The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS MINDEN, Mich. Michigan's only Wolverine found dead in Minden The Wolverine State has lost its only known wild wolverine. The body of the 28-pound female was found Saturday along a trail in Michigan's Thumb. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment is conducting tests on the body. "There's no visible indications of the cause of death," Arnie Karr, a wildlife biologist for thi depart- ment, told The Bay City Times. "According to the conservation officers, it did not appear that she had been dead very long." Wolverines are the largest land- living members of the weasel fam- ily. The aquatic sea otter is larger. Most North American wolverines are found in the northern woods and tundra of Alaska and Canada. Until six years ago, the last known Michigan sightings of wol- verines were in the early 1800s. Their reputation as fierce hunters led to their selection as a mascot for the state and for the University of Michigan's sports teams. LOS ANGELES Ballot bid from pot advocates gets rejected in Calif. Medical marijuana advocates have failed to gather enough sig- natures for a ballot measure chal- lenging a new Los Angeles law that will shutter hundreds of pot dispensaries. Lead organizer Dan Halbert said Monday his coalition had gathered about 15,000 voter sig- natures. The group needed more than 27,400 by Monday to put the measure on a ballot. Halbert's dispensary, the Rain- forest Collective, is one of hun- dreds that would have to close under the new ordinance that caps the number of pot dispensaries at 70. About 128 dispensaries that registered before 2007 would be exempt. SAN DIEGO Toyota dismisses man 's account of * runaway Prius Toyota Motor Corp. dismissed the story of a man who claimed his Prius sped out of control on the California freeway, saying Monday that its own tests found the car's gas pedal and backup safety system were working just fine. The automaker stopped short of saying James Sikes had staged a hoax last week but said his account did not square with a series of tests it conducted on the gas-electric hybrid. "We have no opinion on his account, what he's been saying, other than that the scenario is not consistent with the technical find- ings," spokesman Mike Michels told a press conference. The episode March 8 was among the highest-profile headaches Toy- ota has suffered in recent months. It recalled more than 8 million cars and trucks worldwide because gas pedals can become stuck in the down position or be snagged by floor mats. Dozens of Toyota driv- ers have reported problems even after their cars were supposedly fixed. PARIS Deals made in French election France's Socialists on Monday worked to secure alliances with rival leftists going into next week- end's final round of regional elec- tions, an attempt to bolster their front against President Nicolas Sarkozy's struggling conserva- tives. In Sunday's first-round ballot- ing, Sarkozy's party suffered a national beating by voters who took their frustrations over the eco- nomic crisis to the ballot box and clearly favored his leftist challeng- ers for the governments of France's 26 regions. The decisive runoff is March 21. Leftist political parties were scrambling to put together winning alliances for the final round. Any party with more than 10 percent in round one can team up with any party that won more than 5 percent and present a joint list of candi- dates in Sunday's runoff. - Compiled from Daily wire reports GOOGLE From Page 1 that her group plans to hold a YouTube contest in which com- munity members will submit 2-3 minute videos explaining how Google Fiber would benefit Ann Arbor. The contest is set to begin Wednesday with a kickoff party at Weber's Inn, Raycraft said. She added that the winners will receive either a new iPad or one of several gift certificates redeemable at area businesses. Raycraft said her group plans to use the winning video to send REACCREDITATION From Page 1 to ensure people would feel com- fortable voicing their concerns. "It's private," she said. "It's a confidential conversation." Immediately before entering the open meeting for University fac- ulty, Celestino Fernandez, chair of the HLC team, also said the pur- pose of the meetings was to pro- vide faculty, staff and students the chance to speak openly to the HLC about any comments or concerns they have about the University. Fernandez said the job of the HLC is-to both assess the Uni- versity and offer suggestions for improvement. "We wear two hats - consultants and evaluators," Fernandez said. Theresa Reid, executive director of Arts on Earth, which is a collab- oration between the School of Art and Design, the Taubmen College of Architecture and Urban Plan- ning and the College of Engineer- ing, attended the open meeting for University staff. Reid said the members of the HLC asked those in attendance how they impacted the student learning experience and if they felt SACUA From Page 1 University in terms of their infor- mation technology resources and said the University is currently considered to be middle of the . road in this area. One initiative to bring the Uni- versity back to the forefront of information technology and save money at the same time, Patterson said, is to combine three informa- tion technology groups - Michi- gan Administrative Services, information technology Security and Information Technology Cen- tral Services. Patterson said the consolidation