The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Bernero enters bid
for Dem. primary in
governor's race
Partisanship and insider poli-
tices are blocking efforts to restore
Michigan's economic health, Lan-
sing Mayor Virg Bernero said yes-
terday as he kicked off his bid for
the Democratic nomination for
governor.
Speaking at the Detroit Chassis
LLC plant, the 45-year-old son of a
former General Motors Co. worker
said the state has tried Republican
and Democratic ways of governing
and now needs to find "the Michi-
gan way."
"Our current leaders have deliv-
ered little more than the same old
partisan bickering, obstructionism
and gridlock," he said to roughly
100 supporters.
Bernero is no stranger to the
Statehouse; he served in the House
O 2001-02 and in the Senate 2003-
2005, where he took office the same
year Democrat Jennifer Granhoim
took over as governor.
He left three years into his four-
year Senate term to become Lan-
sing mayor in January 2006 after
winninga nonpartisan election.
MIDDLETOWN, Conn.
Power plant blast
kills five in Conn.
Authorities have released the
names of the five men killed in an
explosion at a power plant that was
under construction in a Connecti-
cut town.
Middletown police say Peter
Chetulis ofThomaston, Conn.; Ron-
ald J. Crabb of Colchester, Conn.;
Raymond Dobratz of Old Saybrook,
Conn.; Chris Walters of Florissant,
Mo.; and Roy Rushton of Hamilton,
Ontario, died in Sunday's blast at
the Kleen Energy plant.
Kleen Energy says about 114
workers were on the site and nine
subcontractors were working there
at the time.
The company says six workers
are still hospitalized.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Federal gov. pledges
$78.5M to help fix
Asian carp problem
Navigational locks and gates in
" Chicago-area waterways crucial
for shipping may be opened less
frequently than usual under a $78.5
million campaign to prevent Asian
carp from overrunning the Great
Lakes, federal officials said yester-
day.
. The plan falls short of clos-
ing the navigational structures
entirely, as demanded by Michi-
gan and five other Great Lakes
states. They fear the locks will
provide an opening to the lakes
for the giant carp, which some
scientists say could devastate the
region's $7 billion fishing indus-
try.
But the Obama administration
described the plan as part of an
effective strategy for keeping the
invasive fish at bay while long-term
biological controls are developed.
The government said it would take
25 actions to slow the advance of
the carp, which can reach 4 feet
long and 100 pounds.
Nancy Sutley, head of the White
O House Council on Environmental
Quality, called the plan "an unpar-
alleled effort on the part of the fed-
eral government."
"Today, we have an opportunity
to work together to prevent envi-
ronmental and economic damage
before it happens," Sutley said after
talks yesterday with several gover-
nors from the region.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Chavez declares
energy emergency
in Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez has
signed a decree declaring an energy
emergency in Venezuela to facili-
tate his government's efforts to
ease severe energy shortages.
Venezuela imposed electricity
and water rationing in Decem-
ber to prevent a collapse of the
electricity grid as severe drought
drops water levels behind the
Guri Dam to critical lows. The
dam supplies most of Venezuela's
electricity.
Energy Minister Ali Rodri-
guez says the government must
accelerate plans to reduce energy
consumption while boosting pro-
duction.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Man without
passport causes
security breach
DAVIDGOULDMAN/AP
Automotive technician Jason Winston, works to correct a gas pedal recall on a Toyota Camry at a dealership in New York Saturday
U.S. p lcians involved
CRsiin Toyotarecalsal to
have ties with carmaker
Portion of Detroit
airport evacuated,
nothing found
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - A por-
tion of a terminal at Detroit Met-
ropolitan Airport was evacuated
yesterday after a man without a
boarding pass walked through a
passenger screening checkpoint
and refused to obey security offi-
cers, officials said.
The man failed to stop about
7:45 a.m. at the McNamara Termi-
nal, the Transportation Security
Administration said. He was sub-
dued by airport police after a stun
gun failed to stop him, an FBI agent
said.
In a criminal complaint filed
with U.S. District Court in Detroit,
FBI agent Michael Thomas said the
man, identified as Kaylan L. Poli-
cherla, walked through the check-
point and a metal detector with his
hands inhis jacket pockets.
Transportation Security
Administration workers activated
an alarm, security doors were low-
ered at the portion of the terminal
between the security checkpoint
and terminal concourse, and peo-
ple were evacuated from that area,
airport spokesman Mike Conway
said.
A TSA screener followed Poli-
cherla until airport police arrived
and ordered him to stop, Thomas
said. An officer discharged a Taser
at Policherla but it had no effect,
and officers then wrestled him
to the floor and handcuffed him,
Thomas said.
Dogs were used to search the
portion of the terminal that had
been evacuated, but nothing was
found, Conway said. Security
screening resumed about an hour
later, officials said.
The complaint alleges that Poli-
cherla violated federal security
requirements. Policherla remained
in custody yesterday evening, buta
court appearance was not immedi-
ately scheduled, FBI spokeswoman
Sandra Berchtold said.
