I he Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 3A EWS BRIEFS TROIT irst amendment iolationleads to eacher's suspension Howell High School econom- es teacher Jay McDowell says he idn't like where the discussion as going after a student told his -lassmates he didn't "accept gays," o McDowell kicked the boy out of lass for a day. In return, the teacher was kicked ut of his Michigan school for a ay - suspended without pay for iolating the student's free speech ights. The incident has sparked intense ebate in Howell, about 45 miles orthwest of Detroit, over defend- ing civil rights without trampling on the First Amendment. It's ained far wider attention since the ivingston County Press & Argus eleased video of a 14-year-old gay student from another city defend- ing McDowell at a Howell school board meeting. On Oct. 20, McDowell told a stu- dent in his classroom to remove a Confederate Flag belt buckle. She complied, but it prompted a ques- tion from a boy about how the flag 'differs from the rainbow flag, a symbol of pride for the gay com- Imunity. COLUMBUS, Ohio Bomb threats lead to canceled class on Ohio State campus Ohio State University has reopened two laboratory build- ings that were closed due to a bomb scare. No devices were found in the labs, and all activities and classes in the buildings were back on sched- ule yesterday evening. Univer- sity officials said another lab and the main library, which were also closed, were scheduled to reopen later yesterday. A bomb threat targeting the library and the three labs was e-mailed to the FBI yesterday morning, prompting the school to evacuate all four buildings. An FBI spokesman says the bureau is investigatingseveral leads. Ohio State is one of the nation's largest universities, with more than 56,000 students at its main Colum- bus campus. BOGOTA, Colombia Colombia refuses to extradite alleged drug kingpin to U.S. Colombian President Juan Man- uel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged cocaine king- pin from Venezuela, saying yester- day that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makied, 41, has claimed close ties .with Venezuela's social- lot government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country's "largest drug traf- ficker." The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. The Florida Republican accused the obama administration of"a complete dropping of the ball" in a case that would have "shined the light on a lot of bad behavior by Hugo Chavez and his government." OAKLAND, Calif. First transgender trial judge in the nation appointed A 49-year-old California pat- ent lawyer has been elected as the nation's first openly transgender trial judge. Alameda County elections offi- cials say Victoria Kolakowski beat prosecutor John Creighton 51 to 48 percent - a margin of nearly10,000 votes - in the Nov. 2 election to fill the vacancy in California's Superior Court. Kolakowski had been leading since election night, but outstand- ing absentee and provisional ballots made the race too close to call until Monday. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund has said she is the first openly transgender trial court judge in the country. Kolakowski spent the past three years as an administrative law judge settling energy contract and environmental compliance disputes for the California Public Utilities Commission. She under- went gender reassignment surgery in 1991. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. COURTESY OF IMAGINECHINA/AP Relatives burn the belongings of their relatives who were killed in the Monday fire on an apartment building in Shanghai. Building di sasters hit China, Inia 119 kile Officials say high death count due to -poor infrastructure BEIJING (AP) - Two of Asia's most dynamic and fast-growing cities were struck within hours by disasters that devastated a pair of apartment blocks and underscored the challenges faced by both China and India as they try to enforce safety and building codes amid tor- rid &conomic growth. in Shanghai, welders appar- ently ignited a blaze that engulfed a high-rise, while in New Delhi it might have been monsoon rains or an illegal new floor that caused the building's collapse Monday. The two tragedies, thousands of miles (kilometers) apart, killed at least 119 people. Indian and Chinese cities have expanded at breakneck speed over the last few decades, buoyed by growth that has swelled the middle class and brought waves of rural migrants seeking better opportunities. The pace and scale of the building boom has been head-spinning, and is not expected to slow soon. Investigators looking into Mon- day's blaze in Shanghai say unli- censed welders misused their equipment, accidentally start- ing the fire that quickly engulfed the 28-story apartment building. Police detained eight people Tues- day as they investigated the blaze that killed 53 and sent 70 to hospi- tals. In New Delhi, the five-story building pancaked, killing 66 peo- ple and injuring scores. Neighbor- hood residents said the landlord was adding an unauthorized floor to the 15-year-old building to pack in more migrant workers and their families. An official said monsoon rains may have weakened the structure. Maria Chen, China represen- tative for ICF International - a management and technology con- sulting company based in Fairfax, Virginia, that helps companies in China become more energy efficient - said the rapid pace of construction inevitably leads to disasters such as the fire in Shang- hai. "Part of the problem is just the scale of magnitude," said Chen. "Every year China is putting up 2 billion square meters (2.4 billion sq. yards) of new building space ... That's 50 times Manhattan's office stock. So China is putting that many buildings on the groumd, quickly, and with minimal (safety) enforcement. That's really one of the overarching problems - and also developers desire to make quick money." India and China have produced high growth in sharply different ways. China's more government- directed capitalism excels at top- down 'directives and mammoth infrastructure projects. India's urbanization has been more cha- otic with greater scope for pri- vate entrepreneurship. But they are both running up against