The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, January 29, 2010 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 29, 2010 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
Borders to cut 164
jobs in Ann Arbor
Bookseller Borders Group Inc. is
laying off 164 staffers in an effortto
cut costs amid slumping sales.
The company has cut 124 cor-
porate jobs, including 88 at its Ann
Arbor, Mich., headquarters and 36
corporate staffers in other loca-
tions. The company also cut 40
from distribution centers in Ten-
nessee and California.
In total the cuts are less than 1
percent of Border's 22,500 workers.
The moves come the same week
CEO Ron Marshall left to become
head of the Great Atlantic & Pacific
Tea Co. supermarket chain, forcing
Borders to seek its fourth CEO in
five years. It also follows a disap-
pointing holiday season and three
straight quarterly losses.
Borders is facing increased com-
petition from online rivals and dis-
counters, declining music sales and
consumers curtailing their spend-
ing during the recession. Borders
reported last week that sales at its
namesake superstores open at least
a year were down 14.6 percent for
the crucial holiday period.
DETROIT
Detroit schools to
resume city-wide
marching band
Cash-poor Detroit Public
Schools is reviving a citywide
marching band that ceased per-
forming when the district ran into
a financial jam.
Financial manager Rohert Bohh
said yesterday that he pushed to
resurrect the band after learn-
ing that 325 uniforms were being
0 stored in a district warehouse.
He said the district will match a
$25,000 donation as startup funds.
Bobb also is asking the community
to raise another $250,000 to help
pay band travel expenses and for
some instruments.
The uniforms cost the district
more than $300,000 before the All-
City High School Marching Band
held its final performance in 2004.
The band was launched in 2001 and
performed in the 2002 Rose Bowl
Parade in Pasadena, Calif.
WASHINGTON
Dept. of Defense
moving forward on
lifting Don't ask,
Don't tell policy
The Defense Department next
week will for the first time pro-
pose a "way forward" on lifting
the military's ban on gays from
serving openly, Pentagon Press
Secretary Geoff Morrell said
Thursday.
President Barack Obama has
vowed to work with Congress this
year to repeal the. law, but Demo-
crats have been waiting to hear
from the military on how it could
be done.
In special hourlong testimony
next Tuesday, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates and Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike
Mullen are expected to identify
specific steps the military will take
before the law is changed to lessen
the impact on a force fighting two
wars.
The plan also is aimed at help-
ing to determine how Congress can
write a new law.
"The secretary and the chairman
have and will continue to work on
an implementation plan, and we'll
be able to share it with you early
next week," Morrell said.
MORELIA, Mexico
Police officers
killed as drug war
intensifies
Gunmen killed a police chief and
two officers yesterday in the same
western town where a human head
was dumped a day earlier.
Antonio Bravo, police chief of
Quiroga, and two officers were
attacked while they drove in a
patrol car, Michoacan state pros-
ecutors said in a statement.
Quiroga authorities found the
severed head Wednesday in the
town's tree-lined plaza near city
hall. It was accompanied by a
threatening message referring to a
drug cartel.
Also yesterday, police in the
S Michoacan town of Zitacuaro
found several plastic bags contain-
ing body parts near the city govern-
ment offices, prosecutors said.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
As student protests in Venezuela turn
violent, police respond with tear gas
Chavez orders end
to five-day-long
protests against
increased censorship
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -
Police fired tear gas to chase off
thousands of students demon-
strating in the capital yesterday, a
fifth day of protests against Presi-
dent Hugo Chavez for pressuring
cable and satellite TV providers to
drop an opposition channel.
Some of the protesters threw
rocks at police in riot gear when
officers moved to break up the
rally outside the offices of the
state-run electricity company.
While charging that the gov-
ernment is trying to curb criti-
cism, the students also used their
demonstration to call attention
to electricity shortages plagu-
ing much of Venezuela and other
pressing domestic problems like
double-digit inflation.
University students have taken
to the streets daily since Sunday,
after government pressure led
cable TV services to drop Radio
Caracas Television International,
which has long been a critic of
Chavez's socialist policies.
"We are not going to allow
continued shutdowns of media
outlets that tell the truth, and we
are not going to allow ineptitude
and inefficiency to continue,"
said Nizar El Sakih, a student
leader.
