The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
T
~'r Friday, October 14, 2011- 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom N W Friday, October14, 2011 -3
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Report: Problems
of Great Lakes
algae needs study
Scientific evidence is sketchy
about the causes of massive,
smelly algae blooms showing up
in most of the Great Lakes, and
further study of the problem is
needed, researchers contend in a
report released yesterday.
It's widely believed that phos-
phorus runoff from farms and
municipal waste treatment plants
is a leading cause of the algae
problem, which has returned
with a vengeance after it was con-
sidered largely solved decades
ago. Climate change and invasive
mussels are considered factors as
well.
NEW HAVEN, Conn.
Man convicted
for 2007 murders,
home invasion
A man was convicted yester-
day of murdering a woman and
her two daughters in a gruesome
2007 home invasion in which
family members were tied up,
molested, doused ingas andleftto
die in a fire. He now faces a pos-
sible death sentence.
Joshua Komisarjevsky, whose
accomplice is already on Con-
necticut's death row, stood and
faced jurors as they declared him
guilty of all 17 charges he faced,
including capital felony killing,
kidnapping and sexual assault.
After the verdict was read he sat
back in his chair, rocked slightly
back and forth and glanced briefly
at the jury. He yawned as he was
led out of the courtroom.
The only survivor of the attack,
Dr. William Petit, bit his lip and
closed his eyes as the verdict was
read.
"I thought from the begin-
ning that he was a lying socio-
pathic personality and probably
at this moment he doesn't think
he is guilty of anything," he told
reporters outside the courthouse.
SAN FRANCISCO
Investigation of
deadly California
train crash begins
Federal officials began inves-
tigating an Oakland train crash
yesterday involving two Amtrak
trains that injured 17people.
The investigators will exam-
ine equipment, interview crew
members and check any radio or
cellphone exchanges with dis-
patchers as part of the probe,
according to Federal Railroad
Administration spokesman War-
ren Flatau.
Flatau said the investigation
could take between three and six
months to complete.
The crash occurred around 10
p.m. Wednesday when an Amtrak
train ran into a train that was
unloading passengers at an Oak-
land station.
Seventeen people suffered
minor injuries, according to
Amtrak. Company spokeswoman
Vernae Graham said seven of
those people were taken to hospi-
tals, where they were treated and
released.
RAMALLAH, West Bank
Hamas criticized
by Palestinians
over prisoner swap
Some Palestinians criticized
Hamas yesterday for conceding
too much in its deal to swap a cap-
tured Israeli soldier for more than
a thousand Palestinian inmates.
Much of the criticism has come
from officials who are loyal to
Fatah, Hamas' bitter rival for con-
trol over the Palestinians. Yet it
appears to reflect a deeper unease
over whether the price Palestin-
ians paid for Schalit's capture
was too high. Critics of the deal
are disappointed that some of the
most prominent prisoners will
not be released and that hundreds
may be deported or not allowed to
return to their homes.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
StERGGITS/AP
Belarusian opposition protesters scuffle with a policeman out of uniform, right, during a rally in Minsk, Belarus, Satur-
day, Oct. 8, 2011. Several hundreds of opposition supporters gathered to protest against the country's government.
Police in Belarus gain clout
as citizen rights diminish
CHALLENGE
From Page 1
tor of the University's Center of
Entrepreneurship. Klinke esti-
mates there will be 75 to 90 stu-
dents participating throughout
the state this year.
During the six-month com-
petition, teams are paired with
a professional mentor to devel-
op ways to use clean energy in
the students' business plan and
make their idea marketable to
customers. Teams will work on
their business models until the
last day of the challenge on Feb.
17, 2012, when $100,000 in price
money will be spread out among
the winning teams.
For the first round, the initial'
teams that applied will be nar-
rowed down to approximately 25
teams. In previous Clean Energy
Venture Challenges, fewer teams
were allowed to participate in
this round.
Klinke said she is looking
forward to the revamped skill
building phase this year.
"Instead of going through a
phase of eliminating teams, we
want to give all the teams that
make it ... two days of intensive
skill building where they learn
about their customers, what
problems they are solving and
the basics of what a venture is,"
Klinke said. "Then we give them
intensive mentoring."
