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NEWS BRIEFS
BROOKLYN, Mich.
Speedway to ban
smoking in May
Michigan International Speed-
way says it's banning smoking in
most areas in response to a state
law change that takes effect May 1.
The racetrack announced yes-
terday smoking will be forbidden
in its grandstands, mezzanines,
concessions, restrooms, suites and
chalets.
It says smoking will be allowed
in open-air areas behind the
grandstands, the New Holland
Fan Plaza and campgrounds.
The 2-mile oval track seats
119,500 and is located in the unin-
corporated community of Brook-
lyn, about 10 miles southeast of Toyo
Jackson. It hosts two weekends of cer,
NASCAR events this year.
WAUKESHA, Wis.
Teen convicted
for Facebook sex
crime
A Wisconsin teen convicted of
using Facebook to blackmail doz-
ens of classmates into sex has been
sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Nineteen-year-old Anthony
Stancl (STAN'-sihl) of New Berlin W
showed no emotion as the sentence blisi
was handed downyesterday. dent
Stancl pleaded no contest in reps
December to two felonies, includ- and
ing repeated sexual assault of a car-
child. defe
He apologized during sen- duc
tencing, saying he has learned to But
. understand what his victims went dec
through. "
He had faced a maximum ed R
30-year sentence. And
Stancl is accused of posing as Flor
a girl on Facebook and tricking an "
more than 30 male classmates rept
' into sending him naked photos of safe
themselves, then using the photos O
to blackmail them for sex. said
sign
DENVER hav
. . .cials
Technician in Colo. ing
infects 36 with and
Hepititus C lence
of n
A 27-year-old Colorado surgery gras
.technician_ who infected three wor
dozen people with hepatitis C deep
has been sentenced to 30 years in Toyi
prison. B
Kristen Diane Parker received Am
the sentence yesterday in federal law
court in Denver after pleading top
guilty to some of the charges in
the case.
Prosecutors had previously
recommended that Parker get 20 CL
years in prison, but a judge reject- Froi
ed the plea agreement. Some of
the victims said it was not enough effo.
time. Si
Parker had worked at the Rose. com
Medical Center in Denver and the get
Audubon Surgery Center in Colo- hurs
rado Springs. "
She infected the patients after of t
she injected herself with pain- our
killer-filled syringes and replaced Scha
them with ones filled with saline. depa
Schi
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad Sch
.of th'
Ally of Colombian extr
president arrested yeS
in t
A former senator with close ing
political ties to President Alvaro ever
Uribe was arrested by Colombian that
authorities yesterday on charges Desp
of colluding with far-right death Scha
squads. was
Mario Uribe, a second cousin a litt
to the president, is one of the most "V
prominent figures in a scandal stud
that has sent dozens of current selv
or former lawmakers to jail on in t
charges of benefiting from links progi
to outlawed rightist paramilitary befo
groups.
Under an order handed down
by Colombia's Supreme Court,
Uribe was arrested in the city of
Medellin, 155 miles (250 kilome-
ters) north of Bogota, police said.
He was to be transferred to the
capital.
The 60-year-old former senator
has denied any wrongdoing.
Uribe, who presided over the
Senate in 2000-2001, is a close
confidant of Colombia's conserva-
tive president. The two launched a
political party together in the mid-
1980s and have remained allies
ever since.
The arrest stems from allega-
tions by a former paramilitary
leader that Uribe conspired
with right-wing militias in the
1990s to gain control of land in
northeastern Colombia's agri-
culturally rich regions where
paramilitaries controlled large
swaths of territory.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 3A
PABLO MARTINES MONSIVAIS/AP
ta President and Chief Executive Officer Akio Toyoda, center, and Yoshimi Inaba, right, president and chief executive offi-
Toyota Motor North America, are sworn in on Capitol Hill yesterday prior to testifying before Congress.
)espite apology, Toyota
~res sdent repriman ded
Lawmakers blast
Toyota leader for
vehicle defects
VASHINGTON (AP) - Under
tering criticism, Toyota Presi-
t Akio Toyoda personally and
atedly apologized to Congress
millions of anxious American
owners yesterday for deadly
cts in popular models pro-
ed by his Japanese company.
angry lawmakers forcefully
ared it was hardly enough.
Where is the remorse?" scold-
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.
Republican John Mica of
ida held aloft what he called
absolutely appalling" Toyota
irt bragging of defusing a
ty investigation.
f Toyoda's apology, Kaptur
, "I do not think it reflects
ificant remorse for those who
e died." Federal safety offi-
s have received reports link-
34 deaths in the United States
afety defects in Toyota cars
trucks over the past decade.