Critics of the government say
Chavez is responsible for domes-
tic problems ranging from double-
digit inflation to violent crime to
rolling power blackouts.
The government says RCTV
was removed for refusing to com-
ply with a new rule requiring
media outlets to televise man-
datory programming, including
Chavez's speeches.
Chavez accused students of try-
ing to stir up violence as a means
of destabilizing his government.
"There are some attempting to
set fire to the country," Chavez
said in a televised address Thurs-
day. "What are they seeking?
Death."
He said unidentified assailants
armed with assault rifles shot at
National Guard troops Wednes-
day in the city of Merida, where
two soldiers suffered gunshot
wounds. A military barracks in
the city of Barquisimeto was also
attacked, he said.
University students shout slogans against Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez during a protest in Caracas, yesterday.
Chavez vowed to crack down
on street demonstrations that
turn violent.
"We cannot permit this," he
said. "The state and the govern-
ment must impose authority."
Ten students were accused
of fomenting public disorder
Thursday in the eastern city of
Barcelona - a day after they led
protests that ended in clashes
with police, Fortunato Herrera,
a lawyer representing the stu-
dents, told the local Globovision
TV channel.
Student leader Jonathan Zam-
brano told Globovision that 22
protesters were arrested in the
city of Barinas. The students were
released, Zambrano said, after
university groups agreed to call
off street demonstrations.
Two youths were killed in Mer-
ida on Monday - a day after the
protests began. Dozens of people
have been injured during the
week's demonstrations.
Calif. to vote on
pot legalization
Democrats muscle through
bill to increase nation's debt
Organizers gather
enough signatures
to get petition on
November ballot
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -
Backers of a California initiative to
legalize marijuana said they would
submit far more signatures Thurs-
day than needed to qualify the
measure for the November ballot.
Volunteers intended to submit
about 700,000 signatures collect-
ed across all 58 California coun-
ties, campaign spokesman Dan
Newman said.
The initiative needs about
434,000 signatures from regis-
tered voters to make the ballot.
The Regulate, Control and Tax
Cannabis Act of 2010 would legal-
ize possession of small amounts
of marijuana for adults. It also
would allow limited growing on
private property and permit local
governments to decide whether
to legalize and tax pot sales.
"Our current laws aren't work-
ing. We should have learned from
alcohol prohibition," said Oak-
land medical marijuana entrepre-
neur Richard Lee, the measure's
main backer.
The signature were filed as a
15,000-square-foot store stocked
with marijuana growing supplies
prepared to open in Oakland -
anothersignofthe mainstreaming
of pot in some parts of California.
Members of the Oakland
City Council were scheduled to
attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony
Thursday.
No pot is sold at the store, but
it has an onsite doctor to provide
medical marijuana recommenda-
tions to customers and techni-
cians who will install growing
equipment such as lights and fans
in the homes of customers.
Customers can see "Ikea-style
grow room demonstrations with
live plants," according to the store.
Owner Dhar Mann, 25, said he was
"thrilled to see the strong support
that the city of Oakland and the
community has shown us."
Experts meet at UN
to discuss fighting
piracy near Somalia
Group says ships
can take greater
precautions to
avoid pirate attacks
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -
Piracy experts said yesterday
thatmost ofthe hijacked ships off
the coast of Somalia had ignored
safety precautions, and at least
25 percent of the commercial
ships that pass through the Gulf
of Aden continue to do so.
An informal band of nations
and organizations fighting piracy
along Somalia's vast and lawless
coastline vowed to try to per-
suade more merchant vessels to
follow precautions adopted by the
world's leading shipping, cargo
and insurance organizations.
These self-protective mea-
sures, ranging from increased
lookouts to zigzag maneuvers
to the use of razor wire and fire
pumps, are based on recommen-
dations by the European Union's
maritime security center for the
Horn of Africa. The pirates usu-
ally seize the ships or the crews
without harming them, and they
often receive what they want -
tens of millions of dollars in ran-
som, paid in cash.
Diplomats told the anti-piracy
group that both industry and the
U.N. Security Council had helped
the effort - the 15-nation council
by giving countries authoriza-
tion to enter Somalia's territorial
waters, with advance notice, and
use "all necessary means" to stop
piracy and armed robbery at sea.
