The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Conviction stands
for Mich. man said
to have killed wife
The Michigan Supreme Court
has upheld the conviction of a man
who confessed to killing his wife
and dismembering her body after
he was captured more than 200
miles away in the northern Michi-
gan woods.
Stephen Grant, 39, reported Tara
Grant missing in 2007, then slipped
away from their Macomb County
home a few weeks later as deputies
discovered her torso in a storage
container in their garage.
Grant, now serving50 years to 80
years so prison for second-degree
murder, claimed pretrial publicity
spoiled the case in Macomb County
Circuit Court. He said the judge
also erred by not suppressing his
confession.
The high court yesterday
upheld the Michigan Court of
Appeals' order rejecting those
arguments.
Grant's appellate lawyer, Peter
Van Hoek, could not be reached
immediately for comment.
WASHINGTON
NASA will help
probe Toyota's
acceleration issue
NASA and the National Academy
of Sciences are joining the govern-
ment's effort to figure out what
caused the sudden acceleration
problems that led to Toyota's mas-
sive recalls.
NASA scientists with expertise
in electronics willhelp the National
Highway Traffic Safety Adminis-
tration study potential electronic
ties to unintended acceleration in
Toyotas.
In a separate study, Transporta-
tion Secretary Ray LaHood says the
National Academy of Sciences will
examine unwanted acceleration
and electronic vehicle controls in
cars from around the auto industry.
The National Academy is an inde-
pendent organization chartered by
Congress.
Toyota has recalled more than
8 million vehicles worldwide,
including 6 million in the United
States.
BEIJING
Workers detained,
dead babies found
along China river
The bodies of 21 babies, some
with hospital identification tags
around their tiny ankles, washed
.ashore on a river in eastern China
and two mortuary workers were
detained for allegedly dumping
them.
News footage yesterday showed
the babies - at least one of whom
was stuffed in a yellow plastic bag
marked "medical waste" - strewn
along a dirt riverbank near a high-
way overpass. A few wore diapers.
All were caked in mud.
Some of the babies appeared sev-
eral months old, while the official
Xinhua News Agency said the bod-
ies included fetuses.
Local residents and firefight-
ers recovered the bodies Monday
after they were discovered under a
bridge spanning the Guangfu River
on the outskirts of Jining in Shan-
dong province.
CAIRO
Ancient Egyptian
tomb reveals door
to the afterlife
Archaeologists have unearthed
a 3,500-year-old door to the after-
life from the tomb of a high-ranking
Egyptian official near Karnak tem-
ple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiqui-
ties authority said Monday.
These recessed niches found in
nearly all ancient Egyptian tombs
were meant to take the spirits of
the dead to and from the after-
world. The nearly six-foot- tall (1.75
meters) slab of pink granite was
covered with religious texts.
The door came from the tomb of
User, the chief minister of Queen
Hatshepsut, a powerful, longruling
15th century B.C. queen from the
5 New Kingdom with a famous mor-
tuary temple near Luxor in south-
ern Egypt.
User held the position of vizier
for 20 years, also acquiring the
titles of prince and mayor of the
city, according to the inscriptions.
He may have inherited his position
from his father.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton jokes that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel should be sent to the Russian
Duma to negotiate passage of the new START nuclear disarmament treaty, Friday, March 26, 2010.
G-8 demands Iran's
compliance on nukes
LECTURERS
From Page 1A
giving each unit a budget, and they
have to live within that budget."
Sullivan said because of this
decentralization, she couldn't
guarantee that no lecturers would
be laid off.
"I can't guarantee that nobody
anywhere will ever lay anybody
off," Sullivan said. "I can assure
you that whatever we do, we'll fol-
low the (Lectures Employee Orga-
nization) contract."
However, Sullivan said Uni-
versity administrators would do
everything possible to cut in other
areas before cutting faculty.
"I would say that we are a
human capitol organization, and
the reason we don't look at layoffs
first is that when we lay people
off we don't just cut costs, we cut
assets," Sullivan said. "That's not
something that we want to do, but
there aren't a lot of places to cut in
many programs."
According to Sullivan, approxi-
mately 70 percent of the Uni-
versity's budget is allocated to
personnel costs, while only 30
percent of the budget is spent on
materials and other non-personnel
items.
