The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Convicted political
consultant seeks
delay in sentencing
Detroit political consultant Sam
Riddle is seeking a delay in his sen-
tence for corruption.
Riddle is due in federal court
today. But lawyer Richard Conver-
tino wants a judge to hold a hearing
to determine how Riddle's state-
ments to investigators were used
to calculate the value of political
payoffs.
Convertino says Riddle's rights
may have been violated.
Riddle pleaded guilty in May to
conspiracy, a charge that covered
his crimes with then-Detroit coun-
cilwoman Monica Conyers and a
Southfield councilman. Prosecu-
tors are recommending 37 months
in prison.
The government accused Riddle
and Conyers of shaking down busi-
nesses for thousands of dollars.
Riddle's former companion, Mary
Waters, faces sentencing for a mis-
demeanor tax offense.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.
Canada joins U.S. in
Asian carp research.
Canadian and U.S. scientists
announced yesterday the launch
of a joint study that will look at
the likelihood that Asian carp will
spread across the Great Lakes and
decimate the fish populations if
allowed to gain a foothold.
The 18-month study will be the
first joint effort by the two nations
to evaluate possible consequences
of an invasion by bighead and silver
carp -Asian species threateningcto
enter Lake Michigan through Chi-
cago-ares rivers and canals.
"We have seen the destructive
behavior" of Asian carp in parts
of the Mississippi and Illinois riv-
ers, where they have disrupted the
food web by hogging the plankton
on which many fish depend, said
Becky Cudmore, senior research
scientist for Fisheries and Oceans
Canada. "We are not taking the
threat to the Great Lakes lightly."
Canadian researchers produced
an initial assessment in 2004 and
U.S. experts did likewise the fol-
lowing year. The new project will
aim to resolve differences between
them while yielding new informa-
tion about the carp threat, said
Marc Gaden, spokesman for the
Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
PHOENIX, Ariz.
Mexico to take part
in appeal of Ariz.
immigration law
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is
opposing a court ruling that lets
other countries file a friend-of-the-
court brief in her appeal of a deci-
sion that put parts of the state's
new immigration law on hold.
Mexico and 10 other Latin
American countries were granted
permission by the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals to present their
viewpoints.
Brewer's lawyers told the
appeals court that the opinions of
foreign countries have no bearing
on whether the law is constitu-
tional.
The governor says she was
offended that foreign governments
were meddling in a domestic legal
dispute.
Mexico was joined in its brief by
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru.
WASHINGTON
Obama hails 'new
age of engagement'
President Barack Obama is
greeting foreign diplomats at a
White House reception, hailing
a "new era of engagement in the
world."
Said the president: "We're doing
together what none of us can
achieve by ourselves."
Scores of ambassadors and
other foreign officials were invit-
ed to the East Room yesterday for
cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at an
annual diplomatic corps recep-
tion. Appearing with first lady
Michelle Obama, the president
told his guests that in a world that's
more interconnected than ever, it's
in America's best interest for all
countries to prosper.
Obama said the governments
were working together on global
economic growth, confronting vio-
lent extremism, securing nuclear
weapons and achieving peace from
the Middle East to Sudan.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports.
Times Square bomber sentenced to life
Shahzad warns of
more attacks in
future from Al Qaeda
NEW YORK (AP) - The Paki-
stani immigrant who tried to deto-
nate a car bomb on a busy Saturday
night in Times Square accepted a
life sentence with a smirk yester-
day and warned that Americans
can expect more bloodshed at the
hands of Muslims.
"Brace yourselves, because the
war with Muslims has justbegun,"
31-year-old Faisal Shahzad told a
federal judge. "Consider me the
first droplet of the blood that will
follow."
His punishment for building the
propane-and-gasoline bomb and
driving it into the heart of the city
in an SUV in May was a foregone
conclusion, since the charges to
which he pleaded guilty carried
a mandatory life sentence, which
under federal rules will keep him
behind bars until he dies.
But the former budget analyst
from Connecticut used the court-
room appearance to rail against
the U.S., saying the country will
continue to pay for occupying
Muslim countries.
"We are only Muslims trying
to defend our religion, people,
homes and land, but if you call us
terrorists, then we are proud ter-
rorists and we will keep on terror-
izing you until you leave our lands
and people at peace," he told U.S.
District Judge Miriam Goldman
Cedarbaum.
Shahzad - brought into the
courtroom in handcuffs, and wear-
ing a long beard and white skull-
cap - had instructed his attorney
not to speak, and Cedarbaum told
prosecutors she didn't need to hear
from them.
