The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 3
NEWS 1RIEFS
" LANSING
Gov candidates
battle for campaign
fundraising dollars
Republicans Rick Snyder and
Mike Cox are leading the field in
fundraising in the Michigan gover-
nor's race, according to 2009 cam-
paign reports filed yesterday with
the secretary of state's office.
Snyder, an Ann Arbor venture
capitalist, collected $3.2 million,
including $2.6 million from his own
pocket. But Snyder burned through
far more cash than anyone else in
the race, spending $1.9 million, leav-
ing him with $1.4 million on hand at
the end of December.
He had around 1,000 contribu-
tors and plans to begin running the
first ads of the 2010 gubernatorial
campaign during Sunday's Super
Bowl game.
Attorney General Cox raised
$1.8 million, including $40,137 that
he moved over from his attorney
general campaign fund. He spent
$362,760, leaving him with nearly
$1.5 million on hand.
The Wayne 11th Congressional
District Republican Committee gave
Cox $31,000 and Sen. Bruce Patter-
son's Commander's Majority Fund
gave $34,000. He had more than
2,300 donors, many of them small
contributors who gave $250 or less.
DES MOINES
Search continues
for missing Iowa
State student
Backhoes and dogs are being
used to search for a missing Iowa
State University student authorities
fear could be buried in the snow.
Jon Lacina hasn't been seen
since he left a small gathering at
a friend's home in Ames the night
of Jan. 22. The Iowa State senior's
father reported him missing Satur-
day, prompting a weekend search by
about 250 people helped by a heli-
copter and dive team.
Searchers yesterday began using
backhoes to scrape away snow near
where Lacina was last seen.
Parts of central Iowa were blan-
keted in several inches of snow in
the days after Lacina went missing,
and about 5 inches remains in Ames.
Officials say there's no indi-
cation Lacina would want to
leave the area or hurt himself.
Police don't suspect foul play
but the investigation is ongoing.
BEIJING
China to U.S.:
Don't meet with
Dalai Lama
China warned President Barack
Obama today not to meef the Dalai
Lama, saying any such meeting
would harm bilateral relations.
An Obama meeting with the Dalai
Lama would "seriously undermine
the political foundation of Sino-U.S.
relations," said Zhu Weiqun, execu-
tive deputy head of the Communist
Party's United Front Work Depart-
ment in charge of recent talks with
the exiled Tibetan leader's envoys.
Zhu was speaking at a news con-
ference where he said no progress
had been made at the talks with
envoys of the Dalai Lama on chang-
es to the Himalayan region's status.
The warning to Obama comes
after signals from U.S. officials in
recent weeks that Obama might
soon meet the exiled Tibetan
leader - something Chinese offi-
cials are keen to avoid before
President Hu Jintao travels to
Washington, possibly in April.
BAGHDAD
Suicide bomber kills
54 people in Iraq
A female suicide bomber deto-
nated her explosives inside a way
station for Shiite pilgrims Monday,
killing 54 people and rattling secu-
rity officials who are struggling
against a possible rise in violence
before key elections next month.
The attack was the third major
strike by suspected Sunni insur-
gents in a week and left Baghdad's
top security official acknowledging
that extremists are adopting new
methods to outwit bomb-detection
squads such as stashing explosives
deep inside the engines and frames
of vehicles. A similar warning about
new tactics came last week from the
chief U.S. military commander in
Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, after
a two-day wave of suicide car bomb-
ers struck three hotels in Baghdad
and the city's main crime lab, killing
at least 63 people.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Defense Dept. to
begin study on
gays in military
Senate staff member Sam Armocido stacks copies of President Barack Obama's $3.83 trillion budget delivered to the Senate
Budget Committee yesterday. Among other things, the President's budget calls for a three-year spending freeze on many
discretionary expenses to cope with an anticipated $1.56 trillion deficit.
Obama proposes
$.3.8T budget with
substantial deficit
Secretary Gates
announces study
into reversing 'Don't
Ask, Don't Tell'
WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense
Secretary Robert Gates today will
take the firstreal steps toward lift-
ing the ban on gays serving openly
in the military, announcing a year-
long review aimed at answering
practical and emotional questions
about the effect of lifting the ban,
and imposing looser standards for
enforcing the ban in the mean-
time.
According to U.S. officials,
the senior-level study will be co-
chaired by a top-ranked civilian
and a senior uniformed officer. It
would recommend the best way to
go about lifting the ban, starting
from the premise that it will take
time to accomplish that goal but
that it can be done without harm-
ing the capabilities or cohesion of
the military force, officials said.
The officials spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity to describe the
emerging Pentagon plan ahead of
Gates' announcement.
While the review is likely to take
a year to complete, and even more
time to implement, its initiation will
advance President Barack Obama's
goal of repealing the ban and bring
a divisive issue for the military and
Congress back to the fore.
Gates will testify before the Sen-
ate on the issue, alongside Adm.
Mike Mullen, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both were
expected to make their most far-
reaching statements on the ban
widely known as "don't ask, don't
tell."
"I think you'll see efforts on a
number of fronts over the course of
the next many months ... to address
what the president promised,"
White House press secretary Rob-
ert Gibbs said.
