The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - 7A

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - 7A

" Mich. film office: Over $300 mllion
wil- be spent in state on films this year

From Page 1A
only two-years old," said Kozak.
The company has provided
shirts for movies such as "Stone"
and "Sunset Boulevard," Kozak
said, adding that this summer it
also provided $6,000 worth of
shirts for "Scream 4" and did a
personalized order for director
Wes Craven.
Michelle Begnoche, the com-
munications advisor for the
Michigan Film Office, said that
this year's in-state production
expenditures will be more than
$300 million from more than 40
films. She added that in 2007 the
state of Michigan produced three
films with only $2 million spent
in production.
As more production compa-
nies are beginning to see the
benefits of shooting in Michigan,
the quality of the films produced
in the state is increasing as well.
HOUSING
From Page 1A
These popular areas are filled
with many houses and apartment
complexes. Pasthistoryfromthese
realtors has shown the houses are
the most likely to sign earliest in
the year, while one- and two-bed-
room apartments tend still to be
available later in the year.
"Larger units, such as three
bedrooms and up, see their most
interest earlier in the school year,"
Traband wrote. "Demand for
two bedrooms and below follows
toward the end of the fall term."
Prime Student Housing, which
leases apartments, reported that it
sees a rush to rent properties both
at the beginning and at the end of
the school year.
"As it gets later on people will
wait until the last minute and not
rent in the middle of our leasing
CANDIDATES
From Page IA
involved," Steele said.
Careless government spend-
ing is putting today's youth in an
increasingly dangerous position,
Steele said because today's young
people will be saddled with the
nation's debt in the future.
"Most parents wouldn't go out
and buy a big screen TV and a
motor home and then charge it to
their kids," Steele said. "Your par-
ents wouldn't do that, I wouldn't
do that to my children, and so why
should we allow the government
to do the same thing?"
Furman, too, wrote in an e-mail
interview that the federal govern-
ment needs to curb its current
levels of spending, which is a key
ideal of the U.S. Taxpayers Party
of Michigan.
"I believe that with lower taxes
and less of their paychecks being
confiscated by the government,
individuals and families can save,
spend, and invest as they see fit,
and business can expand, grow,
and hire, thereby growing the
economy," Furman wrote. "There
you have the difference between
liberal policies and common sense
policies."
Furman, who's currently train-

ing in a police academy, wrote that
he feels Dingell has advocated "a
liberal, socialist agenda that has
pushed America to the breaking
point," which has caused a huge
national deficit.
"I am campaigning for Con-
gress to help restore America to
her founding principles of lim-

Burnstein said that five films shot
in Michigan were entered into
the Toronto Film Festival last
year, three of which were shot in
Ann Arbor.
The tax incentive is not only
beneficial to the state economi-
cally but also socially. Both Beg-
noche and Burnstein emphasized
the gravity of Michigan's "brain
drain" and hope the increased
film production will keep young
people in the state.
"When we passed the law,
migration of students to L.A. and
New York stopped," Burnstein
said. "It's got alot of young people
to want to stay here."
Michigan's increased screen
time has also helped its morale,
said Burnstein. Troubles with
the auto industry prior to the
passing of the law caused many
Michigan residents to lose con-
fidence in their state. Burnstein
said that the film industry may

have helped reverse that effect.
He said he believes Clint East-
wood's movie "Grand Torino,"
which was filmed in Detroit, was
a significant turning point that
helped instill a sense of pride in
Michiganders.
"A perception of ourselves
began to change with all of these
bright lights," said Burnstein.
Ann Arbor has been a hot spot
for Michigan film production.
Stars such as Michael Cera, Clive
Owen, Hayden Panettiere and
Hilary Swank have all been to
Ann Arbor to film since the law
passed.
"Answer This!" a comedy
filmed this year in Ann Arbor and
which will be premiering at the
Michigan Theatre on Friday, has
even deeper roots in this city. It
was directed by University alum
Chris Farah. Farah said that it
was his dream to film here in Ann
Arbor and the tax incentive made

it possible.
"Without the incentives, we.
really wouldn't have been able
to make it here," Farah said. "It's
pure economics."
Farah added that though
Michigan is now a competitor
with Tinseltown, it still lacks
the cinema infrastructure of Los
Angeles. His team had issues
finding a certain crane for his
cameras, which he said could
have been found within minutes
in Hollywood.
Though Michigan isn't quite
Hollywood, these incentives have
certainly aided many film pro-
ducers. Begnoche said that films
can receive up to a 40-percent
credit if they meet certain quali-
fications and hire enough Michi-
gan residents to work for their
films.
"You need to have that kind of
incentive to come shoot in Michi-
gan," said Farah.

