I he Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, November 15, 2010 -- 3A EWS BRIEFS ORT HURON, Mich. aughter charged or stabbing parents The 17-year-old daughter of wo Michigan stabbing victims nd two other teenagers were 'harged yesterday with multiple urder counts in the small-town ttack that killed the girl's father nd seriously wounded her moth- pr. Tia Marie-Mitchell Skinner nd Jonathan Kurtz and James reston, both 18 and from Avoca, were charged at the St. Clair ounty Jail with open murder, attempted murder and conspira- y. The open murder charge gives prosecutors the option to amend it to first-degree murder. Police said two intruders in Halloween masks climbed hrough a window Thursday night and attacked Paul and Mara Skin- ner in their Yale home as they lay in bed. Tia Marie-Mitchell Skin- ner, the couple's adopted daugh- ter, was in the home along with a visiting son in his 20s. Police do not believe the son was involved in the attack. PHOENIX Ariz. voters legalize medical marijuana in close vote By a narrow margin, Arizona voters have given their OK to legal- ized medical marijuana for people with chronic or debilitating dis- eases. The decision makes Arizona the 15th state to approve a medical marijuana law. California was the first in 1996, and 13 other states and Washington, D.C., have followed suit. Proposition 203 won by just 4,341 votes out of more than 1.67 million ballots counted, according to final tallies Saturday. Approval came as somewhat of a surprise after the measure started out losing on Election Day by about 7,200 votes. The gap gradually narrowed until it surged ahead during Fri- day's count by more than 4,000 votes. Saturday's final count was 841,346 in favor of the measure and 837,005 opposed. JACKSON, Miss. FBI: M-an believed dead arrested on kidnapping charges A man who was declared legal- ly dead 16 years ago in Mississip- pi was arrested yesterday in the kidnapping of a slain Las Vegas girl whose body was found in the woods of central Louisiana, the FBI said. FBI spokeswoman Sheila Thorne said Thomas Steven Sand- ers was arrested early yesterday at a truck stop in Gulfport, Miss. The arrest capped a massive manhunt in a bizarre case that stretched across the country. Court documents obtained by The Associated Press show Sanders abandoned his family in 1987 and was declared dead by a Mississippi court 1994. He lived unnoticed for years despite being arrested several times. Sanders, 53, was wanted in the kidnapping 12-year-old Lexis Rob- erts, whose skeleton was found by hunters early last month. Her 31-year-old mother, Suellen Rob- erts, is missing. Officials say she is not a suspect in her daughter's death - and they hope she has not met with foul play. ATHENS, Greece Socialists win two largest cities in mayoral elections Greece's governing Social- ists have won mayoral races in Greece's two largest cities for the first time in 24 years, extending gains in local government elec- tions. Socialist-backed mayoral can- didates Giorgos Kaminis and Yiannis Boutaris won in the capi- tal Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, interrupting a streak of conservative victories dating back to 1986. Prime Minister George Papan- dreou praised yesterday's result as a vote of confidence in his auster- ity program ahead of an inspec- tion by EU and IMF officials on the implementation of a rescue loan agreement worth eurotto billion ($150 billion). - Compiled from Daily wire reports. TU'REHANSHAR-MAN/Dail ) The Food Gatherers pantry on Friday. The organization is working to address an increase demarnd for "heir servies. GATHERERS ON A MISSION Food Gatherers, the largest food bank in Washtenaw County, is working to fight a 138-percent spike in demand ENROLLMENT From Page 1A Nina Grant, director of Multi- Ethnic Student Affairs, said that while University officials are pleased with the number of under- represented minority students who are offered admission, they have been working over the past year to increase the number that accepts admission. In the past few years, even as the number of underrepresented minority students who accept offers of admission has risen, the number who actually enrolled has decreased -a trend that has changed lhisyear. As part of the effort to reverse this, Grant said MESA met with members of the office of the Pro- vost, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Center for Edu- cational Outreach each month dur- ing the 2009-2010 academic year to provide students with a way to "con- nectto the recruitmentefforts." When asked whether or not she was pleased with the level of diver- sity on campus, Grant commented on the relative nature of the word. Diversity, Granttsaid, "is like cold. If Igrew up inFlorida and I'mhere, it's freezing cold to me, but if I'm from the Midwest this is a pretty good day. So I think diversity is a rela- tive term-it's basedon somebody's experience and exposure." Nonetheless, Grant stressed her approval of the "strong com- mitment" by students, faculty and administrators to increasing diver- sity. "It makes me proud to be part of an institution that has that level of commitment," she said. Andrea Hernandez, a third-year law student and co-chair of the Lati- no Law Students Association, sug- gested that to increase thenumberiof accepted underrepresented minority students who choose to enroll, the University might consider offering more application fee waivers, schol- arships and financial aid. "I don't doubt that everyone is working hard," Hernandez said, "but the bottom line is that minori- ties are still in the minority, and we still have a long way to go in achiev- ing a more diverse student body." LSA senior Samantha Martin, the