I extend my sincerest condo-
es to them from the bottom
ny heart," responded Toyoda,
ndson of the founder of the
Ud's largest auto company "I'm
ply sorry for any accident that
ota drivers have experienced."
ut what's most important to
erican drivers - and what
makers pressed Toyoda and a
aide to provide - was a bet-
ASS TRIP
m Page1A
rts for the class.
chaar said the class had to
pensate for departmental bud-
constraints that haven't been
dles in past years.
The recession didn't hurt most
he programs we usually get
funding from until this year,"
aar said. "We go to different
artments. We go to (the Ross
ool of Business), we go to (the
ool of Public Health), and a lot
iose groups justcdidn't have the
a funding to support us this
r."
chaar said students enrolled
he class had to take fundrais-
into their own hands, holding
its at clubs around Ann Arbor
earned a total of about $1,200.
pite the efforts to raise money,
aar said, funding for the trip
15 percent short of the target
tle over a week ago.
We were going to have some
ents pay for the trip them-
es, or a portion of it, which,
he 10 years we've had this
ram, (has) never happened
)re," he said.
ter explanation for slow actions to
deal with the defects and believ-
able assurances the problems that
led to sudden unintended acceler-
ations will be fixed. Toyoda said
those changes are being made
nearly around the clock, but he
repeated the company's insis-
tence that there is no link to the
cars' electronic systems.
Many drivers filing com-
plaints with Toyota and the gov-
ernment say their acceleration
problems had nothing to do with
floor mat interference or sticky
gas pedals - the, culprits the
company is pointing to. Outside
experts have suggested elec-
tronic problems.
Toyota has recalled 8.5 mil-
lion vehicles, more than 6 mil-
lion of them in the United States,
mostly to fix problems with floor
mats trapping gas pedals or with
pedals getting stuck. Toyoda said
great strides were being taken by
his company to put "safety first"
and it was working hard to refit
the millions of cars and trucks
that have been recalled.
The company also said yest-
eday it will offer free at-home
pickup of vehicles covered by the
national safety recall, pay for cus-
tomers' out-of-pocket transpor-
tation costs and provide drivers
free rental cars during repairs.
The deal was initially announced
as part of an agreement between
Toyota and New York state.
Toyoda also said that new sys-
tems to allow brakes to override
Schaar said a last-ditch effort
to reach the chief administrative
officer at the Ford School of Public
Policy for departmental funding
helped close the budget gap.
"I feel like we earned our way
over there," Schaar said. "I kind of
like the fact that we have to put in
some of our own effort to make it
happen."
In addition to fundraising for
the trip, students coordinated
meetings with government offi-
cials through a public policy
school in the Philippines, accord-
ing to Aileen Payumo, a business
school graduate student and Phil-
ippines native.
"I'm friends with Tony La Vina,
the dean of the Ateno School of
Government, ... (and) he was able
to put me in touch with various
officials," Payumo said.
Payumo added that she is excit-
ed to go on the trip because her
connection to the country will
give her a special perspective on
the project.
"I think I'll get something very
different than what everyone else
will because I am Filipino. I think
gas pedals were being put on new
models.
"Notwithstanding that, acci-
dents actually happen," he told
the House Oversight and Govern-
ment Reform Committee, the sec-
ond of three congressional panels
examining Toyota's troubles.
Toyoda, 53, remained calm
when some Democratic and
Republican lawmakers scolded the
company for the recalls and safety
problems.
He stood firm on many points,
including saying he was "abso-
lutely confident" the causes
of runaway acceleration were
mechanical, and not a design flaw
in the company's electronic throt-
tle control system. Many safety
experts and lawmakers have sug-
gested that the electronics systems
should not be ruled out.
Rep. Mica said it was an embar-
rassing day not only for Toyota but
for U.S. safety regulators, whom a
number of lawmakers said should
have acted more quickly and force-
fully.
Mica held up a copy of a July
2009 internal Toyota document
boasting of a "win" for Toyota in
striking a deal with the U.S. gov-
ernment for a more limited recall
involving floor mats. The docu-
ment said the agreement saved the
company $100 million.
The internal presentation was
addressed to Yoshimi Inaba, chief
of Toyota Motor North America,
who sat next to Toyoda at the wit-
ness table.
it's going to give me the ability to
be an ambassador to my country,
which I'm always excited to do,"
she said.
Egan Reich, a second-year pub-
lic policy student, said the students
chose to go. to the Philippines to
observe its unusual patterns of
economic growth and develop-
ment.
