0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, September 9, 2010 - 3A * The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September 9, 2010 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. Court won't order California to defend Proposition 8 California's highest court has refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal a ruling that overturned the state's gay marriage ban. The state Supreme Court yes- terday denied a conservative legal group's request to force the officials to defend voter-approved Proposi- tion 8. The court did not explain why it turned down the request by the . Pacific Justice Institute. Earlier Wednesday, lawyers for Brown and Schwarzenegger said the attorney general and governor have discretion to choose which laws they challenge or defend. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8 last month as a violation ofgay Cali- fornians' civil rights. DETROIT, Mich. Illegal power connections probed in Detroit fires DTE Energy Co. says it is inves- tigating whether illegal electric- ity connections led to some of the fires that burned dozens of houses and garages in pockets of neighbor- hoods across Detroit. The Detroit-based utility says yesterday in a release that energy theft creates the potential for falling power lines. Detroit fire officials says downed lines may have spawned eight fires Tuesday afternoon. Two other fires may have resulted from arson. DTE says winds and gusts of up to 50 mph blew trees and limbs onto power lines, causing outages to more than 50,000 customers. The utility says it responded Tuesday to a report of "flicker- ing lights, low voltage and poten- tial energy theft" on Robinwood, a street heavily damaged by the fires, and that no downed wire was found. ABERDEEN, Md. Army opens high- speed test track for war vehicles The Army has a new test track * in Maryland to study war-fighting vehicles operating at high speeds. An Abrams tank, a Humvee and other vehicles thundered down the 4.5-mile oval yesterday at Aberdeen Proving Ground north of Baltimore during a ceremony. The Department of Defense says the oval is the military's first contig- uous, flat track for sustained high- speed vehicle testing. Engineers hope to use the track to find ways to reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents, the leading cause of U.S. military fatalities. Officials say military convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan must fre- quently travel long distances at over 70 mph to counter enemy threats. But until now, the military has had no way to test all its vehicles at high speeds for extended periods. CARACAS, Venezuela Chavez accuses foes * of power sabotage President Hugo Chavez accused his political adversaries yesterday of sabotaging Venezuela's electric- ity grid as part of a campaign to chip away at his popularity before legis- lative elections in two weeks. Chavez didn't provide any evi- dence supporting his allegations about what is behind the country's troubles with power outages. He has made similar claims in the past, also without giving any evidence. Opposition leaders argue power outages are the result of the govern- ment's failed efforts to upgrade the electricity grid. Chavez called on federal police and intelligence agents to arrest those responsible for the purported sabotage, saying his government would "confront and neutralize" the perpetrators "to guarantee peace and calm" before the Sept.26 vote. "We are facing a wave of sabo- tage, I have no doubt," Chavez said during a televised speech. Authorities have not arrested anyone for sabotaging the grid, power lines or electricity plants. Government opponents deny they are sabotaging the power grid, say- ing Chavez's administration has not invested enough in electrical infra- structure or built enough new power plants to satisfy growing demand. - Compiled from Daily wire reports L.A. police face protests PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP President Barack Obama waves after delivering remarks on the economy yesterday at Cuyahoga Community College West Campus in Parma, Ohio. Obama won't yielo tax hike for wealthiest Local residents in uproar over fatal shooting on Sunday LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police mobilized yesterday to avoid more mayhem on the streets after being taken by surprise at consecutive nights of violent protests sparked by the fatal shooting of a knife- wielding man. The police chief, city officials and consuls general from three Latin American countries sched- uled a community meeting as senior officers tried to reach out to residents of the central Los Ange- les neighborhood where the man was shot. Sunday's killing of Manuel Jamines, 37, has turned into a ral- lying point as community mem- bers, aided by outsiders, have taken to the streets for two nights running and used the death to highlight past injustices and vent ongoing frustrations. Police have defended the kill- ing and said they've been taken aback by the level of protest for what appeared like a clear-cut case of justifiable use of force. Each year, the LAPD is involved in up to about 40 shootings - those that typically cause controversy involve unarmed or surrendered suspects. Residents outraged over the killing have said police should have handled the situation differently and say the surprise by depart- ment brass shows that the force is out of touch with the people. Three bicycle officers were flagged down Sunday by people concerned about a man wielding a knife. The officers approached the suspect and told him in Span- ish and English to put down the weapon. Instead, Jamines raised the knife above his head and lunged at Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the department, said Capt. Kris Pitcher, who heads the Los Angeles Police Depart- ment's force investigation division. Hernandez shot Jamines twice in the head. He died at the scene. Several witnesses later told police Jamines had