However, Sullivan did indicate
that if the state-funding picture
continues to be as bleak as in the
past, it could result in layoffs.
"In the long run, it's going to
depend on what happens to our
sources of revenue, including our
state appropriations," she said.
And while lecturer layoffs are
possible and currently exist in the
1-, 3- and 5-percent budget reduc-
tion plans being prepared in some
LSA departments, no final deci-
sions have been made yet, Univer-
sity spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told
the Daily in an interview last week.
"This is simply a possibility,
and no decisions have been made,"
Fitzgerald said. "There could be
layoffs, there might not be layoffs.
These budgets are not in final form
yet."
However, Fitzgerald said he
believes what is making this year's
situation different is the ongoing
negotiations between LEO and the
University.
"There were some lecturer
layoffs last year too. This is not
an unprecedented possibility,"
Fitzgerald said. "I think what's dif-
ferent this year is that you've got a
LEO negotiation going on at the
same time."
However, Adjunct Professor Joe
Walls, who serves as a spokesman
for LEO, said the difference isn't
the ongoing negotiations but rath-
er the motivation behind the pos-
sible cuts.
Walls said layoffs occur every
year, but that lecturers are typi-
cally laid off as a result of students'
changing interest in classes.
"Layoffs occur, but now the
reasons are different," Walls
said. "(It's) not to have supply and
demand match, which is the nor-
mal reason ... but as a way to reduce
expenditures."
Walls said he has been told that
the layoffs are not finalized yet,
but that there are concerns about
the possibility during a time when
the budget has little or no wiggle
room.
"No one has said, 'We're going
to lay people off.' That's true,"
Walls said. "But they have told us
that it is being considered and they
do have to achieve those (budget)
reductions."
When asked what LEO would
recommend instead of cutting lec-
turers, if additional cuts become
necessary, Walls said it wouldn't
be appropriate for LEO to recom-
mend alternative cost-cutting
strategies.
"We have no power or really any
right to say how those things are
going to happen. That's just not
in labor law," Walls said. "But of
course we would rather see them
use other approaches than laying
off our members."
Asked whether he believed the
news could impact ongoing con-
tract negotiations between LEO
and the University, Walls said it
may have changed the tone of con-
versations, but not what LEO is
seeking in its new contract.
"It probably hasn't changed the
kinds of things we're looking for in
the contract," Walls said. "It does
sort of set a tone or an atmosphere,
an environment."
Contract negotiations are ongo-
ing with representatives from LEO
and the University administration
meeting each week. The parties
reportedly hope to reach an agree-
ment in May.
Diplomats aim to
persuade China to
support sanctions
GATINEAU, Quebec (AP) -
Diplomats from the world's lead-
ing economies say Iran's recent
actions deepen the doubts that its
nuclear program is aimed at any-
thing other than building a bomb,
and U.S. Secretary of State Hill-
ary Rodham Clinton predicted
Tuesday that world powers will
agree on a new round of U.N.
sanctions.
The main audience for the
tough talk seems to be countries
not represented among the exclu-
sive Group of Eight economic
club: China and countries like
Turkey and Brazil that have not
been on board with sanctions.
Closing a conference of foreign
ministers from the G-8 industri-
alized nations, Canadian Foreign
Minister Lawrence Cannon said
it is time to act.
Clinton said the nations meet-
ing in Canada see a growing alarm
around the world about the conse-
quences of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Clinton pointed to a string
of disclosures over more than a
year about the nature and extent
of Iran's once-secret nuclear
program. Disclosure of the ura-
nium enrichment facility near
the Iranian city of Qum, the
announcement of more facilities
to be developed as well as revela-
tions of greater efforts at enrich-
ment are nudging the consensus
toward sanctions, she said.
"The last 15 months have dem-
onstrated the unwillingness of
Iran to fulfill its international
obligations and that's the basis of
my optimism that we're going to
have a consensus reached in the
Security Council," Clinton said.
Canadian Prime Minister Ste-
phen Harper urged a heightened
focus and stronger coordinated
action, including sanctions if nec-
essary, on the Iranian regime and
said Tehran "must halt its nuclear
enrichment activities and engage
in peaceful dialogue."
