The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, A pril 9, 2010 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, April 9, 2010 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
" LANSING
'Smart Grid' will
bring $5M to state
from federal gov't
Michigan is getting about $5
million from the federal govern-
ment to train electricians and other
workers related to "smart grid"
development.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven
Chu announced the grant yester-
day and said it could help train
about 600 Michigan workers. The
money comes from the federal
stimulus program.
a The retraining program could
coverunemployed workers or those
who have jobs but are looking to
upgrade. The program is aimed at
preparing the next generation of
workers in the utility and electrical
manufacturing industries.
The Michigan Department
of Energy, Labor and Economic
Growth will receive about $4.4
million for the program.
DETROIT
Parents of Detroit
shooting victims to
sue school district
A group of parents is suing
Detroit Public Schools, two
security guards and three men
charged in the fatal shooting of
one teen and wounding of three
others.
The Detroit Free Press report-
ed yesterday that Bridget Walker,
Kenota Slater, Carol Merriweath-
er and Liz McCants have filed a
lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit
Court.
The suit claims school offi-
cials failed to prevent the Oct.
16, 2008 attack near Henry Ford
High School which followed a
fight inside the building earlier
that day.
Walker's 16-year-old son, .
Christopher, was killed.
The three men charged in the
shooting are in their late teens or
early 20s. Two are serving prison
sentences. The third man was
acquitted.
EAST HAMPTON, New York
Marine biologists
try to ease beached
whale's suffering
A team worked yesterday to
ease the suffering of a young
humpback whale as it lay dying on
a Long Island beach.
.The 20- to 25-foot-long whale,
less than a year old, was found
stranded Tuesday. Marine scien-
tists said that if freed, the animal
would not be able to survive on its
own.
David Morin, a marine mam-
mal biologist with the National
Marine Fisheries Service, said
the original plan was to euthanize
the whale. But the plan had to be
changed partly because of con-
cerns that a lethal injection that
missed would leave the drugs in
the water.
"Instead of becoming a eutha-
nasia attempt, it became a seda-
tive attempt to ease the animal's
suffering," Morin said.
The least non-invasive plan
would be to let Nature take its
course, but the animal could
take days to die and would be
suffering, said Mendy Garron, a
regional marine mammal strand-
ing coordinator with the fisheries
service.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan
Leaders of Kyrgyz
uprising say they
will rule for 6 mos.
Consolidating their victory after
a bloody uprising, opposition lead-
ers declared yesterday they would
hold power in Kyrgyzstan for six
months and assured the U.S. it can
keep a strategic air base here - at
least for now.
There were signs of instability,
though, as deposed President Kur-
manbek Bakiyev refused to relin-
quish power after the revolt, which
left at least 75 people dead and hun-
dreds wounded. As he spoke, gun-
* fire broke out after nightfall in the
capital, Bishkek.
With darkness descending, rov-
ing bands of armed marauders
trawled the streets of the capital,
despite warnings from the opposi-
tion leadership that looters would
be shot.
Crowds gathering at the ran-
sacked government headquarters
earlier in the day angrily shouted
anti-Bakiyev slogans.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
200 feared dead after mudslide in Brazil
Heavy rains in Rio
cause mudslide, 60
homes destroyed
NITEROI, Brazil (AP) - They
are all gone. The Evangelical
church where worshippers were
praying. A daycare center whare
kids were playing. The pizza par-
lor where a family was eating.
All were buried under a moun-
tain of mud, garbage and stone
when yet another landslide hit
metropolitan Rio de Janeiro
late Wednesday. This one swept
through the Morro Bumba slum,
engulfing as many as 200 people
and 60 homes. Nothing was left
behind but a massive crater of
blackened, sodden earth and the
remnants of flimsy brick shacks.
"I had just picked up my
10-year-old son from the day
care. We walked down the hill
to the street, and within 10 min-
utes, my community collapsed,"
said Patricia Faria, 28, crying as
she watched heavy machinery
dump the remains of her life into
a waiting truck. "All I have left is
what you see on me - and my son.
Thank God, I have my son."
Rio state health secretary Ser-
gio Cortes said it was hard to say
how many people were buried in
the latest slide. "A worse-case sce-
nario is 200," he told The Associ-
ated Press. "We know that about
60 houses were buried."
Already 161 people have been
confirmed dead in the heavy rains
that began Monday in Rio, most
of them swept away in landslides
that roared through city slums
built on steep, unstable hillsides.
The death toll surpasses that
of flooding and mudslides in the
southern state of Santa Catarina in
2008, which killed nearly 130 peo-
ple and displaced about 80,000.
"In our experience, it's an
instant death," Pedro Machado,
undersecretary of Rio state's Civil
Defense department, said of the
victims buried by landslides.
Faria said she was certain peo-
ple were buried inside the Morro
Bumba slum's Assembly of God
church, which collapsed during
nightly services.
Clesio Araujo, 39, said he nar-
rowly escaped the slide, leaving
a pizza parlor just a few minutes
before the earth gave way. He said
a family was still inside.
The destruction was com-
pounded because the slum is
largely built atop an old garbage
dump, making it especially unsta-
ble and vulnerable to the heavy
rains, said Agostinho Guerreiro,
president of Rio's main associa-
tion of engineers and architects.