Norm Rapino, a mentor-in-
residence at Tech Transfer -
the University's office that helps
technologies developed here to
move to market - is mentoring in
this competition for the first time
this year and is excited about the
challenge's new format.
"That gives them a time to talk
to customers, figure out what
customers want, change and
adapt to what the market says
they should be doing," Rapino
said. "If you have the time, you
can perfect that idea."
Rapino added that mentors
with entrepreneurial experience
play an invaluable role in helping
the student teams.
"If someone tells you how to
play a sport, and you learn the
rules and everything else, until
you've played it, you don't know
how to do it. And to a degree,
that's the same way it is with an
entrepreneur, a start-up," Rapino
said. "It helps to have a mentor
who's done it."
Klinke said the Venture Chal-
lenge is unique in that it involves
students from across the state.
Rapino also said the competition
encourages collaboration among
many disciplines.
"The whole point is to cre-
ate sort of an entrepreneurial
eco-system in and among all the
schools in Michigan," Rapino
said.
The teams will work on their
ideas for developing companies
this month, according to Klinke.
As the process continues, teams
can receive grants of $2,000
from the Center of Entrepre-
neurship to aid their ventures.
Rapino added that though it
is a competition, the students'
work has an impact on real-
world problems.
The students will work with
investors from venture capital
firms throughout the competition
and will pitch their final ideas to
the companies at the final event
in February to see if they want to
invest in their start-ups.
The main sponsors of this
year's competition include the
University's Center for Entrepre-
neurship, DTE Energy and The
Kresge Foundation.
"It's not just an exercise for
fun or a classroom credit," Rap-
ino said. "This is a real venture
to create jobs, to create economic
activity."
Rackham student Adam
Byrnes, who is studying in the
University's Erb Institute, is
competing in the challenge and
said he is looking forward to
working with the mentors so he
and his team can learn as much
as possible.
"We'll do whatever it takes to
make sure we learn the most that
we can, and grow the business
the best as we can and hopefully
that will translate into winning,"
Byrnes said.
K(
a
bre
MID
Belaru
opposi
police
includ
disper
break i
The
closed
publist
ernme
and di
cratict
an eco
Belaru
third o
Und
politic
are ba
eign as
money
also gi
forcefu
tests -
do not
any ba
GB forces now popular as police have taken a
harsh line against other types of
uthorized to demonstrations.
The security police, which
'ak into offices usethe Soviet-eraacronymKGB,
are also now authorized to break
and homes into residences and offices.
"The changes significantly
NSK, Belarus (AP) - widen the powers of the special
s is clamping down on services, make them uncon-
tion groups and granting trollable and for all practical
sweeping new powers, purposes above the law," said
ing the right to forcefully Valentin Stefanovich, a repre-
se silent protests and sentative of the Vesna human
into offices and homes. rights organization.
measures, passed in a Authoritarian President Alex-
session of parliament and ander Lukashenko, in office
hed yesterday on a gov- since 1994, has consistently
nt website, come as anger suppressed opposition, cracked
ssent grown in the auto- down on independent jour-
country of 10 million over nalists and kept the country's
nomic crisis in which the broadcasters under tight state
sian ruble has lost one- control.
f its value since spring. Lukashenko was declared
ler the new measures, the overwhelming winner of
al and civil-society groups an election last December that
nned from receiving for- sparked a massive rally protest-
sistance and fromholding ing alleged vote fraud. The rally
in foreign banks. They was violently dispersed by riot
ve police the authority to police and seven of the nine can-
ally break up silent pro- didates who opposed Lukash-
in which demonstrators enko were arrested, along with
shout slogans or display some 700 other people. Two of
nners - thathave become the arrested candidates remain
in prison, serving sentences of
five to six years; another was
released fromprisonthis month.
The breakup of the rally,
the arrests and the subsequent
crackdown were all widely con-
demned by Western govern-
ments.
Lukashenko has kept much
of Belarus' industry under state
control, relying on cheap energy
resources from Belarus' main
sponsor and ally, Russia, to
maintain a quasi-Soviet econo-
my complete with a social safety
net that helped boost his popu-
larity among the working class
and the elderly.
