0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, November 22, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Lawyer: Stripper
danced at former
mayor's house
A lawyer says a stripper got
$1,000 to perform at a dope-fueled
party at the Detroit mayor's man-
sion and saw Kwame Kilpatrick's
wife attack a woman who was giv-
ing the then-mayor a lap dance.
Tamika Ruffin's statement
comes in documents released Sun-
day by Norman Yatooma, lawyer
for another stripper killed months
after the long-rumored 2002
party.
Yatooma's filing is a response to
efforts by Kilpatrick and the city
to dismiss a lawsuit by Tamara
Greene's family. The 27-year-old
Greene was shot to death in 2003.
Her family says city officials sup-
pressed the investigation.
No one has been charged,
and city lawyers deny officials
squelched a probe.
Ruffin claims Carlita Kilpatrick
attacked Greene with a table leg or
board.
City and Kilpatrick lawyers did
not return messages to The Asso-
ciated Press.
TRENTON, N.J.
Detroit and Flint
among top five most
dangerous cities
A national study finds St. Louis
overtook Camden, N.J., as the
nation's most dangerous city in
2009.
The study released yesterday
by CQ Press found St. Louis had
2,070.1 violent crimes per 100,000
residents, compared with a nation-
al average of 429.4. That helped
St. Louis beat out Camden, which
topped last year's list and was the
most dangerous city for 2003 and
2004.
Detroit, Flint, Mich., and Oak-
land, Calif., rounded out the top
five.
For the second straight year, the
safest city with more than 75,000
residents was Colonie, N.Y.
The annual rankings are based
on population figures and crime
data compiled by the FBI. Some
criminologists question the find-
ings, saying the methodology is
unfair.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Police: Fla. mother
and three children
murdered in home
The deaths of a young moth-
er and her three small children
whose bodies were found in their
home are homicides, police said
yesterday.
Autopsies were completed yes-
terday and authorities are looking
for information on anyone who
may have wanted to harm the fam-
ily, said Tallahassee police spokes-
man David McCranie. Police
refused to release the autopsy
results or how the victims died
because making those details pub-
lic might hurt the investigation,
Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis
Jones said.
Police said the victims are
27-year-old Brandi Peters, her
6-year-old twin daughters, Tami-
yah and Taniyah Peters, and
3-year-old son, Jovante Segura.
Cedrica Smith, who lives across
the street, said her kids often
played with the slain children.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia
Tigers may become
extinct in 12 years,
experts say
Wild tigers could become extinct
in 12 years if countries where they
still roam fail to take quick action
to protect their habitats and step up
the fight against poaching, global
wildlife experts told a "tiger sum-
mit" yesterday.
The World Wildlife Fund and
other experts say only about 3,200
tigers remain in the wild, a dra-
matic plunge from an estimated
100,000 a century ago.
James Leape, director general
of the World Wildlife Fund, told
the meeting in St. Petersburg that
if the proper protective measures
aren't taken, tigers may disappear
by 2022, the next Chinese calendar
year of the tiger.
Their habitat is being destroyed
by forest cutting and construction,
and they are a valuable trophy for
poachers who want their skins and
body parts prized in Chinese tradi-
tional medicine.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports.
Two years after
bill passes, Calif.
ready0to rid toxins
from products
TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily
University alum Michael Sherraden, one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, speaks on Friday.
A SOCIAL AFFAIR?
U' School of Social Work celebrates its
90th year with 'U' alum and pioneer in
the field Michael Sherraden
By DAVID BUCILLI
Daily StaffReporter
One of this year's 100 most
influential people according to
Time magazine came to the Uni-
versity on Friday to celebrate the
90th anniversary of the School of
Social Work.
University alum Michael Sher-
raden, founder and current direc-
tor of Washington University
in St. Louis's Center for Social
Development, told the audience
at the School of Social Work
building about his innovative
ideas on poverty issues and social
work. Sherraden is known for his
ground-breaking theories, which
advocate assisting low-income
families in establishing savings
accounts so that they can build
assets.
Laura Lein, dean of the School
of Social Work, started the event
by congratulating Sherraden on
his many achievements, which
include serving as an advisor to
both Republican and Democratic
White House administrations
and to many federal departments.
"His theory and research ... has
influenced policies and programs
in the United Kingdom, Korea,
Canada, China, Australia, Peru,
Uganda and other countries,"
Lein said.
