The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, October 6, 2011 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October 6, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
State receives
$196.5M grant for
high-speed rail
A high-speed passenger train
service between Chicago and
Detroit has taken two big steps
forward with a $196.5 million
federal grant to Michigan and the
state's $140 million acquisition of
a 135-mile stretch of track.
The U.S. Department of Trans-
portation announced yesterday
that it has awarded Michigan
the funds for signal and track
improvements on the rail line
between Kalamazoo in western
Michigan and Dearborn in subur-
ban Detroit.
Also yesterday, the state said
that it has agreed to buy the tracks
between the two cities from Nor-
folk Southern Railway for $140
million.
The purchase money comes
from the U.S. Transportation
Department's Federal Railroad
Administration, also the fund-
ing source for the track improve-
ments.
OMAHA, Neb.
Conservationists
sue Canadian
pipeline company
U.S. officials illegally allowed a
Canadian company to begin pre-
paring the route for its proposed
1,700-mile-long oil pipeline from
western Canada to Texas, even
though the project hasn't gained
final government approval, three
conservationist groups contend in
a lawsuit filed yesterday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service should not have allowed
TransCanada Corp. to begin
clearing a 100-mile corridor
through northern Nebraska
grasslands because the State
Department hasn't signed off on
the Keystone XL pipeline project,
the groups argue in their lawsuit
filed in federal court in Omaha.
TransCanada was allowed to
mow down delicate native grasses
and to relocate an endangered
species living there, the American
burying beetle, they say.
WASHINGTON
Senate Democrats
add millionaire
tax to jobs bill
Struggling to deliver the big
jobs package proposed by Presi-
dent Barack Obama, Senate Dem-
ocrats are using the issue to force
Republicansenatorstovote ontax
increases for millionaires, picking
up on a White House theme that
the nation's wealthiest Americans
aren't paying their fair share.
Senate Democrats said yester-
day they were changing Obama's
jobs package to add a 5.6 percent
tax on income above $1 million, a
proposal that is sure to be blocked
by Republicans.
The $447 billion package still

includes Obama's proposals to cut
payroll taxes and provide money
for teachers, firefighters, the
unemployed and infrastructure.
The tax on millionaires is expect-
ed to pay for the package, so it
wouldn't add to the budget deficit.
MEXICO CITY
Police capture one
of Mexican drug
cartel's last leaders
Mexican police say they have
captured one of the last major
leaders of the La Familia cartel, a
pseudo-religious drug gang that
has been decimated by arrests
and killings.
The head of the federal police
anti-drug unit says suspect Mar-
tin Rosales Magana was trying to
forge an alliance with the Zetas
cartel to revive La Familia.
Federal Police Commissioner
Facundo Rosas says La Familia
has been almost completely disar-
ticulated.
The cartel has been displaced
in its western home state of
Michoacan by the equally cult-
like Knights Templar gang.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Gunman at large
after California
quarry shooting

MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR/AP
Somali police officers carry the body of their comrade killed during a suicide car bomb on Feb.21 2011 A suicide
bomber detonated an explosives-laden car Tudesday, killing 72 people.
Somali mlitants vow to
up attacks after bo-m1bing

Employee accused
of shooting three
co-workers
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) -
The search for a disgruntled
employee accused of killing three
co-workers and injuringsix others
at a NorthernCalifornialimestone
quarry brought SWAT teams in
armored vehicles to the normally
quiet streets of Silicon Valley on
yesterday.
The hunt for Shareef Allman
of San Jose began after authori-
ties said he opened fire at a rou-
tine safetymeetingat Permanente
Quarry around 4:15 a.m. and later
wounded a woman in a failed car-
jacking.
Schools were closed or on lock-
down in Cupertino, home of Apple
Inc., and in neighboring commu-
nities as authorities went door to
door with guns drawn and resi-
dents were warned to stayindoors.
Meanwhile, friends and neigh-
bors expressed disbelief and sad-
ness at the possibility the man
theyknew as an outgoing, engaged
member of the community could
have committed such horrific acts
of violence.
Allman became upset and left
the meeting then returned with
a handgun and rifle and started
shooting people, Santa Clara
County sheriff's Lt. Rick Sung
said. About 15 workers were at
the meeting during the shoot-
ing, which authorities said lasted
about two minutes.
Sheriff Laurie Smith said two
people were pronounced dead at
Permanente Quarry in the foot-

hills outside Cupertino, and a
third person died later at a hospi-
tal.
Six others at the quarry were
wounded and taken to hospitals,
where some remained in critical
condition, Smith said.
The names of the victims have
not been released.
Relatives of victims and other
employees rushed to the quarry
to check on their loved ones. One
woman, who asked to remain
anonymous because the gunman
was still at large, said her father
worked at the quarry for about 10
years and was the lead employee
on the night shift.
She said he called his family
around 4:30 a.m. to say something
was happening and not to pick
him up. He called again just after
6 a.m. to say he was OK but was
hiding.
He called a third time to say he
was coming out of hiding.
Later in the day, authorities
located Allman's vehicle and
seized a shotgun, a handgun and
two rifles believed to belongto the
suspect, Smith said, adding that
some of the weapons were found
in the car.
"The challenges are the big
geographical area," she said of
the manhunt. "The challenges are
that he's armed."
Around 7 a.m., authorities
received a 911 call that a woman
was shot in an attempted car-
jacking near Hewlett-Packard
Co.'s Cupertino campus by a
man matching Allman's descrip-
tion. The shooter fled on foot
after using a weapon similar to a
gun used in the quarry shooting,
authorities said.

