The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 14, 2011- 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
101-year-old
woman evicted in
Detroit foreclosure
A 101-year-old woman was
evicted from the southwest
Detroit home where she lived
for nearly six decades after her
65-year-old son failed to pay the
mortgage.
Texana Hollis was evicted
Monday and her belongings were
placed outside the home. Her son,
Warren Hollis, said he didn't pay
the bill for several years and dis-
regarded eviction notices.
"I kept it from her because I
didn't want to worry her," War-
ren Hollis told WXYZ-TV for a
report that aired Monday night.
"I was just so sure it wasn't going
to happen."
Wayne County Chief Deputy
Treasurer David Szymanski told
The Associated Press yester-
day that the Hollises took out an
adjustable-rate mortgage in 2002.
A default and foreclosure notice
was filed in November.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
4,000 inmates
may be granted
early release
More than 4,000 female
inmates in California could
qualify to serve the rest of their
sentences at home, as state offi-
cials begin complying with a law
designed to keep children from
following their parents into a life
of crime.
The alternative custody pro-
gram is for less serious offenders.
Qualifying inmates must have
less than two years left on their
sentences, which would be com-
pleted while they are tracked by
GPS-linked ankle bracelets and
report to a parole officer.
It comes as the state grapples
with court rulings that call for
reducing the prison population
at its 33 adult prisons by more
than 30,000 inmates before July
2013.
BOSTON
OSHA cites plant
for 50 work safety
violations
. The federal workplace safe-
ty agency has recommended
$917,000 in fines for a Massachu-
setts adhesives manufacturer
after an explosion there injured
four workers.
The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration , yester-
day announced it had cited Bos-
tik Inc. for what it alleged were
50 violations of workplace safety
standards at its plant in Middle-
ton.
Officials say a valve was acci-
dentally left open in March,
causing acetone vapors to fill

the building and ignite. The four
injured workers are back on the
job.
HAVANA, Cuba
Former N.M. Gov.
attempts to free
American from jail
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson said yesterday thathe
would leave Cuba after exhaust-
ing all possible avenues to try to
win the release of a jailed U.S.
government subcontractor, add-
ing that he was treated so poorly
he doubted he could ever come
back to the island as a friend.
Richardson, who previously
vowed to remain in Cuba until
he at least got to see jailed Mary-
land native Alan Gross, changed
his mind after meetings with the
Cuban government and other
influential groups failed to yield
any results. He said he would
leave today.
"I have been here a week and
tried through all means - with
religious institutions, diplomats
from other countries, all kinds of
efforts - and I see that this isn't
going to change," Richardson
told reporters. "So why would I
stay?"
-Compiled.from
Daily wire reports

Weiner's House
seat replaced by
Republican

A dead body believed to be a militant is carried on a police vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan yesterday. NATO headquarters
and other buildings in the heart of the Afghan capital Tuesday were targeted in a brazen attack two days after the t0th
anniversary of the Sept.11 terror attacks.
Insurgents attack U. S.
Embassy in Kabul,

Ex-media executive
Bob Turner
defeats Democrat
assemblyman
NEW YORK (AP) - Republi-
cans have scored an upset victo-
ry in a House race that became a
referendum on President Barack
Obama's economic policies.
Retired media executive
and political novice Bob Turn-
er defeated Democratic state
Assemblyman David Weprin in a
special election yesterday to suc-
ceed Rep. Anthony Weiner, a sev-
en-term Democrat who resigned
in June after a sexting scandal.
With more than 80 percent
of precincts reporting late last
night, Turner had 54 percent of
the vote to Weprin's 46 percent
in unofficial results.
"We've been asked by the peo-
ple of this district to send a mes-
sage to Washington," Turner told
supporters after the landmark
win. "I hope they hear it loud
and clear. We've been told this is
a referendum. Mr. President, we
are on the wrong track. We have
had it with an irresponsible fis-
cal policy which endangers the