But the Russian subsidies
have dwindled recently as Mos-
cow has pushed for control over
Belarus' most prized economic
assets, such as oil refineries and
chemical plants, in exchange for
more loans.
As the economic deterioration
drags on, discontent is growing.
"The authorities are terri-
bly afraid of the possibility of
unrest. They're making a bet
on repression because no other
instruments remain for them,"
said political analyst Alexander
Klaskovsky.
Hedge fund exec. sentenced
to 11 years for insider trading
Prosecutors claim
executive made up
to $75 million
NEW YORK (AP) - Raj Raja-
ratnam, the hedge fund billion-
aire at the center of the biggest
insider-trading case in U.S. his-
tory, was sentenced yesterday to
11 years behind bars - the stiff-
est punishment ever handed out
for the crime.
"His crimes and the scope of
his crimes reflect a virus in our
business culture that needs to be
eradicated," U.S. District Judge
Richard J. Holwell said. "Simple
justice requires a lengthy sen-
tence."
The 54-year-old founder of
the Galleon Group hedge fund
was also fined $10 million and
ordered to forfeit $53.8 million
in what the judge said were illicit
profits fromtradingon confiden-
tial corporate information.
Prosecutors said Rajaratnam
made as much as $75 million in
all by cultivating a network of
friends, former classmates and
other tipsters at various compa-
nies and investment firms who
supplied him with early word on
such things as mergers and earn-
ings announcements. In return,
they received kickbacks or a
chance to get in on the action.
Among the companies he
. profited from were Google, IBM,
Hilton Hotels, Intel, Advanced
Micro Devices and Goldman
Sachs.
The sentencing was the last
major act in a series of pros-
ecutions that followed Rajarat-
nam's arrest in 2009, the same
year he was ranked No. 559 by
Forbes magazine among the
world's wealthiest billionaires,
with a $1.3 billion net worth.
More than two dozen people
were arrested in the investiga-
tion, nicknamed Perfect Hedge,
and all were convicted.
The scandal - along with
the 2008 financial meltdown
and the Wall Street abuses
it exposed - stoked populist
anger in the U.S. and complaints
that the stock market is a suck-
er's game, rigged by insiders.
The judge called it "an assault
on the free markets that are a
fundamental element of our
democratic society. There may
not be readily identifiable vic-
tims, but when the playing field
is not level, the integrity of the
marketplace is called into ques-
tion and the public suffers."
Asked at his sentencing if he
would like to speak, Rajaratnam
responded: "No, thank you, Your
Honor."
The Sri Lanka-born Rajarat-
nam was ordered to report to
a yet-to-be-designated prison
Nov. 28. Until then, he must
remain confined to his $10 mil-
lion Manhattan condominium.
His lawyers asked that he be
sent to the medical facility at the
federal prison in North Caro-
lina where Bernard Madoff is
serving his 150-year sentence.
He has advanced diabetes and
needs a kidney transplant,
accordingto the judge.
The longest previous sen-
tence in an insider-trading case
was 10 years, given twice before,
most recently last month to one
of Rajaratnam's co-defendants.
But Rajaratnam's punishment
fell far short of the 24 years
prosecutors had requested.
Federal prosecutor Reed
Brodsky said insider trading
"makes a mockery of the prin-
ciple that no one participant has
an unfair advantage through
thievery." He said Rajaratnam
corrupted at least 20 fellow
traders and insiders, and at least
19 public companies were vic-
tims of his crimes.
"Today you sentence a man
who is the modern face of illegal
insider trading," Brodsky told
the judge. "He is arguably the
most egregious insider trader to
face sentencing in a courthouse
in the United States."
The prosecutor said insider
trading - carried out by smart,
educated people - had "become
rampant" because the incen-
tives to commit it were higher
than ever before and detecting it
was extremely difficult.
The judge said Rajaratnam
deserved some leniency, noting
his poor health and his chari-
table work in helping the home-
less and the victims of Sept. 11
and natural disasters.
Rajaratnam's lawyers had
argued for 61/2 to nine years.
Defense attorney Terence
Lynam asked the judge to show
compassion because of Rajarat-
nam's illnesses, saying: "He does
not deserve to die in prison."