That left the two free to spar
over his reasoning for giving up his
comfortable life in America to train
in Pakistan and carry out an attack
authorities say could have killed an
untold number of pedestrians.
"You appear to be someone who
was capable of education and I do
hope you will spend some of the
time in prison thinking carefully
about whether the Quran wants
you to kill lots of people," Cedar-
baum said.
Shahzad responded that the
"Quran gives us the right to defend.
And that's all I'm doing."
The judge cut him off at one
point to ask if he had sworn alle-
giance to the U.S. when he became
a citizen last year.
"I did swear, but I did not mean
it," Shahzad said.
In his address to the court, he
said Osama bin Laden "will be
known as no less than Saladin of
the 21st-century crusade" - a ref-
erence to the Muslim hero of the
Crusades. He also said: "If I'm
given 1,000 lives, I will sacrifice
them all."
Shahzad smirked when the
judge imposed the sentence. Asked
if he had any final words, he said,
"I'm happy with the deal that God
has given me."
Afterward, the head of the FBI's
New York office, Janice K. Fedar-
cyk, cited evidence that Shahzad
hoped to strike more than once.
This June 29, 2010 photo taken from video and provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows an FBI-staged explosion
in Osceola Mills, Pa., that prosecutors say replicates the power of the car bomb Faisal Shahzad tried to detonate in New York's
Tiwes Square on May 1, 2010.
"Shahzad built a mobile weapon
of mass destruction and hoped and
intended that it would kill large
numbers of innocent people and
planned to do it again two weeks
later," Fedarcyk said in a state-
ment. "The sentence imposed
today means Shahzad will never
pose that threat again."
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
called Shahzad a "remorseless ter-
rorist who betrayed his adopted
country."
"We have tobe concerned about
homegrown terrorists given recent
events. We're working as hard as
we can to make sure we don't have
another event like that," Bharara
said.
White House spokesman Nick
Shapiro said the administration
was pleased with the sentencing.
"We tried the case in a civilian
court, we were able to use every-
thing that he said and everything
that we uncovered for intelligence
collection purposes," he said. "His
trial served no propaganda pur-
pose for al-Qaida, and only under-
scored the strength of our justice
system."
Calling himself a Muslim sol-
dier, Shahzad pleaded guilty in
June to 10 terrorism and weapons
counts. He said the Pakistan Tal-
iban provided him with more than
$15,000 and five days of explosives
training late last year and early
this year, months after he became
a U.S. citizen.
For greatest impact, he chose a
crowded a section of Times Square
by studying an online streaming
video of the so-called Crossroads
of the World, prosecutors said.
Survey: Latinos
still strongly
support Dems.
U.S. seeks vote on Russian
nuclear arms pact summit
Some say
immigration issues
may influence more
Latinos to vote
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a
year when Democrats are strug-
gling to energize supporters,
Hispanic voters appear signifi-
cantly less motivated than the
rest of.the U.S. to cast election
ballots even though two-thirds
of Latino registered voters say
they'll vote Democratic in their
congressional race, a Pew His-
panic Center study found.
The center's national survey,
released Tuesday, found 51 per-
cent of Latino registered voters
were absolutely certain they
would vote - compared with 70
percent of U.S. voters - and 65
percent of Latino voters planned
to support the Democrat in their
congressional district, com-
pared with 47 percent of U.S.
voters.
They are pledging that sup-
port even though only 26 percent
of the voters said the policies
of President Barack Obama's
administration have helped Lati-
nos. Thirteen percent said the
administration's policies hurt
Latinos, while 51 percent said
they had no effect.
"The Latino vote appears to
continue to strongly identify
with the Democratic Party," said
Mark Lope, Pew Hispanic Cen-
ter's associate director.
A51percentLatinovoter turn-
out would be a slight increase in
turnout over 2008. But midterm
turnout for all voters generally is
lower than in presidential years.
In 2006, about 32 percent of eli-
gible Latino voters showed up at
the polls.
"Even though they say they
plan to vote, many things may
get in the way of actually turning
out to vote," Lope said.
About 19.3 million Latinos, the
nation's largest minority group,
are eligible to vote, Pew Hispan-
ic estimates. Two of every three
live in California, Texas, Florida
or New York.
Latinos voted more than 2-to-
1 for Obama in 2008. But the
sagging economy and outrage
among some voters has the Dem-
ocratic Party concerned about
a general apathy among its core
supporters and some newer and
independent voters.
Latino voter turnout is gen-
erally lower than for U.S. reg-
istered voters overall. But
the Latino share of all voters
increased from 6 percent in 2004
to 7.4 percent in 2008, according
to Pew Hispanic's data. Nearly
half of Itino eligible voters say
they voted in 2008.