entire economy."
Weprin did not immediately
concede.
The heavily Democratic
district, which spans parts of
Queens and Brooklyr, had never
sent a Republican to the House.
But frustration with the contin-
ued weak national economy gave
Republicans the edge.
Turner has vowed to bring
business practicality to Wash-
ington and push back on spend-
ing and taxes.
The race was supposed to
be an easy win for Democrats,
who have a 3-1 ratio registration
advantage in the district.
Weprin, a 56-year-old Ortho-
dox Jew and member of a promi-
nent Queens political family,
seemed a good fit for the largely
white, working-class district,
which is nearly 40 percent Jew-
ish.
But voter frustration with
Obama put Weprin in the unlike-
ly spot of playing defense. A
Siena Poll released Friday found
just 43 percent of likely voters
approved of the president's job
performance, while 54 percent
said they disapproved. Among
independents, just 29 percent
said they approved of Obama's
iob performance.

Taliban claims
responsibility for
attacks on Afghan
capital buildings
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
- Teams of insurgents firing
rocket-propelled grenades and
automatic weapons struck at the
U.S. Embassy, NATO headquar-
ters and other buildings in the
heart of the Afghan capital yes-
terday, raising fresh doubts about
the Afghans' ability to secure
their nation as U.S. and other for-
eign troops begin to withdraw.
Seven Afghans were killed and
15 wounded in the coordinated
daylight attack, which sent for-
eigners dashing for cover and ter-
rified the city from midday well
into the night as U.S. helicopters
buzzed overhead. No embassy or
NATO staff members were hurt.
Late Monday, at least two gun-
men remained holed up on the

top floors of an apartment build-
ing from which they and other
militants had attacked the heav-
ily fortified embassy.
The militants' seeming abil-
ity to strike at will in the most
heavily defended part of Kabul
suggested that they may have
had help from rogue elements in
the Afghan security forces. The
attacks also coincided with sui-
cide bombidgs elsewhere in the
capital - the first time insurgents
have organized such a complex
assault against multiple targets in
separate parts of the city.
The Taliban claimed respon-
sibility for the attack, though
Kabul's deputy police chief said
he thought an affiliated organiza-
tion, the Haqqani network, car-
ried it out.
The Taliban and related
groups have staged more than a
dozen assaults in Kabul this year,
including three major attacks
since June. That represents an
increase from years past and is
clearly intended to offset U.S.

claims of weakening the insur-
gents on southern battlefields and
through hundreds of night raids
by special forces targeting their
commanders.
The Obama administration
declared that it wouldn't allow
Tuesday's attack to deter the
American mission in Afghani-
stan, warning the attackers that
they would be relentlessly pur-
sued.
Even so, the U.S. Embassy in
Kabul canceled all trips in and
out of Afghanistan for its diplo-
mats, and suspended all travel
within Afghanistan.
High blast walls ring the
embassy compound, and there
was little damage to the rein-
forced concrete buildings, many
of which are surrounded by sand-
bags.
White House press secretary
Jay Carney said the U.S. would
continue to move toward remov-
ing soldiers sent in as part of the
2009 troop surge and would keep
training local forces.

Bob Turner, center, joined by his wife Peggy, right, and family smiles as he deliv-
ers his victory speech during an election night party yesterday in New York.
Abuse victims call for
court case against pope

TED S. WARREN/AP
Rober t Brown, right, a fourth-grade teacher at Sherman Elementary in Tacoma, Wash., assembles a picket sign for Kristie
Stanek, left, who teaches kindergarten at Sherman, as Stanek's daughter Gracie, 6, looks on as striking teachers picket
outside Wilson HighSchool yesterday.
Washington teacher strikes
persist despite order to return

After failed
negotiations, 87
percent of teachers
vote to walk out
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -
Thousands of students in Wash-
ington state's third-largest
school district will be spending a
second day out of class as school
officials seek a court order to
force hundreds ofstrikingrteach-
ers back to work.
A Superior Court hearing has
been scheduled at 9 a.m. today
on the Tacoma School District's
request for an injunction to
order nearly 1,900 teachers back
to work. The district's lawyers
contend that public employees
cannot legally strike under state
law. Tacoma.Education Associa-
tion spokesman Rich Wood said
union lawyers will be ready with
a response.
The district has canceled