of the three organizations "went live" last April in the form of IT Services. "The goal of bringing that orga- nization together was to look at how the central groups could rationalize their services and cut costs," Patterson told SACUA members. The consolidation of the three groups has cut $7 million from IT yearly expenditures. However, Patterson said she is looking to cut costs in other ways as well. She stressed the importance of "ratio- nalization" a University-wide initiative to determine the best source of information technol- ogy service and at the same time, identify ways of reducing "redun- dancy." "When you hear about IT ratio- nalization, it's an initiative to look at a whole list of services and deter- GENERAL COUNSEL FromPage 1 Fleming Administration Building. In a statement released yester- day, Scarnecchia said Masson was truly the best candidate for the position. "As an experienced and success- ful litigator, David brings broad and deep knowledge of the Uni- versity and legal community to the role," Scarnecchia said in a state- ment. Throughout his time in the Office of the General Counsel, Masson has specialized in labor and employment matters. Prior to joining the University's legal team, Masson worked as the chief assistant corporation counsel for the Labor/Worker Compensation Division of the City of Detroit Law Department. Masson is a University alum. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science with to Google endorsing Ann Arbor as a trial site. "What Google wants to see is community involvement," Ray- craft said. Another community organi- zation - Ann Arbor SPARK - is alsobacking the city's efforts, according to Elizabeth Parkin- son, SPARK's vice president of marketing and communications. SPARK aims to foster eco- nomic development county- wide through things such as sponsoring educational forums for entrepreneurs. According to Parkinson, Google Fiber's ultra-high-speed Internet would encourage the expansion of valued by the University. Reid said the members of the HLC were "flabbergasted" by the optimism they saw in spite of Michigan's economic woes. Jon Cameron, an equipment coordinator for LSA instructional support services, also attended the staff forum and said everyone in attendance gushed about how great it is to work at the University. Prof.Shak Ketefian, who teach- es in the School of Nursing and was at the faculty meeting, said much of the conversation in the faculty forum was centered around bud- getary concerns and international- ization programs. Many of the faculty members in the meeting complimented the way the University involved faculty members in budgetary decisions, according to Ketefian, but many said they were concerned about the uncertainty of the future of the University's budget. Ketefian also said some of the faculty felt there was a need for greater budgetary commitment to international programs. There was discussion, she said, of a new pro- gram in which University Presi- dent Mary Sue Coleman's office promises to match any donation made to international programs. mine what is the best source of the service for the University at the best price point." Patterson said. One way this initiative could be put into action is through consoli- dating e-mail services on campus into one system run by one unit, like the University's Hospital, or to outsource it to a third party vendor. Currently the University's e-mail is not managed by one system. Patterson also said the Univer- sity spends about $300 million a year on information technol- ogy services and she believes it wastes money on "redundant activities." Patterson said the Univer- sity could reinvest money it saves through information technology cost cutting measures into a "more robust infrastructure" and useful tools like video conferencing and more advanced forms of commu- nication. Patterson said the current infrastructure of the University's information technology opera- tions would be an issue when the North Campus Research Complex opens because it could make it dif- ficult for those who work there to collaborate. Because units like the Univer- sity's Hospital and Medical School operate differently than other units in terms of information tech- nology, partnerships may be more difficult. Patterson said that in order to improve all areas of information technology, a consultant has been hired to provide "third party eyes." The consulting group, Accenture, distinction from the University and earned his law degree from Wayne State University's Law School. Marchack will fill the other associate vice president and dep- uty general counsel position when she arrives on campus on April 5. Her position will involve help- ing Scarnecchia to oversee legal affairs at the University of Michi- gan Health System. The position was left vacant after Edward Goldmanleft the post at the end of 2008 to become a pro- fessor in the University's School of Medicine. From that point until her departure at the beginning of the month, Hage served as interim associate vice president and depu- ty general counsel for the UMHS. In a press release issued yes- terday, Scarnecchia praised Marchack's depth of experience. "Margaret's extensive experi- ence in health care law at local, regional and national levels will add valuable expertise and per- information technology compa- nies - like Internet or software developers - within the commu- nity. "We have a nice base of com- panies that could benefit