Suicide bomber
kills 72, injuries
100 in attack
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)
- Al-Qaida-linked militants
threatened more terror attacks
that will "increase day by day"
after a suicide bomber killed 72
people. Mourners transported
coffins atop cars yesterday to
funerals for those who perished
in al-Shabab's deadliest bomb
attack in Somalia.
A truck loaded with drums
of fuel exploded Tuesday at the
gate of a building housing several
government ministries in a busy
street in the capital where tens
of thousands of famine victims
have fled. The attack came more
than a month after most al-Sha-
bab fighters melted away from
Mogadishu amid a pro-govern-
ment offensive, and showed that
the insurgents remain a severe
threat.
"At this time, when the coun-
try is in the midst of a worsening
humanitarian crisis, the terror-
ists could not have attacked the
Somali people at a worst time,"
Information Minister Abdulka-

dir Hussein Mohamed said.
Al-Shabab spokesman Ali
Mohamud Rage identified the
suicide bomber as Somali stu-
dent Bashar Abdullahi Nur. He
said the attack was a warning
to those who thought the group
had left Mogadishu for good in
August.
"We wish to inform the Mus-
lim people that the campaign
against infidels will be back-
to-back and by God's grace will
increase day by day and will
increase in the coming hours,"
Rage said. "I will give a good tid-
ing to the infidels: You will face
big and broad blows."
In a prerecorded farewell
interview with al-Shabab radio
station, the bomber said: "It will
be a big blow to the heart of the
enemy."
Tuesday's thunderous blast
covered the city in dust more
than a half-mile (800 meters)
away and left blackened corpses
sprawled amid burning vehicles
and dozens wounded. Soma-
lia's Ministry of Health said in
a statement yesterday that 72
people had been killed and more
than 100 were wounded, includ-
ing 38 still in serious condition.
"May Allah put them in hell,"

one Somali woman sobbed as
a young man tried to comfort
her. She then collapsed near the
coffin of her dead son that was
placed by a sandy grave.
Sadiya Omar, who lost her
husband in Tuesday's bomb-
ing, left the scene of the funeral
before he was interred, saying it
was more than she could bear.
"The world will get no peace
while killers like al-Shabab are
still here," she cried, her tears
dripping through her black veil.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik
Ahmed declared three days of
mourning and vowed late Tues-
day that his government would
put in place security measures to
avert future bombings.
"I'm sure the crime they com-
mitted against the Somali people
will not go unpunished," Ahmed
said of the al-Shabab militants.
"God will punish them and the
government will take appropri-
ate measures to save the Somali
people from those dangers."
However, Ahmed's govern-
ment does not have sufficient
troops or police to secure the
capital city, and neither does the
more than 9,000 strong African
Union peacekeeping force that
supports his regime.

Mich. city to save $1.3
million with switch to
four-day workweeks

Germany reopens probes on
hundreds of Nazi camp guards

Investigators
believe fewer than
1,000 suspects are
still alive
BERLIN (AP) - In a final
quest to bring Holocaust partici-
pants to justice, German author-
ities have reopened hundreds of
dormant investigations of Nazi
death camp guards - men who
are now so old that time has
become "the enemy" for prose-
cutors hurrying to prepare cases.
The efforts could result in
new prosecutions nearly seven
decades after World War IL
Special Nazi war-crimes
investigators reopened the files
after the conviction of former
U.S. autoworker John Demjan-
juk, whose case set a new legal
precedent in Germany. It was
the first time prosecutors had
been able to convict someone in
a Nazi-era case without direct
evidence that the suspect par-
ticipated ina specific killing.
Now authorities are weigh-
ing whether the same approach
could be used to pursue others,
said Kurt Schrimm, the prosecu-
tor who heads the investigation
unit.
Given the advanced age of
the suspects, investigators are
not waiting until Demjanjuk's
appeals are decided.
"We don't want to wait too
long, so we've already begun our
investigations," Schrimm said.
Elan Steinberg, vice president
of the American Gathering of
Holocaust Survivors and their
Descendants, welcomed the
news and urged prosecutors to
act quickly.