"We are seeing the effects of
the preventive measures taken
by the industry," said Carl Sali-
cath, a senior adviser at Norway's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
which chaired a daylong meet-
ing at U.N. headquarters. It was
the fifth such meeting of the so-
called Contact Group on Piracy
off the Coast of Somalia since its
formation last year.
"The successful hijacks are
almost exclusively on ships not
complying with the best manage-
ment practices adopted by this
group. This is by far the most
important measure against pira-
cy," Salicath said. "But still, only
70 to 75 percent of the ships pass-
ing through the Gulf of Aden fol-
low the preventive measures. Our
challenge is to achieve a much
higher level of compliance."
Salicath said another big fac-
tor is the military's protective
naval escorts, and other counter-
piracy measures, in the region.
The group also has agreed to set
up international funds to help
pay the cost of prosecutions and
beefed-up security.
Charles Petrie, a U.N. deputy
special representative for Soma-
lia, said U.N.-sponsored anti-
drug efforts also are playing a
role.
Somali pirates now hold nine
major vessels hostage and about
200 crew members, plus about
six to seven Arab sailing dhows
with an undetermined number
of crew members, said Captain
Paul Chivers, chief of staff for
the EU's naval operation off the
coast of Somalia, known as Oper-
ation Atalanta.
Legislation allows
the government to go
$1.9B deeper in debt
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate
Democrats needed all the 60 votes
at their disposal yesterday to mus-
cle through legislation allowing
the government to go $1.9 trillion
deeper in debt.
Democratic leaders were able to
prevail on the politically volatile
60-39 vote only because Repub-
lican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of
Massachusetts has yet to be seat-
ed. Republicans had insisted on a
60-vote, super-majority 'thresh-
hold to pass the measure. An ear-
lier test vote succeeded on a 60-40
vote.
The measure would would put
the government on track for a
national debt of $14.3 trillion -
about $45,000 for every American
- and it served as a vivid remind-
er of the United States' dire fiscal
straits.
The massive increase in the
debt limit would allow majority
Democrats to avoid another vote
until after the midterm elections
this fall. New estimates released
by the Congressional Budget
Office on Tuesday show that the
U.S. this year could run a deficit
matching last year's record $1.4
trillion shortfall.
To win the votes of moder-
ate Democrats, President Barack
Obama promised to appoint a spe-
cial task force to come up with a
plan for dealing with the spiraling
debt.
And to get the support of mod-
erate "Blue Dog" Democrats in a
House vote next week, the mea-
sure includes tough new "pay-as-
you-go" budget rules to make it
harder to run up the deficit with
new tax cuts or federal benefit
programs. Senate Democrats had
been reluctant to approve the
new deficit curbs but relented and
approved them by a 60-40 vote.
Several Republicans who had
earlier voted for the new rules,
which would make it more diffi-
cult to permanently extend some
tax cuts that expire at the end of
this year, switched their positions
and opposed it.
They include John McCain or
Arizona, who's facing a primary
battle with former Rep. J.D. Hay-
worth, who's winning support
from conservative "tea party"
activists.
To make raising the debt ceil-
ing easier for moderates and polit-
ically endangered Democrats to
swallow amid a populist uprising
against government borrowing
and spending, Obama promised
in his State of the Union address
night to appoint a bipartisan task
force to come up with a plan .
"I will issue an executive order
that will allow us to go forward,
because I refuse to pass this prob-
lem on to another generation of
Americans," he said.
The 60 votes Democrats need
from their own caucus include
those of incumbents facing dif-
ficult re-election battles this year
as well as longtime opponents of
raising the debt limit, such as Sen.
Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
The task was made more dif-
ficult last week when Brown won
the late Edward M. Kennedy's Sen-
ate seat. On Feb. 11, when Brown
plans to take office, the Democrats'
majority shrinks to59 and the GOP
will have the 41 votes it needs to
filibuster what it doesn't like in
the agendas pushed by Obama and
Democratic leaders.
"It took 200 years to build the
federal debt to a total of $1.9 tril-
lion," Seri. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.,
said. "Now the majority wants to
increase the current limit ... by $1.9
trillion so that we can finance the
government's borrowing binge long
enoughto getus pastthe November
2010 elections."
Democrats and Republicans
alike share responsibility for run-
ning up the debt, but it falls upon
Democrats to pass the measure
since they control the government.
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