She highlighted how impor-
tant it is for the University to
be represented by someone like
Sherraden, who holds a master's
degree and doctorate in social
work from the University.
Speaking at the event, Sher-
raden began his address by prais-
ing the School of Social Work.
"It's really a great honor to be
able to give this talk at my alma
mater," Sherraden said, pointing
out the continued success of both
the master's and doctorate pro-
grams in social work at the Uni-
versity, even going as far as to say
the doctorate program was "by
far" the best in the country.
Sherraden said he was very
interested in young people and
"where they fit in society and
where they didn't fit in society,"
when he was studying at the Uni-
versity.
He continued by saying how
underrated social workers and
their responsibilities are in this
country, adding that much of the
world's major issues and advance-
ments are social.
"A lot of what has made civili-
zation possible and made it pos-
sible for people to work together
and generate economic produc-
tivity are social creations," he
said. "Organizations have to be
built. People have to work togeth-
er. There has to be a governed
structure where people can coop-
erate and make decisions without
killing each other."
Sherraden added that at least
50 percent of the budgets in many
countries are social expenditures.
"A lot of what makes the world
function successfully is social,
and it is not automatic," he said.
"It requires work. And we should
embrace these terms much more
than we do."
Sherraden later shared his
thoughts with the audience about
the future of the field of social
work and service work.
"It could easily become nor-
mal for people to think about a
life that includes a year or two of
serving in some kind of way that's
not military service," he said, giv-
ing examples like helping to build
schools, teach languages or other
community-development projects.
Sherraden added that with
Americans having "extended" life
spans, more volunteer and work
opportunities could become nec-
essary.
"There are very few structured
roles for older adults," he said.
After the event, Social Work
Prof. Trina Shanks praised Sher-
radon, thanking him for his "won-
derful talk" and for the many
years of mentorship he provided
her and other former students.
"Your ideas have inspired me
and many others over the last
decades and have just become
bigger and more national and
more immediate," Shanks said.
Environmentalists
and manufacturers
divided on chemical
regulation plan
LOS ANGELES (AP) - It's
almost unthinkable now that
environmentalists and manufac-
turers once stood together as Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed
a bill making California the first
state to regulate toxic chemicals
in consumer products.
Two years later, with regula-
tions set to take effect in January,
the longtime foes are increasingly
at odds over how the state should
implement regulations that would
apply to everything from baby
bottles to cars.
Environmentalists complain
the plan is too slow to be effec-
tive, while manufacturers say the
state rushed to draft regulations
so bureaucratic and broad they
would even apply to the sale of a
used boat.
The Department of Toxic Sub-
stances Control has revised the
rules to address criticism as com-
panies threaten to sue if forced
to share the chemical makeup of
their products.
"I still love the law, it's just
this particular execution that's a
disaster," said Maureen Gorsen,
who proposed the initiative when
she headed the DTSC - but is now
advising the auto industry against
it. "There's no incentive for the
good and no incentive for the bad
- there's just paperwork."
Proponents hope the law won't
become mired in legal wrangling
because the stakes are high: other
states, the federal government
and even other countries are
watching as the new law moves
toward reality.
"It's really important for this
to get off on the right track," said
Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los
Angeles, who authored the bill,
saying it "could be a whole new
model for how we break the link
between toxic chemicals and can-
cer and other serious diseases."
There are tens of thousands
of chemicals in the stream of
commerce - chemicals found
in everyday products from com-
mercial paint to tires. Eighty-five
percent of chemicals that come on
the market "have zero info about
health and safety," said Joseph H.
Guth, a scientist at the Berkeley
Center for Green Chemistry,
"We're really talking about a
giant task that has only gotten
bigger - the backlog of evaluating
all the chemicals in commerce is
enormous," he said.
The idea was to use science to
identify harmful chemicals, look
at products in which they might
be found and require manufactur-
era to develop safer alternatives.
The state could eventually ban
certain unsafe products from
being sold in California. Regula-
tors could also enforce fines of
$25,000 a day per violation or jail
time against officials of compa-
nies or other people selling prod-
ucts with banned chemicals.
Environmental groups said
they supported the law because
they wanted to prevent situations
where manufacturers replaced
one toxic ingredient with another,
such as replacing asbestos in car
brake-pads with copper, which is
toxic for waterways, or using toxic
cadmium instead of lead in chil-
dren's jewelry - a development
reported by The Associated Press
in January.