Some have suggested Latino
voters would stay home because
of lack of action on immigration
reform legislation by the Obama
administration. However, an
Arizona immigrationlaw and the
Obama administration's attempt
to thwart may also serve as ral-
lying points for get-out-the-vote
drives among Latinos.
Ben Monterroso, executive
director of Mi Familia Vota, said
his group is targeting new Lati-
no voters in Texas, Arizona and
Colorado who are less likely go
vote. Mi Familia Vota is a group
trying to increase Latino voting
numbers.
"Neighborhoods where we
are working, from Houston to
Phoenix, Yuma to Denver, we
have seen the Latino community
being interested in the elections
out of the outrage" over Arizo-
na's immigration law and anger
over largely Republican votes
against legislation that would
have given many young people
brought to the country illegally
by their parents a chance to
become legal U.S. residents.
Immigration did not rank as a
top voting issue for Latino regis-
tered voters in the Pew Hispanic
survey. It came in fifth behind
education, jobs, health care and
the federal budget deficit.
But two-thirds of registered
Latino voters say that have talk-
ed about the immigration issue
with someone they know in the
past year. Those who had were
more motivated to vote, the sur-
vey found.
The Pew Hispanic Center's
survey also found:
-Thirty-eight percent of Lati-
no voters whose primary lan-
guage is Spanish are absolutely
certain to vote this year.
-Republican Latino regis-
tered voters are more likely than
Democratic Latino registered
voters to say they have given the
election quite a lot of thought, 44
percent versus 28 percent.
-Among Latino registered
voters who identify with or lean
toward the Republican Party,
18 percent say the GOP is better
for Latinos than the Democratic
Party, while 60 percent say they
see no difference.
The Pew Hispanic Center
survey is based on telephone
interviews done Aug. 17 through
Sept. 19 by Social Science
Research Solutions (SSRS) with
1,375 Latinos ages 18 and older.
Of those surveyed, 618 were reg-
istered voters. Some interviews
were conducted in Spanish. The
margin of sampling error is plus
or minus 3.3 percentage points
for the sample of all Latinos,
plus or minus 4.88 for registered
Voters.
U.S. wants similar
action as 1992
START Treaty
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The
Obama administration is hoping for
an overwhelming Senate vote this
year to ratify the new arms control
treaty with Russia, the chief U.S.
negotiator said yesterday.
Rose Gottemoeller said chances
for ratification of the New START
Treaty in the "lame duck" session
after the November midterm elec-
tions are "good."
She pointed to the 14-4 bipar-
tisan vote in the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee last month
which sent the treaty to the full
Senate, and the administration's
efforts to build support including
answering about 900 questions
from senators and holding 18 hear-
ings and four major briefings.
Gottemoeller recalled that the
1992 START treaty to reduce the
nuclear arsenals of the United
States and then Soviet Union was
the last major treaty ratified by the
Senate on Oct. 1, 1992.
"We are hoping that we will
have the same kind of vote which
was the vote for the START treaty,
95-0 against," she said. "We're
looking for that kind of vote this
time around as well."
Gottemoeller, the assistant sec-
retary of state for arms control,
verification and compliance, spoke
to reporters after addressing the
U.N. General Assembly's disarma-
ment committee where she said
that in addition to pressing for a
vote "as soon as possible," the U.S.
wants to begin negotiations on a
treaty to ban production of atomic
bomb material and try again to rat-
ify the nuclear testban treaty.
Progress on the New START
treaty has been slow since Presi-
dent Barack Obama and Rus-
sian President Dmitry Medvedev
signed it in April. It would reduce
the limit on strategic warheads to
1,550 for each country from the
current ceiling of 2,200. It also
would set new procedures that
allow both countries to inspect
each other's arsenals to verify
compliance.
When Gottemoeller was asked
whether there were any chances
for the treaty to be ratified this
year, she replied: "Absolutely, yes."
Martin Seligman
Director, Positive Psychology Center
Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology
University of.Pennsylvania
Positive 'Psychology&
Positive Interventions
Thursday, October 7,2010,4:00 PM
Rackham Auditorium (ground floor)
Also: Symposium on the Tanner Lecture
Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Valerie Tiberius, University of Minnesota
Kennon Sheldon, University of Missouri
Friday, October 8, 2010, 9:00 AM - 1:0 PM
Rackham Amphitheatre (fourth floor) Lunch follow
All events open to the public without charge (www.lsa.umich.edu/philosophy)