and grow and expand through this," Parkinson said in an interview. Parkinson added that SPARK believes Ann Arbor will emerge as a strong contender for the trial location. "People have such a sense of pride about being an innovative community and being recog- nized as such," Parkinson said. The city's application for the broadband network is due by March 26. Every time the University gets reaccredited, University officials choose a specific topic for in-depth attention in pursuit of improve- ment. This time around, the Univer- sity is focusing its special emphasis study on internationalization. In an interview with the Daily in January, University Provost Teresa Sullivan said University officials chose internalization because they are considering reevaluating Uni- versity study abroad programs. "We're thinking about different models," Sullivan told the Daily at the time. "I think the old model of spending one semester of my junior year in Florence isn't what people want to do for study abroad any- more." "I think that they've got differ- ent ideas in mind. Maybe it would be three weeks in Beijing and three weeks in Nairobi and comparing and contrasting what you saw in terms of water treatment systems in those two places," she said in January. "There's a lot more ways to make it relevant to your program and more than tourism." An open meeting for students was also held yesterday. - Daily News Editor Kyle Swanson contributed to this report. will make recommendations to the University as a whole as well as the deans of specific units about the best ways to reduce costs. According to Patterson, the deans have the option to accept or deny the recommendations, unless the provost decides to intervene. Patterson said she also plans to create committees and groups within the University to help improve information technology on campus. "What we have tried to doit is to look at decision-making for infor- mation technology, not looking at the University's traditional hierar- chy, but by looking at domains of shared interest or domains of the mission of the University," Patter- son said. To consolidate these interests, four domains will be created that reflect four areas to research improvements in information technology at the University. The four groups will be research, libraries and digital repositories, clinical care and learning and teaching. An expert in the area will head each division. For example, Dean of Libraries Paul Courant is expected to lead the libraries and digital reposito- ries domain. Patterson said there will also be a "technology council" comprised of about twelve members. The council will make recommenda- tions to the executive officers on the priority of information tech- nology investments and help to develop the vision for information technology at the University. spective to our busy Health Sys- tem Legal Office," Scarnecchia said in a statement. "This is a field that changes rapidly and her prac- tice has been and will continue to be on the cutting edge." Marchack is currently a share- holder with Hall, Render, Killian, Heath and Lyman, PLLC - a national health care law firm in Troy, Mich. Her latest specialty is health information technology, though she has focused on other areas within health law in her nearly 30 years of private practice. Marchack has also worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office, pros- ecuting civil health care fraud cases, and has served as an in- house attorney for Mercy Health Services. Marchack is also a University alum, where she earned aBachelor of Arts degree with honors and a Master of Business Administra- tion degree. She, too, is a graduate of Wayne State University's Law School. Biden's visit to Israel ignites fire storm in U.S. Congress Lawmakers criticize administration's public condemnation of settlements WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration's fierce denunciationofIsraellast weekhas ignited a firestorm in Congress and among powerful pro-Israel inter- est groups who say the criticism of America's top Mideast ally was misplaced. Since the controversy erupted, a bipartisan parade of influential lawmakers and interestcgroups has taken aim at the administration's decisiontopublicly condemnIsrael for its announcement of new Jew- ish housingin east Jerusalem while Vice President Joe Biden was vis- iting on Tuesday and then openly vent bitter frustration on Friday. With diplomats from both coun- tries referring to the situation as a crisis, the outpouring of anger in the United States, particularly from Capitol Hill, comes at a dif- ficult time for the administration, which is now tryingto win support from wary lawmakers - many of whom are up for re-election this year - for health care reform and other domestic issues. And those criticizing the admin- istration's unusuallybluntresponse to Israel say they fear it may have distracted from and done damage to efforts to relaunch long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "It might be well if our friends in the administration and other places in the United States could start refocusing our efforts on the peace process," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday. "Now we've had our spat. We've had our family fight, and it's time for us now to stop and get our eye back on the goal, which is the com- mencement of the Israeli-Palestin- ian peace talks," he said. McCain and Sen. Joe Lieber- man, I-Conn., both urged the administration to