"As our numbers - those of
the victims - have also rapidly
dwindled, this represents the
final opportunity to witness jus-
tice carried out in our lifetimes,"
he said. "Time is the enemy
here."
Meanwhile, the Simon Wie-
senthal Center's top Nazi-hunt-
er, Efraim Zuroff, said he would
also launch a new campaign in
the next two months to track
down remaining Nazi war crim-
inals. He said the Demjanjuk
conviction has opened the door
to prosecutionshe never thought
possible before.
"It could be a very interesting
final chapter," he said by phone
from Jerusalem. "This has tre-
mendous implications even at
this late date."
Demjanjuk, now 91, was
deported from the U.S. to Ger-
many in 2009 to stand trial. He
was convicted in May of 28,060
counts of accessory to murder
for serving as a guard at the
Sobibor death camp in Nazi-
occupied Poland.
Munich prosecutors argued
that if they could prove that he
was a guard at a camp like Sobi-
bor - established for the sole
purpose of extermination - it
was enough to convict him of
accessory to murder.
After 18 months of testimony,
a Munich court agreed, finding
Demjanjuk guilty and sentenc-
ing him to five years in prison.
He denies ever being a guard
and is currently free in southern
Germany while appealing the
conviction.
Schrimm said his office is
going over all its files to see if
any other cases fit into the same
category as Demjanjuk. He esti-
mated there are probably fewer

than 1,000 possible suspects in
Germany and abroad who are
alive and can still be prosecuted.
He would notgive any names.
"We have to check everything
- from the people who we were
aware of in camps like Sobibor ...
or also in the Einsatzgruppen,"
he said, referring to the death
squads responsible for mass
killings, particularly early in
the war before the death camps
were established.
Prosecutors have not yet
tested whether the Demjanjuk
precedent could be extended to
guards of Nazi camps where the
sole purpose was not necessarily
murder but where thousands of
people died anyway.
Even the narrowest scenario
- looking at the guards of the
four death camps used only for
killings: Belzec, Sobibor, Chelm-
no and Treblinka - plus those
involved in the Einsatzgruppen
could lead to scores more pros-
ecutions, Zuroff said.
He estimated the number of
suspects at 4,000.
"Even ifonly 2percent of those
people are alive, we're talking80
people. And let's assume half of
them are not medically fit to be
brought to justice. That leaves
us with 40 people, so there is
incredible potential," he said.
Immediately after the war,
top Nazis such as Hermann
Goering were convicted at trials
run by the Allies.
Investigations of the lower
ranks eventually fell to German
courts. But there was little polit-
ical will to aggressively pursue
the prosecutions, and many of
the trials ended with short sen-
tences or acquittals of suspects
in positions of greater responsi-
bility than Demjanjuk.

Mayor asks all city
employees to take
wage reductions
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich.
(AP) - Dearborn Heights has
gone to a four-day workweek at
its municipal offices in a cost-
cutting move meant to help it deal
with a projected $5 million bud-
get shortfall.
The city started shutting
municipal offices on Fridays last
month, joining several communi-
ties that went to a four-day sched-
ule in recent years, including
Hazel Park, Wixom and Bloom-
field and Oakland townships,
The Detroit News reported. The
Detroit suburbs of Ferndale and
Clawson also use a four-day
workweek.
In exchange, communities
are boosting online services
and working to improve effi-
ciency as they try to deal with
the streamlined hours. William
Matthewson, general counsel for
the Michigan Municipal League,
noted that everything can't be
accomplished online.
"There's an intangible benefit
to having a city or a village

hall. It's a focal point of a com-
munity as well as being a service
center," he said. "Perhaps we are
moving to a virtual city hall. But
at the same time, the reduction of
hours means that a lot of citizens
don'thavethesamelevel of access
to their community's expertise."
Dearborn Heights Mayor Dan
Paletko said the city is asking all
218 employees to take a 10 percent
wage reduction to save the city
$1.3 million. He said that about
115 workers agreed to Friday fur-
loughs to meet that goal. The city
faces a predicted $5 million bud-
get shortfall.
The city hopes to streamline
operations to save an additional
$1 million and will ask voters in
November to approve an overall
$3.5 million tax increase.
"Do we like doing this? Abso-
lutely not, but given the dire eco-
nomic situation we really didn't
have a choice," Paletko said. "The
financing model for cities, town-
ships and county government in
Michigan is completely broken."
JeffGootee, president ofAFSC-
ME Local 290, which represents
about 50 employees affected by
the furloughs, said the workers
know the cut was necessary but
are fearful of its impact.


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Iwo L ASTUING CALL
Saturday Sctober 8th
1O:OOAM-5:OOPMf
401 East Liberty St #200 BrLui
Ann Arbor, M1414
Bring a valid ID and a recent photo.
You must be age 20 or older and
appear to be between the ages of
20-24.
KiPU.1NIMu4$!Y MOE NFO AtWWWNIM-MU/KAYCOM/tWCAStIN#

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