Galleon was one ofthe world's
largest hedge funds before it
collapsed in the wake of Raja-
ratnam's arrest, and the case
against him and his cohorts was
one of the most closely watched
insider-trading scandals since
the Ivan Boesky and Michael
Milken cases in the 1980s.
Boesky was a stock specu-
lator who pleaded guilty and
served two years in prison.
Milken, known as the junk
bond king, pleaded guilty to
securities violations in 1989,
served 22 months and paid a
$200 million fine.
The Rajaratnam probe relied
heavily on the most extensive
use of wiretaps ever for a white-
collar case. Prosecutors cap-
tured conversations in which
he and his accomplices could
be heard gleefully celebrating
their inside information.
At his trial in May, pros-
ecutors said Rajaratnam could
convert short telephone con-
versations into millions in
profits. For instance, they said,
a 30-minute call with an Intel
Corp. insider yielded a $2 mil-
lion windfall.
Anil Kumar, Rajaratnam's
classmate at the University
of Pennsylvania's prestigious
Wharton School, testified
that he fed Rajaratnam inside
information about the acquisi-
tion of ATI Technologies Inc.
by Kumar's client, Advanced
Micro Devices Inc.
LE DOG
From Page 1
arts degree.
During one trip from East
Lansing to visit his family in Ann
Arbor, Van Dyck-Dobos recalled
walking by the boarded-up red
shop with his sister and con-
templated its potential. It wasn't
until years later that it would
become Le Dog.
After graduating from MSU,
Van Dyck-Dobos moved to Chi-
cago, where he managed several
large-scale restaurants, which
sometimes served as many as
5,000 dinners a night. After
growing wary of the big city res-
taurant scene, Van Dyck-Dobos
returned to Ann Arbor to open a
hot dog stand in a community he
said is "more manageable."
When Le Dog opened in 1979,
it sold only lemonade and hot
dogs. But the menu has since
expanded to include more
options and gourmet dishes, like
their famous soups.
"I got bored of hot dogs and
decided to do all the other
things," Van Dyck-Dobos said.
Since Le Dog occupies a
small space, Van Dyck-Dobos
said expanding the restaurant's
offerings was difficult.
"We had five people in here
working elbow-to-elbow," Van
Dyck-Dobos said.
Despite the limited space and
small staff, Le Dog offers an
extensive menu, which chang-
es daily. The restaurant offers
approximately 300 kinds of
soup, which rotate on the menu
throughout the year.
With such a large variety and
only a few soups served each day,
Van Dyck-Dobos urges costum-
era not-to be discouraged if they
can't find their favorite one the
day they stop by.
"Just come on by and choose
a soup," he said. "I can almost
guarantee if you look at the
menu, (you) will find something
you like."
Someof the most popular
soups include cheesy chicken
tortilla and chicken white chili,
which Van Dyck-Dobos attempts
to have on sale every day. Anoth-
er favorite, the lobster bisque, is
available on Thursdays and Fri-
days. Van Dyck-Dobos's favorites
include chicken paprika, veal
tarragon and pork curry, which
he makes about 10 times a year.
Van Dyck-Dobos estimated
that about 40 to 60 percent of
his customers are University
students - especially at the East
Liberty Street location. The
restaurant's second location on
Main Street attracts mainly busi-
nessmen and women, he said.
Because the East Liberty
Street business is so dependent
on students, Van Dyck-Dobos
said the company struggles a bit
during the summer. Despite this,
Le Dog doesn't have a website,
Facebook page or any other spe-
cial offers to accrue additional
revenue.
"We do not spend a nickel on
advertising," Van Dyck-Dobos
said. "We never have."
Still, Van Dyck-Dobos hasn't
had difficulty earning national
acclaim. Le Dog was featured in
an Oct. 7 article in the Chicago
Tribune praising his famous
soups.
"People know us," he said.
"(Our business) is word of mouth
and good will."
Va(e
TWITTER THROWDOWN
FOLLOW @MICHIGANDAILY
SO WE CAN BEAT THE STATE NEWS
THE BATTLE ENDS TOMORROW
4