ease the tone of the dispute, which they said was demonstrating disunity and weak- ness to steadfast allies of Iran. "Let's cut the family fighting, the family feud," Lieberman said. "It's unnecessary; it's destructive of our shared nationalinterest.It'satime to lower voices, to get over the family feud between the U.S. and Israel. It just doesn't serve anybody's inter- ests but our enemies." At least eight other lawmakers REGENTS From Page 1 Others recommended by Coleman to receive an honor- ary degree at this spring's com- mencement ceremony include Jean Campbell, who founded the University's Center for the Edu- cation of Women, and Charles Vest - president of the National Academy of Engineering. Both are being recommended for a Doctor of Laws degree. Coleman is also recommending that Stanford Ovshinsky - presi- dent of Ovshinsky Innovation LLC - receive an honorary Doc- tor of Science degree. Ovshinsky is an inventor with hundreds of patents to his name, including a battery technology widely used in today's portable electronics and technology needed for a wider use of hydrogen. Susan Stamberg, a special correspondent for National Public Radio, is being recom- mended for an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree and Ornette Coleman, a jazz musi- cian, is being recommended for an honorary Doctor of Music degree. REGENTS TO CONSIDER $3.8 MILLION IN CONSTRUCTION The regents will also consider requests for $3.8 million in repairs to two buildings on campus on Thursday. The regents are expected to approve the request for $2.2 mil- lion tocorrect air penetration and condensation problems within the James and Anne Duderstadt Center. It's anticipated that the regents will allocate an additional $1.6 million to fix exterior and have offered similar concerns, and more are expected to weighin after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton upbraided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the housing announcement in a tense and lengthy phone call on Friday and White House officials repeated the criticism on Sunday's talk shows. "It's hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.' He complained that the administration was attacking a "staunch ally and friend" when it should be focusing on the threat posedbyIran's nuclearproblem. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., accused administration officials of using "overwrought rhetoric" in suggesting that the east Jerusalem housing announcement threatened U.S.-Israeli ties. "The administration's strong implication that the enduring alli- ance between the U.S. and Israel has been weakened, and that America's ability to broker talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities has been undermined, is an irresponsible overreaction," shesaid. With tensions still high, former Sen. George Mitchell, the adminis- tration's Mideast peace envoy, has delayed his departure to the region, where he is scheduled to hold sepa- rate talks with Israeli and Palestin- ianleaders, a U.S. official said. Mitchell had been scheduled to depart Washington on Monday night. He still intends to go, but the timing is uncertain, the official said, speaking on condition of ano- nymity in order to discuss internal deliberations. The State Department on Mon- day said it was still awaiting a formal response from Israel to Clinton's call and, while repeating elements of the criticism, stressed that the U.S. commitment to Isra- el's security remains "unshakable." Butspokesman P.J. Crowley also said a lot is riding on whetherIsrael agrees to take steps suggested by Clinton to underscore its com- mitment to the peace process and strong relations with America. "We will evaluate the implica- tions of this once we hear back from the Israelis and see how they respond to our concerns," he told reporters. Reaction to the administration was particularly intense from pro- Israelgroups. structural deficiencies of Lorch Hall. According to Tim Slot- tow's communication with the regents, the University's execu- tive vice president and chief financial officer, the project at the Duderstadt Center would fix soffits, or the underside of the building's roof, on the build- ing that have been damaged by breaches of air and water con- densation. To correct the problem, Slot- tow is requesting money to install vapor and air barriers and to add thermal insulation to the affected areas. Additionally, the project seeks to upgrade current mechan- ical systems. In his letter to the regents, Slottow wrote that without the necessary repairs, parts of the building's soffit could eventually fall off the building. If passed by the regents, fund- ing for the project will be taken from the University's General Fund and will be completed by fall 2010. In a separate communication to the University's Board of Regents, Slottow submitted a request for $1.6 million to make improve- ments to "areas of significant deterioration" of Lorch Hall - including the building's masonry, steel structures, roofing and rain conductors. The improvements being pro- posed to the building, which hous- es the Departments of Economics and Linguistics, were taken from a recent study that measured and prioritized the building's struc- tural needs. If approved; funding for the project will come from the Uni- versity's General Fund and the project is expected to be finished by fall 2010. WANT TO JOIN THE NEWS SECTION? Send an e-mail to berman@michigandaily.com to get started.