The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Mich. gov. shuffles
board after errant
tax credit
Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued
new rules Tuesday requiring a state
agency to conduct more extensive
background checks before award-
ing tax credits, after a $9.1 million
credit was given to a convicted
embezzler on parole.
The governor's executive order
and executive directive will change
who sits on the Michigan Economic
Growth Authority board that issues
the tax credits, put a business integ-
rity verification program in place
and require background checks for
some tax credit applicants.
Granholm wants to make sure
there's no repeat of a news con-
ference last week where she
shared the stage with tax credit
* recipients, including RASCO CEO
Richard A. Short, only to find out
the next day through The Associ-
ated Press that Short had a prison
record.
WASHINGTON
Military to decide
on 'don't ask, don't
tell' this week
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff
Morrell says that the Defense
Department is close to changing
how it enforces its policy on "don't
ask, don't tell," which bans gays
from serving openly.
In February, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates directed his legal
counsel to suggest ways to relax
enforcement of the policy, which
is based on a 1993 law. Of particu-
lar interest is minimizing cases
of "third-party outings," where
V a service member is kicked out
after being reported by others to
be gay.
Morrell said Gates is likely to
announce a "way ahead" on the
matter by the end of the week.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Politician's arrest
for TV remarks
raises concerns
The arrest of an outspoken gov-
ernment opponent for his critical
remarks on a TV talk show drew
condemnation yesterday from
opposition parties and human
rights activists who said the case
shows freedoms are being eroded
in Venezuela.
Opposition politician Oswaldo
Alvarez Paz was detained by police
on Monday and has been charged
with conspiracy, spreading false
information and publicly inciting
violation.
A coalition of more than a dozen
parties opposed to President Hugo
Chavez said in a statement that
Alvarez Paz was arrested for a
"crime of opinion" in an attempt to
silence criticism and encourage a
climate of self-censorship. Opposi-
tion leaders called the 67-year-old
former Zulia state governor a politi-

cal prisoner.
Human Rights Watch also con-
demned the arrest.
"This is a major setback for
freedom of expression in Venezu-
ela," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the
group's executive director for the
Americas.
BEIJING
Eight children
stabbed to death
at Chinese school
A former medical worker alleg-
edly stabbed to death eight young
children and wounded five others
yesterday in a bloody rampage out-
side an elementary school in east-
ern China.
The attacker struck in the morn-
ing as students arrived for classes,
mingling with parents at the school
gates before suddenly pulling out
his knife and slashing children,
according to witnesses interviewed
on local television.
in the aftermath, doctors
treated small children and bod-
ies lay covered in bloody sheets
after the attack at Nanping City
Experimental Elementary School
in Fujian province. Police offi-
cers manned a cordon around
the school. Some comforted dis-
traught parents.
China has witnessed a series
of school attacks in recent years,
most blamed on people with per-
sonal grudges or suffering from
mental illness, leading to calls for
improved security.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Idaho Gov. C.L "Butch" Otter speaks to reporters in his ceremonial office, accompanied by other elected state officials, in
Boise, Idaho yesterday on the state's decision to sue the federal government over health care reform legislation.
White Hueo
concerned about
health care lawsuit

CLINIC
From page 1A
25. A hearing is also scheduled for
March 29 to discuss striking the
student attorneys from the witness
list and to discuss the progress of
discovery motions the clinic has
filed.
According to an article by the
Metro Times, Stevens argued in
a March 15 hearing that because
the students have made statements
to newspapers, made a YouTube
video about the case and inter-
viewed witnesses, he should be
allowed to call them as witnesses.
The statements and interviews
have occurred over the more than
one year that the student attorneys
have been working on the case.
During the last few weeks, there
have also been other developments
in the case.
In a hearing on Jan. 27, Judge
Kenny ruled that a key witness -
Larry Wiley - could not testify
in the retrial scheduled for April
5 without incriminating himself
for lying under oath. Wiley said he
had lied due to pressure from the
police during the first trial, where
he testified that he had seen Provi-
ence shoot Hunter while Provi-
ence and his brother drove by a
Detroit street corner in a beige,
two-door Buick.
If Wiley doesn't testify in the
retrial, his testimony from 2001
cannot be used as evidence.
A police report also surfaced
in December that states seven
other eyewitnesses claimed that
Hunter's shooter was driving a
vehicle that looked different from
the beige Buick that Wiley had
described in his original testimo-
ny.
Five witnesses said in the report
that the vehicle was a Chevy and
three of those five thought it was
a Caprice Classic four-door sedan.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 3A
The other two witnesses were
unsure of the model, but said the
vehicle was gray.
Second-year law student Brett
DeGroff, an Innocence Clinic
student attorney, said the recent
developments - like the newly
discovered witness testimonies
and that Wiley's testimony from
the first trial will probably not be
used - are important for keeping
Provience from going back to jail.
In December, the Innocence
Clinic also obtained documenta-
tion from the prosecution filed on
April 26, 2002. The documents
list the cars owned by Antrimone
Mosley, one of the Mosley brothers
linked to Hunter's murder and two
other murders unrelated to Provi-
ence's case, according to police
officer progress notes. Among the
cars listed is a gray 1985 four-door
Chevy Caprice Classic.
Along with this newly obtained
evidence, Detroit Police Officer
William Ashford told prosecutors
that evidence points to the Mos-
ley family and not Provience.
Ashford's investigation linked
the murders of Detroit residents
Courtney Irving and Maurice
Sutherland to Hunter's homicide
and linked all three of the murders
to the Mosley family.
The Innocence Clinic student
attorneys have argued that the
Mosleys killed Hunter because the
Mosleys suspected Hunterhadsto-
len their trailer full of marijuana.
The students have also claimed the
Mosleys murdered Irving a month
later becauseIrving knew that the
Mosleys shot Hunter. Sutherland
was then murdered a few months
later allegedly when the Mosleys
also suspected him of stealing the
trailer.
The Innocence Clinic filed dis-
covery motions for the homicide
files of Irving and Sutherland but
have yet to receive the files from
the prosecution.