TEXTBOOKS
From Page 1A
"Open textbooks offer a wide
range of affordable, flexible
options, including printable PDFs
and files that can be read on acom-
puter or smartphone," Allen said.
But University professors sound
more skeptical.
Business School Prof. Jim
Adams said he is concerned with
the flexibility of textbooks that are
only online, in comparison to hav-
ing the option of buying the hard
copy of the book or accessing read-
ings through C-Tools.
"I myself like to assign primary
documents ... I make all these pub-
lications available both in course-
packs and on C-Tools. That way,
students can choose: pay for the
convenience of a coursepack, or
download yourself," Adams wrote
in an e-mail interview. "For the
courses I teach, until now, Iam not
aware of an online option that is
both available and good."
Statistics Prof. Brenda Gunder-
son wrote in an e-mail interview

that she believes in giving students
multiple ways to access their class
material, including online texts,
e-books, and using the same edi-
tion for texts multiple years in a
row to cut down on costs.
"I am very much in favor of giv-
ing students many options fortheir
textbooks," Gunderson wrote.
Gunderson cited online text-
books as beneficial when they
offer interactive features and cost
less for students.
University students also seem
ambivalent towards using online
textbooks.
LSA freshman Megan Lim said
she prefers traditional print text-
books and readings.
"Online would be good for a
quick resource," Lim said. "But I
prefer (print) books because you
can actually mark and highlight
in it."
LSA junior Nick Manoogian
said he is using an online textbook
right now.
"My French textbook is online,"
Manoogian said. "Financially, it
would be (cheaper), but I think I'd
prefer a hard copy."



season," Traband wrote.
LSA senior Chris Vivian said
he experienced the trauma of not
signing early last year and then
having fewer options to choose
from at the end of the year. He is
living near Hill Street and Main
Street this year.
"I felt the pressure from sign-
ing early," he said. "I had a house
lined up in the fall but when that
fell through my roommates and
I had major difficulties locating
available housing during second
semester."
Though some realtors said
there was some concern that the
economy or construction of new
student high-rises might affect
the housing market, the beginning
of the leasing season has shown no
significant change in the housing
market.
"There hasn't been as much of
a negative effect as I would have
thought," Acuna said. "At first we

were alittle scared. Ourproperties
do offer a different sort of charac-
ter than those high-rises and they
are not necessarily as expensive."
Old Town Realty reports that it
is at 98 percent capacity with its
units this year, and Arch Realty
reported that it has not had prob-
lems with vacancies.
"While we do not see the high-
rises as our direct competition,
we have noticed that rents around
the new high-rise buildings have
increased at an accelerated rate,"
Traband wrote. "Properties in
other areas around campus have
maintained their value and we
have had no issues with vacancy."
And while the off-campus hous-
ing market seems to sustain many
changes and continues to thrive
around campus, residence halls
are also luring back students with
new construction and better living
situations.
"We have noticed particularly

in the past couple of years just
a slight increase in percentage
points of students who want to
return to on-campus housing,"
said Housing Communications
Director Peter Logan. "This is a
function of, probably, the econo-
my... just the overall anticipation
and improvements we've been
making to the residential experi-
ence here."
Ultimately, many students sign
leases for the following year in
September and just accept the
housing race as it is. Shonkoff said
she was able to get a house that
was "absolutely perfect," by sign-
ing her lease early.
"We signed (in) the beginning
of September," she said. "We had
heard that a couple of our friends
had already been looking and we
knew that it was really competi-
tive and wanted to get a jump start
and not have to be scrambling for
a house."

SUSPECT
From Page 1A
arrest, Johnson was read trespass
for the Ann Arbor campus.
Brown said that people being
charged with crimes such as
robbery are usually given bond
conditions at their arraignment
that include a ban from the place
where the crime in question
occurred. Brown said that in
Johnson's case, the judge made no
such provision, but the trespass
read to him upon arrest prohibits
his return to campus.
Brown added that with each
reported sighting of Johnson on
campus, University Police either
did not reach him in time, or he
had moved just off of University
property, outside the jurisdiction
of DPS.
Johnson is often reported as
asking for $20 in order to go to
Flint to see his family or his chil-
dren, according to Brown.
While Brown said that Johnson
is not typically reported as touching
passersby or appearing belligerent,
she said that because he appears to
have crossed the line in the case of
the unarmed robbery, he is a threat
to students on campus.
Brown also said that the danger
of panhandlers becoming more
aggressive wouldn't exist if com-
munity members did not give them
money.