basic problems in their race to mod- ernize: shoddy construction, lax enforcement of building codes, and rampant corruption. In India, the result has been glass and steel high-rises and thick- ets of crowded low-rise buildings and shanty towns. Callous build- ing contractors flout existing laws while unscrupulous government officials ignore illegal construc- tions of poor quality that meet the soaring demand for cheap housing. With land prices spiraling out of control in New Delhi, builders stack additional floors onto their buildings without getting the required clearances or by paying bribes to get officials to turn a blind eye - which residents alleged is what happened in Monday eve- ning's disaster. The building, housing hundreds of people, was located in the city's congested Lalita Park area. Emer- gency efforts were hampered because vehicles had difficulty navigating the neighborhood's nar- row alleyways. officials ordered the evacuation of at least one other nearby build- ing with a flooded basement that they feared could collapse. In China too, real estate prices in mega-cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have spiraled, yet resi- dents often worry about the integ- rity of new gleaming buildings that are built fast and with little appar- ent attention to quality. Last year, a nearly finished 13-story apartment building in Shanghai collapsed. Excavations for an underground parking garage may have undermined the struc- ture, causing it to topple. Ambitious government plans to renovate old. buildings to make them more energy efficient - and reduce China's greenhouse gas emissions, the world's largest - are also adding to the construction frenzy. Shanghai's fire chief told report- ers during Monday's fire the flames raced along a scaffolding of bam- boo and flammable nylon nets - erected to retrofit the 1990s-era building with more energy-effi- cient insulation. Cheney reflects on Bush years after grand opening of center Former President ruary 2013. Its policy institute is already working and will focus Bush opens a policy on education reform, global health, human freedom and eco- institute focusing on nomic growth. Bush also was joined by the policy and reform former first lady Laura Bush and former Secretary of State Con- DALLAS (AP) - Former Vice doleezza Rice as shovels were President Dick Cheney, looking pressed into the earth to com- noticeably thinner after heart memorate the groundbreaking surgery over the summer, told for the George W. Bush Presiden- former President George W. Bush tial Center under a giant white he believes time is shedding new tent at Dallas' Southern Method- light on the decisions Bush made ist University, the alma mater of while in office. the former first lady. "Two years after your tour in "It is hard to believe there the White House ended, judg- is this much excitement about ments are a little more measured shoveling dirt," quipped Bush, than they were," said Cheney, who who then turned serious as he introduced his former boss dur- talked about the center. ing a groundbreaking for Bush's "Today's groundbreaking presidential center in Dallas. marks the beginning of a jour- "When the times have been tough ney," he said. "We take the first and critics have been loud, you've step toward the construction of always said you've had faith in the presidential center, which history's judgment. And history is will be a dynamic hub of ideas beginning to come around." and actions, based upon timeless Cheney, who suffers from con- principles." gestive heart failure, used a cane Former Colombian President to walk but went to the podium Alvaro Uribe also attended the without it. Spokesman Peter. groundbreaking, as did Bush Long said later that the former administration officials includ- vice president lost weight dur- ing former White House Press ing his long hospital stay - about Secretary Ari Fleisher, former a month - and is hoping to keep Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and it off for his health. The cane was former Commerce Secretary Don for a bad knee from playing high Evans. school football that acts up occa- Acknowledging a group of sionally, Long said. soldiers from Fort Hood in the Cheney was one of more than crowd, Bush told them: "I really 3,000 friends, supporters and don't miss Washington, but I do former administration officials miss being your commander in attending the groundbreaking. chief." outside, about 100 protesters Jake Torres, SMU's student were joined by a handful of coun- body president, told the crowd ter-protesters. . that Bush had occasionally visit- The center, which will house ed to classes during the past two both a library and a policy insti- years and said "it was a great day tute, is expected to open in Feb- for SMU when we were chosen." After Bush took the podium, he told Torres: "Mr. President, a word of advice: It's not too early to start thinking about your memoirs." Bush - largely out of the pub- lic eye since leaving office and returning to Texas - has been back in the spotlight with the release of his book, "Decision Points," last week. His memoirs will be reflected in part of the library's perma- nent exhibit, a "decision theater," where visitors can hear a set of facts, then try to decide what they would have done. The per- manent exhibit also focus on themes of freedom, opportunity, compassion and responsibility. An exhibit running through Feb. 6 at the university's Mead- ow's Museum gives the public its first glimpse into Bush's archives, including the bullhorn he used when he visited ground zero days after the Sept.11 terrorist attacks. In his speech yesterday, Cheney referred to the signifi- cance of the bullhorn, which Bush used to tell those gathered at ground zero: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." "Far in the future, visitors here will see the bullhorn and when they do, I hope they'll pic- ture the wowrld as it was that day and realize how it was trans- formed in the months and years ahead. America went from being on the defense against terrorists to going on the offense against them," Cheney said. "Because you were determined to throw back the enemy, we did not suffer another 9/11 or some- thing worse," he continued.