today's classes for Tacoma's
28,000 students. In Washington
state, only the Seattle and Spo-
kane school districts are larger.
Teachers hit the picket lines
yesterday .after voting over-
whelmingly Monday night to
strike over issues that include
teacher pay, class size and the
way the district's teachers are
transferred and reassigned.
Tacoma teachers had been work-
ing without a contract since
school started Sept. 1.
Both the Washington attorney
general and state judges have
ruled that state public employees
do not have the right to strike.
The News Tribune newspa-
per reported that the walkout
is the first public school teach-
ers strike in Tacoma in 33 years,
since 1978.
District lawyer Shannon
McMinimee said school officials
hoped for a decision from the
judge today.
"The district is doing every-
thing it can to get its staff back

to work," McMinimee told the
newspaper outside court yes-
terday afternoon. The teachers
"are engaging in an illegal strike.
From what I understand, the
teaching union has refused to
negotiate since Saturday. Letting
that go on longer is not going to
do anyone any good."
Union spokesman Wood
called the district's move to
court "extremely disappoint-
ing."
"We think it's a shame the
Tacoma Public Schools admin-
istration and the Tacoma School
Board would rather drag their
teachers to court than negotiate
a fair contract settlement," he
said, adding, "Tacoma teachers
care about their students, and
they will decide when to end this
strike."
Eighty-seven percent of the
Tacoma Education Association's
total membership voted to walk
out, after weekend contract
negotiations failed to result in
an agreement.

Complaint made
at International
Criminal Court
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
(AP) - Clergy sex abuse vic-
tims upset that no high-ranking
Roman Catholic leaders have
been prosecuted for sheltering
guilty priests have turned to the
International Criminal Court,
seeking an investigation of the
pope and top Vatican cardi-
nals for possible crimes against
humanity. The Vatican called
the move a "ludicrous publicity
stunt."
The Center for Constitution-
al Rights, a New York-based
nonprofit legal group, request-
ed the inquiry yesterday on
behalf of the US.-based Survi-
vors Network of those Abused
by Priests, arguing that the
global church has maintained
a "long-standing and perva-
sive system of sexual violence"
despite promises to swiftly oust
predators.
The Vatican's U.S. lawyer,
Jeffrey Lena, called the com-
plaint a "ludicrous publicity
stunt and a misuse of interna-
tional judicial processes" in a
statement to The Associated
Press.
The complaint names Pope
Benedict XVI, partly in his
former role as leader of the
Vatican's Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, which
in 2001 explicitly gained
responsibility for overseeing
abuse cases; Cardinal William
Levada, who now leads that
office; Cardinal Angelo Sodano,
the Vatican secretary of state
under Pope John Paul II; and
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who
now holds that post.
Attorneys for the victims
say rape, sexual violence and
torture are considered a crime
against humanity as described
in the international treaty that

spells out the court's mandate.
The complaint also accusVati,
can officials of creating policies
that perpetuated the damage,
constituting an attack against 8
civilian population.
Barbara Blaine, president of
the Survivors Network, said
going to the court was a last
resort.
"We have tried everything
we could think of to get them
to stop and they won't," she told
The Associated Press. "If the
pope wanted to, he could take
dramatic action at any time that
would help protect children
today and in the future, and he
refuses to take the action."
The odds against the court
opening an investigation are
enormous. The prosecutor has
received nearly 9,000 indepen-
dent proposals for inquiries
since 2002, when the court was
created as the world's only per-
manent war crimes tribunal,
and has never opened a formal
investigation based solely on
such a request.
Instead, prosecutor Luis
Moreno-Ocampo has investi-
gated crimes such as genocide,
murder, rape and conscripting
child soldiers in conflicts from
Darfur to this year's violence
in Libya. Such cases have been
referred to the court by the
countries where the atrocities
were perpetrated or by the U.N.
Security Council.
Also, the Holy See is not
a member state of the court,
meaning prosecutors have no
automatic jurisdiction there,
although the complaint cov-
ers alleged abuse in countries
around the world, many of
which do recognize the court's
jurisdiction.
"Politically, people do not
want to look at this," said Cen-
ter for Constitutional Rights
attorney Pam Spees before
walking to the court with vic-
tims to hand prosecutors boxes
full of documents.

, A