been drinking. "They could have used pepper spray or a Taser gun," said Salva- dor Sanabria, executive director of nonprofit community group El Rescate. "The community ... react- ed this way because they thought there was another way to deal with a drunk guy." Pitcher said Jamines was an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. The day laborer was carrying a switchblade knife with a serrated, 3-inch blade. The police captain pledged an open and transparent investigation into the shooting. The other officers involved were Steven Rodriguez and Paris Pineda,both5-year veterans of the department. All the officers were Latino and speak Spanish. Police said the knife was cov- ered in blood, and DNA tests were being carried out to determine whose it was. Officers received unconfirmed reports Jamines may have attacked someone before police arrived, Pitcher said. The officers involved were placed on administrative leave, a standard move after shootings. An estimated 300 protesters who gathered outside the local police station pelted officers Tues- day night with eggs, rocks and bottles and set a trash bin on fire. Others dropped household items from apartment buildings. Officers fired atleast two rounds of foam projectiles at demonstra- tors and 22 people were arrested, mainly for failure to disperse and unlawful assembly. President Obama unveils plans to grow businesses, infrastructure CLEVELAND (AP) - Political- ly weakened but refusing to bend, President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that Bush-era tax cuts be cut off for the wealthiest Amer- icans, joining battle with Republi- cans - and some fellow Democrats - just two months before bruising midterm elections. Singling out House GOP leader John Boehner in his home state, Obama delivered a searing attack on Republicans for advocating "the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations." Obama rolled out a trio of new plans to help spur jobygrowth and invigorate the sluggish national economic recovery. They would expand and permanently extend a research and development tax credit that lapsed in 2009, allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their investments in equipment and plants through 2011 and pump $50 billion into highway, rail, air- port and other infrastructure proj- ects. The package was assembled by the president's economic team after it became clear that the recovery was running out of steam. There was a political component, too: With Democrats in danger of losing control of the House in November, Obama is under heavy pressure to show voters that he and his party are ready to do more to getcthe economy moving and get millions of jobless Americans back to work. However, none of yesterday's proposals, nor Obama's call for allowing tax rates to rise for the wealthiest Americans, seems likely to be acted on by Congress before the elections, reflecting the battering Obama and congressio- nal Democrats have taken in pub- lic opinion polls. Obama made one of his stron- gest appeals yet to allow the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush - in 2001 and 2003 - to expire at the end of the year on schedule, but just for individu- als earning more than $200,000 annually or joint filers earning over $250,000. The changes would affect dividend and capital gains rates and various other tax ben- efits as well as income from wages and salaries. The president's strategy - push- ing for legislation to save some tax cuts but not all - carries its own risks. Since all the tax breaks would expire automatically at the end ofthe year if Congress failed to act, that could result in sweeping increases for taxpayers at every income level - a major blow to recovery hopes and a colossal dose of blame for voters to parcel cwt to lawmakers and the White House. Some influential Democrats, and Obama's own former budget director, Peter Orszag, have sug- gested a compromise might be necessary - one to temporarily extend all the tax cuts, perhaps for a year or two - given the current election-year animosity between the two parties. But in his remarks in Cleveland, Obama strongly signaled he wasn't about to sign off on any such deal. "Let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everyone else. We should not hold middle class tax cuts hostage any longer," the president said. The administration "is ready this week to give tax cuts to every American making $250,000 or less," he said. It was a slight misstatement of his own position, since the $250,000 would apply to household income. The threshold for individuals would be $200,000. White House officials said Cleveland was picked as the speech site expressly because Boehner, who probably would become House speaker if Repub- licans take back control of the chamber in November, laid out his party's economic agenda here in a fiery Aug. 24 speech. At that time, the Ohio Repub- lican called for Obama to fire key economic advisers and to support an extension of all the Bush tax cuts. Boehner kept up the attack yes- terday. "If the president is really serious about focusing on jobs, a good start would be taking the advice of his recently departed budget director and freezing all tax rates, coupled with cutting of federal spending to where it was before all the bailouts, government takeovers and 'stimulus' spending sprees," he said after Obama spoke. Earlier, Boehner was even more specific on ABC's "Good Morning America," saying Congress should freeze all tax rates for two years and pare back federal spending to 2008 levels. The deep recession began in December 2007. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs noted that keeping the Bush tax cuts in effect just for two more years would represent a change from past calls by Boeh- ner to keep them in place perma- nently. "My question for him is: Are they abandoning the permanent or are they going with the two- year plan? I've seen him saying permanent so many times that I tend to believe that," Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One. "That's his plan and I think that continues to be his plan." Republicans, and some Demo- crats, argue that the fragile state of the economy makes this a poor time to raise taxes on anyone - and that increases could stifle wealth- ier people's appetite for spending. Obama argued that the rich are more likely to save additional money than spend it. And he said the struggling U.S. economy can't afford to spend $700 billion to keep lower tax rates in place for the nation's highest earners. M. SPNCtR GREEN/AP Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will not seek re-election in the upcoming election. Chicag~o mayoral race remnains oipen Environmental activist tapped to oversee anti-carp campaign Obama selects former official to stop Asian carp CHICAGO (AP) - John Goss, an environmental activist and former state official from Indi- ana, was appointed yesterday as the Obama administration's point man in the fight to prevent Asian carp fromgaininga foothold in the Great Lakes. Goss will oversee efforts by federal, state and local agencies to halt the advance of bighead and silver carp, which are on the verge of invading Lake Michigan through Chicago-area waterways. Scientists say if the voracious carp become established in the lakes, they could damage the food chain and a $7 billion regional fishing industry. Goss has served as executive director of the National Wild- life Federation's Indiana affiliate for four years. Previously, he was director of the state Department of Natural Resources and served as vice chairman of the Great Lakes Commission, an agency represent- ing the region's eight states. Goss "will help to ensure coor- dination among government agencies and the most effective response across all levels of gov- ernment to this threat," said Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Qual- ity. He also will be Sutley's primary adviser on the carp problem and be in charge of carrying out a $78.5 million federal effort to control the carp announced in February. The plan calls for a series of technolog- ical and infrastructure upgrades, such as strengthening an electron- ic barrier on the man-made water- way linking Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. Critics say the plan lacks clear goals and timetables and is weak because it does not endorse clos- ing navigational locks and gates in Chicago that could give the carp an opening to the lake - an issue that has sharply divided the region. Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Pennsylvania have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to shut down the locks and perma- nently sever the link between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. At a hearing on the case Wednesday in Chicago, a top official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers testified that electri- cal barriers are the agency's best defense against the Asian carp, but aren't perfect. Gen. John Peabody said metal- hulled ships can disrupt a small part of a barrier's electrical field. Asked by an attorney for the states whether a fish could get through the barrier by swimmingclose to a barge, Peabody said, "It's possible. We consider itcvery unlikely." Peabody, who commands the Great Lakes and Ohio River Divi- sion of the Corps, said the equip- ment and barriers needed to permanently close the locks would cost millions of dollars that other- wise could pay for repairs to locks and dams in such bad shape they could fail. Many speculate that Rahm Emanuel may enter the race CHICAGO (AP) - Months of political jockeying began in ear- nest yesterday as speculation grew about who would try to succeed Mayor Richard M. Daley as leader of the nation's third-largest city, including one-time aide and cur- rent White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday he has "no doubt" that Emanuel will weigh his future options now that the race for Chicago mayor is wide open. Emanuel has made no secret of wanting to run for Chicago mayor one day. "Obviously something like that doesn't come around a lot," Gibbs told reporters traveling with the president to Ohio. "I presume that Rahm will take some time and make a decision about that." For now, Emanuel is focused-on being President Barack Obama's chief of staff, and, "the enormous number of tasks we have in front of us as an administration," said Gibbs, who hadn't spoken with Emanuel about his plans and he wasn't sure if he'd talked with the president. Emanuel represented Chicago in Congress before going to work for Obama. Several aldermen are said to be mulling their chances. And Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is con- sidered a strongcontender. Then there are U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. - who has considered face-offs with Daley inthe pastbut then didn't run - and Lois Gutier- rez, who could draw support from the city's substantial Hispanic population. Daley, who presided over the City Council a day after announc- ing he wouldn't seek a seventh term, said voters must decide who they want asthe next mayor, which he called "the best job in America," and that he will not endorse any- one to replace him. "It won't be Rich daley to make that decision," he said. Aldermen crowded the hall- ways outside the chamber toassess who might have the best chance of succeeding Daley and what kind of mayor the city will need. "I don't think we have to have a strong-arm type of mayor," said Alderman Sandi Jackson, who has been named as a possible contend- er, along with her husband, Jack- son Jr. "We're in dire economic times so it would behoove them to bring everybody to the table and to find ways to work with everyone." Alderman Ed Burke, a longtime Daley rival and influential finance committee chairman, dodged the question of whether he would run. "Oh, we'll have to give that some thought," he said. "I think right now the...line is pretty crowded."