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. a Coitr & Design Group 208 E. Washington St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (734) 997-7030 www.salonxl.com Featuring Products by KERASTASE O - . smanneA I I 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. I