U.S. senator and
congresswoman owe
wealth to Japanese
car company
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
lawmakers now investigating
Toyota's recall include a sena-
tor who was so eager to lure the
Japanese automaker to his state
that he tramped along through
fields as its executives scouted
plant sites, and a congresswoman
who owes much of her wealth to a
Toyota supplier.
They and others on the con-
gressional committees investi-
gating Toyota's massive recall
represent states where Toyota has
factories and the coveted well-
paying manufacturing jobs they
bring. Some members of Congress
have been such cheerleaders for
Toyota that the public may won-
der how they can act objectively
as government watchdogs for
auto safety and oversight. The
company's executives include a
former employee of the federal
agency that is supposed to oversee
the automaker.
Toyota has sought to sow good
will and win allies with lobby-
ing, charitable giving, racing in
the American-as-apple pie NAS-
CAR series and, perhaps most
important, creating jobs. Will
those connections pay off as it
tries to minimize fallout from its
problems?
The Senate's lead Toyota inves-
tigator, West Virginia Democrat
Jay Rockefeller, credits himself
with lobbying Toyota to build a
factory in his state. A member of
a House investigating panel, Cali-
fornia Rep. Jane Harman, repre-
sents the district of Toyota's U.S.
headquarters and has financial
ties to the company.
Rockefeller, chairman of the
Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee, has
known Toyota's founding family
since the 1960s. He was so closely
involved with Toyota's selection
of Buffalo, W.Va., for a factory that
he slogged through cornfields
with Toyota executives scouting
locations and still mentions his
role in the 1990s deal to this day.
"By the time Toyota decided
to make Buffalo its new home,":.
Rockefeller said in 2006 during
the plant's 10th anniversary, "I
felt like a full-fledged member of
that site selection team."
Rockefeller's committee is
expected to review whether the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration acted aggres-
sively enough toward Toyota.
The agency's new chief, David L.
Strickland, worked for eight years
on Rockefeller's committee as a
lawyer and senior staffer.
Strickland has such close rela-
tionships with Rockefeller and
other senators that Republican
Sen. George LeMieux of Florida
asked Strickland at his confir-
mation hearing two months ago
whether he could disagree with
Rockefeller, his former boss: "The
oversight for you in your role will
be from the committee that you
once served on," LeMieux told
him.
"I will be honest with you, sir,"
Strickland answered. "I've had
disagreements with the chair-
man personally. But he signs the
paycheck, and he wins. But I will
have no problem with thatall, sir."
Rockefeller sees no reason to
step aside from his committee's
investigation. Consumer protec-
tion is a cornerstone of his work
as chairman and that is reflected
in the steps he and the commit-
tee are taking, including NHTSA
briefings and plans to hold hear-
ings and seek recall-related docu-
ments, Rockefeller spokeswoman
Jamie Smith said. '
"While this important work
proceeds, Sen. Rockefeller is
encouraged that Toyota is mak-
ing every effort to minimize the
impact on its U.S. work force,
especially during these difficult
economic times."
Smith said. "He hopes and
expects that Toyota will remain
a strong company and is capable
of getting back on the right track
with safety and consumer confi-
dence."
LeMieux on Monday asked
Rockefeller to hold a hearing
promptly.
"This is a matter of public safe-
ty," LeMieux wrote.
Iran said to increase
its nuclear' capacity
Iran informs U.N rods needed for the reactor.
France and the U.S. said
that nuclear efforts the latest Iranian move left no
choice but to push harder for a
are peaceful fourth set of U.N. Security Coun-
cil sanctions to punish Iran's
VIENNA (AP) - Iran pressed nuclear defiance.
ahead Monday with plans that Even a senior parliamentarian
will increase its ability to make from Russia, which traditionally
nuclear weapons as it formally opposes Western ambitions for
informed the U.N. nuclear agen- new U.N. sanctions, suggested
cy of its intention to enrich ura- the time had now come for such
nium to higher levels. additional punishment
Alarmed world powers ques- Konstantin Kosachev, head of
tioned the rationale behind the the international affairs com-
move and warned the country it mittee of the State Duma - the
could face more U.N. sanctions if lower house of parliament - told
it made good on its intentions. the Interfaxnews agencythatthe
Iran maintains its nuclear international community should
activities are peaceful, and an "react to this step wyith serious
envoy insisted the move was measures, including making the
meant only to provide fuel for regime of economic sanctions
Tehran's research reactor. But more severe."
world powers fearing that Iran's Iranian President Mah-
enrichment program might be moud Ahmadinejad had already
a cover for a weapons program announced Sunday that his coun-
were critical. try would significantly enrich at
Britain said the Islamic least some of the country's stock-
Republic's reason for further pile of uranium to 20 percent.
enrichment made no sense Still, Monday's formal notifica-
because it is not technically tion was significant, particularly
advanced enough to turn the because of Iran's waffling in
resulting material into the fuel recent months on the issue.
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