"We have a system now where
chemicals are innocentuntil prov-
en guilty which is an appropriate
standard for criminal justice but
not for chemical safety," said Bill
McGavern with the Sierra Club.
For their part, companies said
they supported the measure
because changes to their products
would be scientifically based and
no longer a knee-jerk response to
the latest product scandal. They
also hoped the law would create
a wave of safe product innovation
and interest among consumers
similar to advancements in green
building.
The bill passed the Assembly
with a two-thirds majority vote
but since the drafting process
began, disagreements have been
on the rise.
"Our regulatory proposals are
intended to prevent California
from becoming a toxic dumping
ground," said Maziar Movassa-
ghi, acting director for the regula-
tory agency. "Our goal is to make
sure there is compliance but some
companies are going to invest in
research and development and
some companies are going to
invest in lawyers."
The Green Chemistry Coali-
tion, which represents corpora-
tions ranging from major drug
companies to Boeing Co., believes
the regulations go too far. The law
was supposed to apply to consum-
er products but the current defini-
tion is so inclusive that everything
bought, sold or leased in the state
is considered a consumer product,
said John Ulrich, executive direc-
tor for the Chemical Industry
Council of California.
Another problem, he said, is
that the proposed list of what
chemical traits might be consid-
ered hazardous includes every-
thing from carcinogens to skin
irritants.
"This means that every chemi-
cal in the state of California
becomes a potentially regulated
chemical and every industry
becomes a potentially regulated
industry," said Ulrich.
North Korl~ea buld
new nuclear facility
Secret uranium rt
facility sparks fear
of nuclear weapons
development
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -
North Korea has secretly and
quickly built a new, highly sophis-
ticated facility to enrich uranium,
according to an American nuclear
scientist, raising fears that the
North is ramping up its atomic
program despite international
pressure.
The scientist, Siegfried Hecker,
said in a report posted Saturday
that he was taken during a recent
trip to the North's main Yongbyon
atomic complex to a facility with
a small industrial-scale uranium
enrichment facility. The facility
had 2,000 recently completed cen-
trifuges, he said, and the North told
himit was producinglow-enriched
uranium meant for a new reactor.
Hecker, a former director of the
U.S. Los Alamos Nuclear Labora-
tory who is regularly given rare
glimpses of the North's secretive
nuclear program, acknowledged
that it was not clear what North
Korea stood to gain by showing
him the formerly secret area.
The revelation could be
designed to strengthen the North
Korean government as it looks to
transfer power from leader Kim
Jong Il to a young, unproven son.
As the North's economy suffers
and Washington and others tight-
en sanctions, unveiling the centri-
fuges could also be an attempt by
Pyongyang to force a resumption
of stalled international nuclear
disarmament-for-aid talks.
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LEE J1IN-MA5/AP
U.S. nuclear envoy Stephen Bosworth, right, shakes hands with his Sooth KoeNan
counterpart Wi Sung-lac before their meeting in Seoul today.
Whatever the reason, the new
centrifuges provide a fresh set of
worries for the Obama adminis-
tration, which has shunned nego-
tiations with the North following
Pyongyang's nuclear and missile
tests last year and in the wake of an
international finding that a North
Korean torpedo sank a South
Korean warship in March, killing
46 sailors. The U.S. State Depart-
ment announced that the Obama
administration's special envoy on
North Korea planned to visit South
Korea, Japan and China, starting
yesterday.
Hecker wrote that his first
glimpse of the new centrifuges was
"stunning."
"Instead of seeing a few small
cascades of centrifuges, which I
believed to exist it North Korea,
we saw a modern, clean centri-
fuge plant of more than a thou-
sand centrifuges, all neatly aligned
and plumbed below us," Hecker,
a Stanford University professor,
wrote.
Hecker described the control
room as "astonishingly modern,"
writing that, unlike other North
Korean facilities, it "would fit into
any modern American processing
facility."
The facilities appeared to be pri-
marily for civilian nuclear power,
not for North Korea's nuclear arse-
nal, Hecker said. He said he saw no
evidence of continued plutonium
production at Yongbyon. But, he
said, the uranium enrichment
facilities "could be readily con-
verted to produce highly enriched
uranium bomb fuel."
Uranium enrichment would
give the North a second way to
make atomic bombs, in addition
to its known plutonium-based
program. At low levels, uranium
can be used in power reactors, but
at higher levels it can be used in
nuclear bombs. Hecker's findings
were first reported in The New
York Times.
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