The G-8 groups France, Ger-
many, Italy, Japan, the United
Kingdom, the United States, Can-
ada and Russia.
"There was a high degree of
unity with respect to our mount-
ing concern about the failure of
Iran to respond in any kind of
adequate way," British Foreign
Secretary David Miliband said.
With Iran refusing to comply,
the message is largely directed at
China, a permanent member of
the U.N. Security Council that is
not a member of the G-8.
China, a vocal opponent of sanc-
tions, wields veto power in the
Security Council, and until recent-
ly it had balked at the mere sugges-
tion of taking additional punitive
steps against Iran. That, Clinton
suggested, is now changing.
In an interview with Canadian
television on Monday, Clinton
said China shared the view of the
U.S., its European allies and Rus-
sia that "a nuclear-armed Iran is
not acceptable."
Publicly, China reiterated its
stance that the countries should
seek a solution through negotia-
tions, not new sanctions.
"We hope relevant parties
could fully show their flexibility
and make further efforts toward
a proper resolution of this issue
through diplomatic means," Chi-
nese ' Foreign Ministry spokes-
man Qin Gang said yesterday at a
regular news briefing.
China opposes nuclear weap-
ons for Iran but says the country
has the right to peaceful use of
nuclear energy.
Iran is already under three sets
of Security Council sanctions
and China has been holding up
consideration of a fourth, saying
diplomacy must be given more
time to work. But last week it soft-
ened its position in a conference
call among senior officials from
the six nations working most
closely on the matter, according
to diplomats.
A senior U.S. official told
reporters traveling with Clinton
that the Chinese "have said now
that they will engage on the ele-
ments of a sanctions resolution."
The official spoke on condition of
anonymity to discuss an ongoing
diplomatic negotiation.
In Washington, meanwhile,
the White House said President
Barack Obama met Monday with
China's incoming ambassador
to the United States, noting that
Obama had stressed to the envoy
the need for the two countries "to
work together and with the inter-
national community on critical
global issues including nonpro-
liferation and pursuing sustained
and balanced global growth."
Tenn. businessman
sues Tea Party leader
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ALUMNIASSOCIATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Bill Hemrick suing in Las Vegas.
The lawsuit claimed Hemrick
for $500,000 he was libeled when in a mass
e-mail before the convention "that
in damages reflects expressly (or by implica-
tion)" that Hemrick is neither
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - "reputable" nor "trustworthy." It
A Tennessee businessman who doesn't provide other details of
helped finance Sarah Palin's what the e-mail said.
appearance at the National Tea
Party Convention last month has
sued one of the event's organiz-
ers, claiming he was libeled in an
e-mail and shut out of the speech.
Bill Hemrick, who helped
found the baseball trading card
company Upper Deck, said in the
lawsuit against Tea Party Nation
leader Judson Phillips that he
helped cover a deposit on Palin's
$100,000 speaking fee for the
Nashville event, then was shut L a
out when the former Alaska gov-
ernor spoke Feb. 6.
"He was expressly instruct-
ed not to attend, and that, if he
attempted to attend, he would be
denied access," said Hemrick's
attorney, Phillip Jones.
The lawsuit, filed last week,
also claims Phillips reneged on
an agreement to form a partner-
ship with Hemrick.
Phillips said yesterday the CLAIRE
lawsuit was meritless and "hurts WC
the movement." He said Hemrick
loaned $25,000 for the conven-
tion and charged a substantial
interest rate, and the money has APRIL 1 & 8 at 730 PM
been repaid. APRIL 2, 3, 9 & 10 at 8PM
According to the lawsuit, APRIL 4*& 11 at 2P s,
Hemrick fronted the money
solely to form a partnership with ARTHUR MULLI
Phillips that included involve-
ment in the Tea Party Nation and
help promoting a political action GENRAL*ADMISON$2* SU S$9
committee. LAMM: TICKETOFMCK 734-764
The lawsuit seeks at least DEPARTMENTF T"ATRE& OR
www.mustc.umich.edu/performa
$500,000 in damages and comes
as Phillips is planning another
tea party convention set for July
The for-profit status of the Tea
Party Nation group has been con-
troversial.
Republican Congresswomen
Michele Bachmann and Mar-
sha Blackburn backed out of the
convention after they questioned
how the profits of the event would
be used.