13 attorney generals
say health care bill
is unconstitutional
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The
White House says it isn't worried
that 13 state attorneys general are
suingto overturn the massive health
care overhaul, and many legal
experts agree the effort is futile.
But the lawsuit, filed in federal
court seven minutes after President
Barack Obama signed the 10-year,
$938 billion health care bill, under-
scores the divisiveness of the issue
COMMUTER LINE
From Page 1A
"We hope to first of all intro-
duce commuter line service to the
region, since there hasn't been a
commuter line service since the
early 1980s," Palombo said. "There
will be a learning curve to learn
how to ride and a learning curve
for us to make sure that we are
providing efficient service."
Last December, as part of a larg-
er grant to the state of Michi-
gan, the U.S. Senate budgeted
$3.5 million specifically for the
construction of a rail between
Ann Arbor and Detroit, with
the hopes that the daily service
would be available by October.
However, Palombo pointed out
that the project still needs more
funds to cover all its costs.
"As we were continuing to
move forward with the project,
we had made certain assump-
tions about certain aspects of the
project being done and dollars
showing up," Palombo said. "It
got to the point that it was pretty
obvious that the dollars weren't
going to show up to do all of the
projects that need to be done."
Despite reports that a $100
million federal transportation
earmark made in 2005 may also
be available to SEMCOG, Pal-
ombo said the agency has not
fulfilled all the requirements
necessary to qualify for the
additional funds at this time.
However, Palombo said there
is a possibility the earmark
might become available in the
future for the commuter line
project's use. Meanwhile, SEM-
COG has been raising money
from various federal programs,
BOBB
From Page 1A
and the importance of bringing
the best skills and teamwork to
bear in this effort.
Ball continued by saying she
believes Bobb's expertise is very
relevant to the students gradu-
ating.
"Our graduates are educa-
tors who must play key roles in
the improvement of education,"
Ball said." Mr. Bobb will chal-
lenge them with both a clear
sense of the problems but also
of real hope."
In addition to his work with
the Detroit Public Schools,
Bobb is the owner, president
and CEO of a consulting firm
that collaborates between the
private and public sectors.

He has also served in sev-
eral government posts -
including president of the
Washington, D.C. Board of
Education, city administrator
and deputy mayor of Wash-
ington, D.C. and city manager
of Oakland, Calif., Richmond,
VA, Santa Ana, Calif. and Kal-
amazoo, Mich.

and the political rancor that has sur-
rounded it.
Florida Attorney General Bill
McCollum led the effort to file the
suit that claims Congress doesn't
have the constitutional right to force
people to get health coverage. It also
says the federal government is vio-
lating the Constitution by forcing a
mandate on the states without pro-
viding resources to pay for it.
"To that I say, 'Bring it on;" said
White House domestic policy chief
Melody Barnes, who cited similar
suits filed over Social Security and the
Voting Rights Act when those were
passed. "If you want to look in the
the private sector and a secondary
high-speed rail fund to cover the
program's expenses.
According to a Jan. 10 article
in The Michigan Daily, many stu-
dents are looking forward to the
proposed commuter line, since it
promises many advantages to its
passengers. For example, fans tak-
ing the train to Michigan football
games on Saturdays would be able
to avoid the parking fees, which
can run up to $20 or more.
As reported in the January

face of a parent whose child now has
health care insurance and say we're
repealingthat... goright ahead.'
A 14th state, Virginia, did not join
the bigger lawsuit, brt filed its own,
which other states are also consider-
ing.
McCollum, a Republican run-
ning for governor, has been talking
about suingto overturn the bill since
December. This month he invited
other attorneys general to join him.
So far South Carolina, Nebraska,
Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylva-
nia, Alabama, South Dakota, Idaho,
Washington, Colorado and Louisi-
ana have agreed.
Daily article, Ann Arbor City
Councilmember Carson Hohnke
said Ann Arbor is also hopeful the
commuter line will benefitthe city
by reducing incoming traffic on
weekends and decrease pollution
levels.
While the city has been pressed
to contribute to covering some of
the costs, the economic downturn
has left little room in its budget
to assist with the commuter line
project, Hohnke told the Daily at
the time.

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