Black Student Union spokes- person, echoed Hernandez's sen- timents, saying she would like to see more results from the Uni- versity's efforts to attract under- represented minority students. Martin said that while numbers have increased since last year, the general trend over the past several years has been a downward one. Martin also discussed the need for better efforts to retain under- represented minority students once they decide to enroll. "I still see a lack of attention to those students as they come in, and a lack of active retention," she said. "Many people I knew when I came in aren't here now, and that's a problem." Martin suggested that retention could be improved with a greater effort to educate students about racism on campus. She said many courses that fulfill LSA's race and ethnicity requirement do not ade- quately address racism and cited this as a possible contributing factor to bias incidents. LSA junior Alys Alley, co-chair of the Native American Student Asso- ciation, said NASA works hard to recruit and retain American Indian students at the University through programs like Michigan Indian Stu- dents Achieving Great Educations. As part of the program, high school seniors are invited to spend a day with NASA members, who take them around campus, explain the financial aid process and offer suggestions for writing application essays. Since Michigan voters passed a ballot initiative in 2006 that banned affirmative action, Alley said that NASA has had a tough time attract- ing students to the University. "Proposal 2 really hindered the University's abilityto recruit under- representediminority students sowe now have to get creative," she said. in addition to an increase in underrepresented minority stu- dents, the University also had the largest enrollment in its history this year. Students, professors and officials said they felt having more students enrolled at the University might harm the campus environ- ment, particularly in terms of hous- ing and one-on-one interaction between students and faculty. University President Mary Sue Coleman said the spike in enroll- ment "isn't a planned increase in the student population," according to a September article in The Michigan Daily. "We've been working on trying to shrink a little bit and some years we've been more successful then others in holding the line," Cole- man said in the article. "I mean, I'm thrilled that so manypeople wantto come to the University of Michigan, but we also have to be very cogni- zant of the experience students get and we want that to beaa good expe- rience. " Associate English Prof. Susan Najita echoed Coleman's sentiments saying she noticed an increased demand in freshman English semi- nars this semester, resulting in more waitlisted students and more stu- dents being turned away from sc- tions. If more students are to be enrolled at the University, she said, tuition money should be spent on educational resources. But she said she also approves of the increased student body size because it serves to "democratize access to educa- tion." "I'd be happy if they opened it even further," she said. Paul Kessenich, assistant pro- fessor of mathematics, said he and other faculty members in the mathematics department have also noticed an increase in demand for courses, and suggested the increase may be hurting the quality of stu- dents' educations. "Sometimes getting 25 people to listen at the same time versus 32 people - it's just seven more people - but it can be an issue, and it has been for some of our instructors," Kessenich said. LSA junior Lisa Blaskwski said she supports the idea of reducing enrollment. "It reflects positively on the Uni- versity if we have these high stan- dards," she said: Apurva Lingnurkar, a first-year graduate student in chemical egi- neering, said he also supports a reduction in enrollment because it puts undergraduates in larger aca- demic programs at a disadvantage. Lingnurkar said he wouldn't like to see the University recruit too many more students "because then it becomes theArizona State model, where you get as many students as possible in order to make money." By DAVID BUCCILLI Daiiy Staff Reporter in a warehouse three miles north of the Michigan Union, a committed group of volunteers distributes more than 9,000 meals to 43,000 Washtenaw County residents. The meals are prepared at Food Gatherers, the primary food bank in Washtenaw County, where more than 5,000 volunteers work to alleviate local hunger. Mary Schlitt, the Food Gatherers's director of development, said stu- dent volunteers and University programs like the School of Public Health play a considerable role in assisting the organization. Since 2006, the number of the bank's food recipients has increased 138 percent, and more than 14,000 children receised emergency food last year, according to Schlitt. Facing that increased demand, Food Gather- ers is working to meet it. Aunt Millie's, known for its logo of a silhouette of a woman serving a loaf of bread, donated and deliv- ered 2,400 loaves of Butter Top Wheat Bread Friday morning to Food Gatherers. At the warehouse on Friday, Greg Fanslau, branch manager for Aunt Millie's bakeries, said Aunt Millie's was "very happy to give the donation and help out in any way possible." In addition to businesses, government programs like the Michigan Agricultuiral Surplus System - a partnership between food banks, the state government and farmers - donate to the food bank. Last week, the MASS gave thousands of apples to Food Gath- erers. Zingerman's i)elicatessen founded Food Gatherers in 1998 to help feed hungry people in Ann Arbor. 