"It is very fragile soil. It
couldn't hold. The houses came
down, destroying the ones below
them," Guerreiro told Globo TV.
"It was a tragedy foretold."
The federal government
announced an emergency fund
of $114 million to help Rio state,
where the slum is located, to deal
with the mudslides and flooding.
But the money will be of lit-
tle help to people who have no
choice but to live in such pre-
carious sections of the city, said
Rosana Fernandes, 43, whose
sister, brother-in-law and two
young nieces were buried under
the mud
Holding a faded photo of the
smiling family, she didn't both-
er holding back the tears as she
explained what it is that leads
families to live atop a landfill
formed by decades of accumulat-
ed garbage.
37
FELIPE DANA/AP
Residents remove belongings from their damaged home after heavy rains and landslides in the Caixa D'agua area in Niteroi,
Brazil on Wednesday.
"Yes, it was a dump. But peo-
ple are desperate to have a home
anywhere," she said. "What else
were they going to do? Where else
were they supposed to go? This is
our reality. They knew the risks,
but when you have no money, you
have no choice," she said.
Rio officials said they are going
to step up forced evictions of slum
residents living in at-risk areas.
Mayor Eduardo Paes announced
that 1,500 families are going to be
removed from their homes in at
least two Rio slums, and that more
evictions are likely.
Officials from Rio state's Civil
Defense department said that at
least 14,000 people were forced
from their homes by the mud-
slides and that potential slides
threatened at least 10,000 other
houses in the city.
Yesterday, scores of rescue
workers poked at the massive
mountain of earth that slid down
the hills of the Morro Bumba slum
toward a paved road in Niteroi,
Rio's sister city of 500,000 people
across the Guanabara Bay.
Mounds of soil and garbage
rose 40 feet (12 meters) high. A
dozen dump trucks were lined
up to carry off the debris. Hun-
dreds of onlookers watched as
firefighters carried at least four
coffins out of the crater created
by the slide.
Homeless residents soughtshel-
ter in two Evangelical churches
just down the road from the slum,
where water, food and clothing
were handed out. Small children
played and slept on dozens of mat-
tresses laid out on church floors.
Niteroi recovery operations
were moving slowly: The wet,
steep terrain posed a continued
threat to anyone trapped in the
wreckage and to emergency crews
as well, said lead firefighter Alves
Souza.
"The work isvery intense, given
the fact that the volume of mate-
rial we have here is very large,"
Souza said.
While it rained only lightly
Thursday, the forecast was for
heavier rains later in the day and
throughout the weekend.
RALLY
From Page 1
to sexual violence, the rally then
turned into a march throughout
downtown Ann Arbor and con-
cluded with a candlelight vigil back
on the Diag.
Ann Arbor Mayor John
Hieftje,spoke during the opening
remarks of the rally about the prev-
alence of sexual assault in the city
and on campus.
"Every year, we have about 30
cases of criminal sexual assault,"
Hieftje said. "The more we educate
people about this, the more we can
bringthat number down."
Keynote speaker Jennifer
Pasquale, a prevention education
specialist, spoke about her daugh-
ter's struggle to recover after being
sexually assaulted. Sheurged those
in attendance to be open to listen-
ing to friends and family who may
be in need after such a situation.
"When someone comes to you
and says, 'Something happened
and it doesn't feel right and I feel
ashamed,' listen to them and sup-
port them," Pasquale said.
It is especially important to be
aware of victims' differing needs
during their recovery, Pasquale
said.
"It doesn't help if we silence the
victim," she said. "It's okay to talk
about it, or to not talk about it."
Ann Arbor's Take Back The
Night rally is organized each year
by volunteers, seven of whom
this year are University students,
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Students and community members rally as part of Take Back the Night.
according to Schwider.
Ann Arbor resident Karaten
Birge said she has been volunteer-
ing with Take Back the Night for
the past few years, and handed out
programs at last night's rally.
"I am a survivor (of sexual
assault), and I'm really passion-
ate about getting the word out,"
Birge said. "I feel this is important
because it's something people don't
want to talk about."
Pasquale highlighted the fact
that one out of every four women
and one out of every 33 men are
sexually assaulted, and stressed
that all people have the right to be
protected from sexual violence.,
"We all have equal value in our
relationships, nomatter what we're
wearing, no matter what we're
drinking, no matter what party we
go to," Pasquale said.
Many of the attendees were sur-
vivors of sexual assault themselves
and wore teal armbands to identify
themselves.
Engineering junior Amanda
Sosne said volunteering with Take
Back The Night and attending the
event has been a meaningful expe-
rience because of a personal inci-
dent.
"My friend was involved in
(the rally) last year, and after I
was attacked, it made sense to get
involved," said Sosne.
Sosne said it can be therapeu-
tic for victims of sexual assault to
attend events like Take Back The
Night.
"Some people really get alot out
of helping others, out of knowing
they're notalone and talking to oth-
ers who have the same problems,"
she said.
The Michigan Daily
Advertising Design
Department is hiring
a Layout Designer.
G E S Applicants should have a knack for
spacial relationships and a distinct
N N K attention to detail. Experience with
Adobe InDesign is a plus.
Begin this summer and work
a couple hours every weekday.
' E-mail mahakiaj@umich.edu
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