crats from seeking office this
fall.
The Republican will finish
Kennedy's unexpired term, fac-
ing re-election in 2012.
Brown led by 52 per cent to 47
percent with all but 3 percent of
precincts counted. Turnout was
exceptional for a special elec-
tion in January, with light snow
reported in parts of the state.
More voters showed up at the
polls yesterday than in any non-
presidential general election in
Massachusetts since 1990.
One day shy of the first anni-
versary of Obama's swearing-
in, the election played out amid
a backdrop of animosity and
resentment from voters over
persistently high unemploy-
ment, Wall Street bailouts,
exploding federal budget defi-
cits and partisan wrangling over
health care.
"I voted for Obama because I
wanted change.... I thought he'd
bring it to us, but I just don't like
the direction that he's heading,"
said John Triolo, 38, a regis-
tered independent who voted in
Fitchburg.
He said his frustrations,
including what he considered
the too-quick pace of health
care legislation, led him to vote
for Brown.
For weeks considered a long
shot, Brown seized on voter
discontent to overtake Coakley
in the campaign's final stretch.
His candidacy energized Repub-
licans, including backers of the
"tea party" protest movement,
while attracting disappointed
Democrats and independents
uneasy with where they felt the
nation was heading.
A cornerstone of Brown's cam-
paign was his promise to vote
against the health care plan.
Though the president wasn't
on the ballot, he was on many
voters' minds.
Coakley called Brown conced-
ing the race, and Obama talked
to both Brown and Coakley, con-
gratulating them on the race.
California trial
to overturn
Prop. 8 continues
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
opposed gay marriage - until he
learned his daughter was a lesbian
in a committed relationship.
He testified yesterday during
a trial on California's same-sex
marriage ban that the change was
a defining moment in his personal
life and his political career.
The mayor of California's sec-
ond-largest city took the witness
stand on behalf of two same-sex
couples suing to overturn Propo-
sition 8, the state's voter-approved
ban.
Sanders, a Republican, said
he lost support within his party
and had to work harder to be re-
elected after he opposed the 2008
ballot measure. GOP leaders in
San Diego were even thinking of
withdrawing their endorsement,
he said.
"The kickoff forthe campaign, a
lot of people weren't there," Sand-
ers testified.
The trial, in its sixth day, is the
first in a federal court to examine
whether denying gays and lesbi-
ans the right to wed violates their
constitutional rights.
Throughout the trial, backers
of the ban have tried to show the
ballot measure was not motivated
by deep-seated bias toward gays.
Such "animus" would make it
more difficult for the measure to
pass constitutional muster.
Brian Raum, a lawyer for Prop-
osition 8 sponsors, cross-exam-
ined the mayor about his one-time
opposition to gay marriage.
"You don't believe that you
communicated hatred to the gay
and lesbian community, did you?"
Raum asked.
"I feel like my thoughts were
grounded in prejudice, but I don't
feel like I communicated hatred,"
Sanders said.
Raum also played a commer-
cial produced by the Proposition
8 campaign claiming supporters
were subjected to vandalism, slurs
and physical violence during the
2008 election.
"You would agree that it's
wrong for people to suffer violence
as a result of their political views,
would you not?" Raum asked.
"I would," Sanders agreed, add-
ing he could not verify that sup-
porters of the ban in San Diego
experienced widespread harass-
ment or if the ad was a campaign
tactic.
Raum also pressed Sand-
ers to acknowledge that people
could oppose same-sex marriage
because they think it's in the best
interests of children to be raised
by their biological parents.
Sanders replied that such an
ideal vision of heterosexual mar-
riage is misinformed.
"I was a cop for 26 years, and I
know there were a lot of children
who did not benefit from child
abuse and they were being raise by
their biological parents," he said.
In other testimony, Univer-
sity of Massachusetts at Amherst
economist Lee Badgett, who also
directs research for a gay-related
think tank at the University of Cal-
ifornia, Los Angeles, said research
showed gay couples preferred
marriage to taking advantage of
domestic partnership laws.
"Marriage is an institution
that is recognized by many other
people outside the couple, so it has
that social validation," Badgett
said.
Charles Cooper, another law-
yer for Proposition 8 backers,
countered that the same number
of couples registered as domes-
tic partners in 2009 as 2008,
even though same-sex marriage
was legal in California during a,
four-month window before vot-
ers approved Proposition 8 in
2008.
"Do youbelievethese California
same-sex couples chose domestic
partnership over marriage because
they felt these California domestic
partnerships were second-rate?"
Cooper asked Badgett.
"I don't know that these same-
sex couples who got married also
registered as domestic partners to
hedge their bets against the elec-
tion," Badgett replied.
Cooperspent several hours with
Badgetttryingto demonstrate that
traditional male-female marriages
suffered after same-sex marriages
became legal in the Netherlands
in 2001. He introduced a number
of charts showing divorce and
single parenthood rates increased
while marriage rates fell in the
that country.
Badgett rejected the compari-
son, however, noting those trends-
were firmlyestablishedlongbefore
gay couples won the right to wed.
in the Netherlands and were unre-
lated to same-sex marriage.
"I don't think we need to wait-
any longer to see what the impact.
will be. I think we know," Badgett 7:
said. "Everything I've looked at
leads me to the conclusion that2
there is no impact."
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