'Fhe warehouse was origi- nally located in an abandoned slaughterhouse but the large amount of donations quickly filled the building to capacity, Schlitt said. In 1997, Food Gatherer's expanded its services to all of Washtenaw County. Beyond the entrance of the warehouse, sits an exotic display of foods that includes canned rat- tlesnake, buffalo, elk and alligator as well as blueberry pizza topping, octopus and squid. It's an "exotic museum," Schlitt said, explaining tha these donated foods aren't given to the public. In addition to the more bizarre foods, the warehouse is full of nonperishable foods, including cans of chili, sweet corn, beans and applesauce stacked out of eye- sight. Every year, nearly 5 million pounds of food travel through the warehouse doors and into hungry mouths. While a lot of the food is donat- ed from the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture and Federal Emergency Management Agency, Food Gatherer's also purchases food in bulk. Though the USDA is one of their largest donors, Schlitt said donations were down this year, which required the organization to push for more local donations and purchase more food to meet the connrnnuity's needs. According to Schlitt, Food Gatherer's receives emergency boxes of food from Washtenaw County's Employment Trairning & Community Services to give to residents who have "hit rock bot- torn" and dont "have any food in the pantry." One ETCS box contained pasta, applesauce, milk, cheese, canned meats, and more. "Lots of stable foods." Schlitt said. "Nutritious. Ready-to-eat." 'fwo rows of shelves remained partly empty, and Schlitt said they hope to fill the space with donations from food drives Food Gatherers will host with Kroger, Busch's Fresh Food Market and Whole Foods Market in the upcoming weeks. According to Schlitt, more than 15 Ocommunity programs work with Food Gather- erls. Next to 25 trays stacked with onions, workers sorted through produce like squash, cauliflow- er and organic bananas. A man walked by pushing a cart of large blue barrels given to local business- es to display for food donations. A large walk-in cooler contains perishable goods like strawber- ries, cheese and pre-packaged meals from local businesses. Schliti said Fiood Gatherers has a 24-to 48-hour turnaround period to empty and restock the goods because of their short shelf life and space constraints. "We are basically at capacity," she said. Toward the back of the ware- house is a shopping pantry, like a mini-market, where agencies are given credits and are allowed to purchase goods for people with specialized diets - including veg- etarian and gluten-free - that they assist. They can also purchase treats for children, like bags of candy or boxes of Razzle Blue Blitz Fruitby the Foot. While the sweets are popular, Schlitt said the main mission is to provide healthy food for the needy. "41ur belief right now is not only to feed people but to feed people nutritious foods," Schlitt said. "We feel that investing in people's health is a great investnent into the community," More than 100 new reps. make way to Washington F m F 208 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (734) 997-7030 www.salonxicom F t'ring Producls by -RS MMOK U Freshmen members of Congress adapt to new career and life on Capitol Hill WASHINGTON (AP)-- Where to live? Whom to hire? What's a voting cardard and where are the bathrooms? More than 100 nembers of Congress arrive in Washington this comingsweek for the first time since winning election, trading the loftiness of camrnpaign speech- es for mundane lessons in how to do their new jobs. It's freshman orientation oin Capitol Hill, and the larger-than- usual class of 2010 is getting a crash course oi how to navigate the next two years. Talk of changing the nation's direction? That's oiln the back burner for now. The newly elec ted House members -85 Republi- cans, a meager nine Democrats _- need actual directions around their new workplace. The Senate is having its own orientation at the same time. Instead ofAmericanexception- alism, his election night theine, Rep.-elect Tim Scott, R-S.C., is focused on Washington's excep- tional rental prices. "Nothing here is affordable, is what I've learned," says Scott, who migit share an apartment with classmates. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told supporters in his victory speech that lie would "stand strong in the epic battle that we have in front of us to take back our country." But come today, Kinzinger will be looking for a one-bedroom apartment, setting up an interview with a prospec- tive chief of staff and figuring out whether he wants to deal with a commte or live within walkinng distance of the Capitol. Even before the freshmen learn laNw making, theyll be figuring out how to live with a new set ofrules, cnstOmms and rituals. Here to help: an array of congressional commit- tes and veterans, and a constella- tion of foundations and lobbyists. The second-ranking Republi- can, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, had a 144-page book in the mail to new members within hours of Electioni Day. "Hit The Ground Running" explains the nuts and bolts of setting up a cnmgressio- nal office, hiring staff, mnanaging the office budget and being an employer. It also offers some gen- eral rules of the road. "Do: G(et answers for any ethi- cal questions you may have if you are in doubt," according to the manual, ai updated version of one originally sent out by former House Republican leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. "Don't: Completely disappear from the public" between Elec- tion Day and the new Congress. "Even though you won't take office until annuary, many of your constitunts mwill view you as their irebnimer of Congress."