One U.S. official said Gates and
Mullen will outline a more lenient
standard for enforcing the current
ban, as Gates had said last year he
would consider. The interim policy
would make it harder for a third
party to turn in a gay service mem-
ber and would raise the standard
for evidence that the service mem-
ber is gay before the person could
be dismissed.
Under the 1993 law, engaging in
homosexual conduct - even if you
don't tell anyone - can been enough
to qualify a person for dismissal. The
law was intended as a compromise
betweenPresidentBill Clinton,who
wanted to lift the military's ban on
gays entirely, and a reluctant Con-
gress and military thatsaid doing so
would threaten order.
David Hall, a former Air Force
sergeant, said he was discharged in
2002 after someone else reported
that he was gay.
"That ended it," said Hall, who
now works for a gay rights advo-
cacy group. "Just like that, based
off what one person said, ended my
dream of getting to fly planes."
Repeal of the ban has been
opposed by some senior mem-
bers of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and by some reluctant congres-
sional Democrats, including Rep.
Ike Skelton, D-Mo. The ban was
among topics planned to be dis-
cussed Monday during a meeting
of the top uniformed members of
each service.
"The chiefs owe the president
their best advice on the impact
of appeal and how it would be
implemented," said Capt. John
Kirby, a spokesman for the Joint
Chiefs.
Last year, the Defense Depart-
ment dismissed the fewest number
of service members for violating its
"don't ask, don't tell" policy than it
had in more than a decade.
According to figures released
by the Pentagon on Monday, 428
service members in 2009 were dis-
missed for being openly gay com-
pared with 619 in 2008. In 1997, 997
service members were dismissed.
The number fluctuated over the
next decade, with fewer troops dis-
charged after the war in Afghani-
stan began.
Deficit expected to
reach new record of
$1.56 trillion
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Barack Obama sent Congress
a $3.83 trillion budget yesterday
that would pour more money into
the fight against high unemploy-
ment, boost taxes on the wealthy
and freeze spending for a wide
swath of government programs.
The deficit for this year would
surge to a record-breaking $1.56
trillion, topping last year's then
unprecedented $1.41 trillion gap.
The deficit would remain above $1
trillion in 2011 although the presi-
dent proposed to institute a three-
year budget freeze on a variety of
programs outside of the military
and homeland security as well as
increasingtaxes on energy produc-
ers and families making more than
$250,000.
Echoing the pledge in his State
of the Union address to make job
creation his top priority, Obama
put forward a budget that includ-
ed a $100 billion jobs measure
that would provide tax breaks to
encourage businesses to boost hir-
ing as well as increased govern-
ment spending on infrastructure
and energy projects. He called for
fast congressional action to speed
relief to millions leftunemployed in
the worst recession since the 1930s.
After a protracted battle on
health care dominated his first
year in office and led to a string of
Democratic election defeats, the
administration hopes its new bud-
get will convince Americans the
president is focused on fixing the
economy.
Republicans complained about
Obama's proposed tax increases
and said the huge projected defi-
cits showed he had failed to get
government spending under con-
trol. But administration officials
argued that Obama inherited a
deficit that was already topping
$1 trillion when he took office and
given the severity of the down-
turn, the president had to spend
billions of dollars stabilizing the
financial system and jump-start-
ing growth.
Obama's job proposals would
push government spending in 2010
to $3.72 trillion, up 5.7 percent
from last year. Obama's blueprint
for the 2011 budget year, which
begins Oct. 1, would increase
spending further to $3.83 trillion,
3 percenthigher than projected for
this year.
Muchofthe spendingsurge over
the past two years reflects the cost
of the $787 billion economic stimu-
lus measure that Congress passed
in February 2009 to deal with the
worst economic downturn since
the Great Depression. The surge
in the deficits reflects not only the
increased spending but also a big
drop in tax revenues, reflecting the
7.2 million people who have lost
jobs since the recession began and
weaker corporate tax receipts.
"Having steered the economy
back from the brink of a depres-
sion, the administration is com-
mitted to moving the nation from
a recession to recovery by spark-
ing job creation to get millions
of Americans back to work," the
administration said in a statement
accompanying its budget.
The administration's $100 bil-
lion proposed jobs measure would
be lower than a $174 billion bill
passed by the House in December
but far higher than a measure that
the Senate could take up as early as
this week.
Obama's new budget attempts
to navigate between the opposing
goals of pulling the country out of a
deep recession and getting control
of runaway budget deficits.
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The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan
presents the sixth annual
&n
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
"Budget! Are You Kidding?": How to Pay Your Bills
and Still Like Your Life
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Investing for Young Investors: Putting Your Best Foot Forward
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Networking Knowhow
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
"Your Fork is Not a Shovel": Business Savvy
for the Young Professional
Each session begins at 6 p.m. at the Alumni Center
(200 Fletcher Street). For details and to register,
visit www.umalumni.com/students.
All events are FREE except the February 24 session,
which has a $10 fee.
Visit us online to learn about our other student programs- Welcome Wednesdays,
30 Minute Mentors, Ready to Launch, Michigan Apprentice and more.
ALUMNIASSOCIATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
.. T Ulvt