"When people respond to that
begging it enables that activity to
continue," Brown said. "There are
a lot of resources in this commu-
nity for people who are without
jobs or places to go. They don't
need to be on the streets begging
for money."
Brown added that the most
common issue on campus with
those asking for money occurs
when they come into one of the
University buildings and end up
asleep or suspects of larceny.
Annarbor.com reported that
Johnson was involved in 98 City of
Ann Arbor police reports between
January 2001 and August 2007,
including reports of aggressive
panhandling, narcotics possession
and assault and battery.
Johnson has also been reported
in his vehicle asking for money
from people walking by. Brown
said the vehicle is most often
described as a minivan, though
the make and year vary in witness
reports.
Johnson will appear in Washt-
enaw County Court for his pre-
liminary examination on the
charges of unarmed robbery this
afternoon.
The crime alert described the
attacker as a dark-skinned male
in his 30s, about six feet tall, with
a medium build. DPS requested
in the Annarbor.com article to be
contacted if Johnson is seen on
campus.


ited government, freedom, liberty
and fiscal responsibility," Furman
wrote.
By promoting tax cuts and
establishing a lower income tax,
Furman wrote, he hopes to begin
to erase the nation's debt. He said
he believes this will allow Ameri-
can families to better use their
own money without government
interference.
Though it might not seem like a
traditional path to politics, Steele
said his work as a doctor has pre-
pared him to be a politician in
many ways because he knows
how to handle difficult situations
and address important issues in a
timely fashion.
"We have career politicians
who aren't frankly that interested
in fixing the problems," Steele
said. "They're perfectly willing to
kick it down the road to the next
person just as long as they can get
re-elected this time."
Steele said he also hopes to
improve what he calls "account-
ability," or ensuring that every
person in Congress understands
the entirety of each bill placed
before him or her. Steele said too
often legislators vote on pieces
of legislation that they fail to
read completely due to excessive
length.
"The bills need to be shorter,"
Steele said. "And they need to be
on one topic, and they need to be
out in the public."
When asked about running
against someone who has been
in Congress for more than five
decades, Steele said he thinks this
actually plays to his advantage
because Dingell has become too

consumed with the Washington
political scene.
"(Dingell's) been in the position
where he thinks every solution
starts and ends in Washington
D.C., and that's just not the case,"
Steele said.
Recently, Steele has become the
subject ofnegative political adver-
tisements from the Dingell cam-
paign. The ads claim that Steele
plans to privatize social security,
provide tax breaks to large corpo-
rations and decrease prescription
drug coverage for senior citizens.
But Steele said these accusations
aren't based in fact.
"My adult life has been taking
care of people who have been on
Social Security or Medicare,"
Steele said. "So this idea that they
want to paint me as someone who
wants to eliminate these things
which I flat out never said is fairly
crazy."
Furman, too, has no political
experience and mirrored much of
Steele's concerns regarding Ding-
ell's politics.
Dingell has been directly
involved with many of the prob-
lems currently plaguing the
nation like the struggling econo-
my, the housing crisis and the fed-
eral debt, Furman wrote.
"All this has taken place on
John Dingell's watch, and when
taking a look at his voting record,
it's easy to see that he's contrib-
uted to these problems," Furman
wrote.
Furman, who's only 25-years
old, wrote that he thinks his
youth will play to his advantage
in the election because it means
he has no connections with large

corporations or special interest
groups.
"I don't have 54 years of ties
to big business and special inter-
ests," Furman wrote. "I don't owe
anyone favors and I'm not owned
by lobbyists."
Furman wrote that he hopes
voters are able to look beyond his
age and instead focus on his polit-
ical platform.
"I believe most voters are smart
enough to base their decision on a
candidate's stances and solutions,
not how many candles are on the
cake," Furman wrote.
Some of Furman's other stanc-
es on policies include advocating
for America to leave its mem-
bership position in the United
Nations, cracking down on illegal
immigration by enforcing stricter
border control, eliminating citi-
zenship by birthright and abolish-
ing foreign aid to countries that
demonstrate hostility, he wrote.
"My role models are the Found-
ing Fathers," Furman added. "My
guide to government and policy
is the Constitution. I'm a fight-
er for liberty, freedom and fis-
cal responsibility. I think that's
one hell of an improvement right
there."
Furman wrote that he hopes
students look beyond the tradi-
tional two-party political system
that has dominated American
politics to date and strongly con-
sider third-party candidates like
himself.
"The future of America hangs
in balance like a loose tooth," Fur-
man wrote. "And it's the Repub-
licans and Democrats that have
brought us to this point."


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