"The Philippines has all sorts of
economic growth indicators, and
yet it still has pretty significant
poverty, and a lot of the things
you would normally look at to see
what has an effect on poverty don't
seem to work," he said.
Reich added that the students
have been divided into six groups
with different research topics like
economics and public health and
will meet with government offi-
cials to discuss these topics.
"We're going to interview sever-
al policy makers, and see what sort
of insights they have to offer," said
Reich. "We have our background
research and what we've done in
class, and then to add to that, peo-
ple who are actually working there
and doing it."
CANINE UNIT
From Page 1A
more confidence in our abilities."
Police dogs Sampson and Tazer,
under the instruction of Officers
Mark West and Mike Mathews,
are the second generation of police
dogs at DPS. In 2008, the original
police dogs for the department,
Brutus and Jessy, retired from duty
and were adopted by DPS officers
as pets.
Sampson and Tazer, a brother
and sister from the same litter of
Belgian Malinois, were selected
for police work early in their lives
based on their development as pup-
pies as well as their documented
lineage, according to Mathews.
Once purchased by the depart-
ment, the dogs, who had received
some previous training, spent one
week training intensely for 40
hours with their handlers before
beginning shifts in the field.
While remarkably well-trained,
at a training demonstration last
week, Tazer embodied the concept
of "work hard, play harder." Upon
finding explosives in training, she
sat and waited patiently for her
reward - a game of tug-of-war -,
which she rarely loses, only releas-
ing the toy upon upon verbal com-
mand from Mathews.
Mathews, an officer with the
canine unit since 2008, explained
that explosive-detection dogs are
taught to associate training with
play. Once the dog detects explo-
sive material and notifies its han-
dler, it is rewarded with a game.
"They learn that whenever they
come into this odor (of explo-
sives) that they know that if they
sit they'll get a reward," Mathews
said.
The dogs are able to identify
between 15 and 20 different kinds
of explosives, as well as track peo-
ple based on scent and locate miss-
ing items or evidence.
Beyond their work in explosives,
the canines are used by the Uni-
versity Hospital to track patients
who may have walked away from
the hospital, particularly patients
in the psychiatric ward, and may
not know where they are, Brown
said.
To maintain accuracy, Mathews
and West designate one day each
week to devote to training, along
with beginning and end of shift
practices to increase the skill level
and confidence of the dogs.
Mathews said he specifies Taz-
er's training sessions to help her
improve areas where she is strug-
gling like if she is forgetting to
check elevated areas for whatever
she is tracking.
"If a particular problem comes
up and she's having difficulty with
a certain area, whether it be a slip-
pery floor or where she's not work-
ing a particular area up high, I'll
focus on those areas to increase
her confidence and skill level,"
Mathews said.
To encourage a bond between
dog and handler, Tazer lives with
Mathews and Sampson lives with
West, never leaving the handler's
sight unless in a designated fenced
in area.
"She's considered a pet, but she's
a working dog first," Mathews said.
Forsberg explained that the
need for the dogs to be within eye-
sight of their handlers is primarily
for the safety of the dog and other
people. While they are not trained
attack dogs, they are not used to
casually interact with people and
could react negatively in that situ-
ation.
The intensity of training for each
of the many explosives depends
on the national or local violence
threat level, according to Mathews.
So if the threat level goes up, the
dogs are trained more thoroughly
in all of the bomb odors.
"We have to take into account
the information we get from dif-
ferent sources when we train with
explosives," Mathews said. "In
contrast, a narcotics dog may only
know four odors. The bomb dogs
are smarter."
Brown said the reason DPS
chose to create an explosive-
detection canine unit over narcot-
ics identification was based on the
effectiveness the dogs' abilities
would have in preventing major
crime.
Narcotics dogs are used when
looking for large quantities of ille-
gal drugs, whereas on campus,
drugs are more likely tobe in small
amounts, Brown said.
"Do we have drugs on campus?
Yes," she said. "But that's not the
point to try and get those little
users. Our bigger use and need to
mitigate was all the VIPs we have
coming, whether they're speak-
ing or coming to the hospital, their
protection."
While both canines regularly
sweep the Big House before foot-
ball games, explosive sweeps
before other events depend on the
threat level at the time.
Forsberg added that sweeps
prior to high-profile guest speak-
ers are also common, depending
on the type of event and if threats
have been made. The canine unit
has served to protect such presti-
gious figures as the Dalai Lama and
former U.S. presidents. But regard-
less of the event, the mission of the
canine unit remains the same.
"We are here to serve the Uni-
versity community," Forsberg said.
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