The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, October 21, 2011 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, October 21, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Three tiger cubs
welcomed at zoo
The Potter Park Zoo in Lan-
sing has some new residents that
maybe seen online.
The zoo announced this week
that three female Amur tigers
were born Sept. 13. They're the
third set of Amur tiger cubs
born at the zoo in the past 20
years.
Two days after their birth,
tests run by the veterinary staff
at Potter Park Zoo and Michigan
State University revealed pneu-
monia in the cubs. They were
taken from their mother and
treated with antibiotics, and are
now being hand-fed and raised
by zoo staff.
WASHINGTON
College sports face
antitrust issues
The top Democrat on the
House Judiciary Committee is
urging the panel to hold hear-
ings on antitrust and other issues
in college sports, including
the recent series of conference
realignments.
"It has become increasingly
clear to me that the combina-
tion of issues and challenges fac-
ing intercollegiate sports have
reached a tipping point calling for
congressional attention," Michi-
gan Rep. John Conyers wrote to
the committee chairman, Texas
Republican Lamar Smith, in a let-
ter released yesterday. The com-
mittee said in a statement that it
is reviewing Conyers' request.
Several major colleges have
recently announced plans to
switch conferences, including
Syracuse and Pittsburgh from
the Big East to the ACC, and
Texas A&M from the Big 12 to the
Southeastern Conference.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Chavez announces
he is cancer-free
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez said he is cancer-free,
citing a series of medical exams
in Cuba that showed no recur-
rence of the illness following two
months of chemotherapy treat-
ments.
The 57-year-old leader
announced the test results on live
television yesterday after return-
ing from Cuba, saying thorough
exams found no sign of any malig-
nant cells in his body.
"I'm free of illness," Chavez
said on state television, wearing
military fatigues as he arrived in
the southwestern town of La Fria.
Crowds of supporters cheered
for Chavez as he rode in a caravan
to the town of La Grita, where he
visited a church that is home to
a famed image of Christ, whom
Chavez referred to as "the coman-
dante of comandantes."
Chavez said he came to give
thanks for his recovery.
"It's like a miracle that I'm
standing here," he said, speaking
to red-clad supporters who filled
a square and waved excitedly to
him.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico
U.S. accused of
dumping criminals
at Mexico boarder
Mexican President Felipe
Calderon accused the United
States yesterday of dumping crim-
inals at the border because it is
cheaper than prosecuting them,
and said the practice has fueled
violence in Mexico's border areas.
U.S. officials earlier this week
reported a record number of
deportations in fiscal year 2011,
and said the number of deportees
with criminal convictions had
nearly doubled since 2008.
"There are many factors in the
violence that is being experienced
in some Mexican border cities,
but one of those is that the Ameri-
can authorities have gotten into
the habit of simply deporting 60
(thousand) or 70,000 migrants per
year to cities like Ciudad Juarez or
Tijuana," Calderon told an immi-
gration conference.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
OCCUPY A2
From Page 1A
ment pooled its resources and now
communicates more efficiently. As
a result, the camp attracted dona-
tions including food, tarps, sleep-
ing bags, banners and camping
gear.
"The first week was really cha-
otic, but we're really getting our
organization together and getting
a lot of resources together," Levi-
joki said.
Still, Levijoki said she thinks
the protest is "not as organized as
it could be." Though the encamp-
ment has received plenty of food
- even enough to donate a por-
tion to Occupy Detroit and Occupy
Lansing - other supplies are lim-
ited due to a lack of coordination
among movement leaders.
To prevent future logisti-
cal issues, the assembly formed
a scheduling committee to plan
events and communicate infor-
mation to the public. The assem-
bly members also discussed a
proposal to set up a workshop for
protesters to learn about outreach,
rights, non-violent protests and
methods for writing effective let-
ters to politicians - initiatives that
movement participants hope will
further the scope of Occupy Ann
Arbor.
Several protesters who were
invited to speak in front of the
crowd urged participants to foster
solidarity between local, regional
and global Occupy movements.
Whitney Miller, a recent Univer-
sity alum who started Occupy
Ann Arbor through a Facebook
page, stressed the importance of
relationships between the move-
ments.
"The direct action committee
has been working very actively
to research, gather resources,
check legality, secure safety and
plan an effective occupation,"
Miller said.
Miller added that the move-
mentis onlytwo weeks old and has
much potential to grow, become
more unified and gain more sup-
port. An encouraging sign, Miller
said, is the Ann Arbor Education
Association's - a citywide teach-
ers union - endorsement of the
Occupy movements.
Despite the speaker's positiv-
ity, several protesters raised con-
cerns including the feasibility of
an occupation in Liberty Plaza as
winter nears. Several participants
also discussed the safety of the
plaza.
Jeff Fulkerson, a junior at
Washtenaw Community College
and a participant at last night's
gathering, said the square is noto-
rious for drug and alcohol prob-
lems, which have been apparent
duringthe encampment.
Fulkerson said a homeless man
unaffiliated with the movement
threatened the protesters camp-
ing in the plaza and used drugs in
the area. The situation made some
protesters, including studentsy flee
the plaza out of fear, he said. Fulk-
erson added that he'd like to see
the movement moved to another
park - a proposition other !pro-
testers supported.
"Most of the students have
either left or fled the scene because
they are afraid of the person,"
Fulkerson said. "These scenes
need tobe addressed."
CHARLIE St BERGALL/AP
Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor, speaks during an economic
roundtable at the Treynor State Bank, yesterday, in Treynor, Iowa.
In Obama vs. Romney,
echoes of Bush vs. Kerry
2012 presidential
contest shaping up
like 2004 election
WASHINGTON (AP) - A
beleaguered president seeks
re-election. His challenger,
a candidate with Massachu-
setts roots and a presiden-
tial demeanor straight out of
central casting, has to fight
through a primary contest
fending off charges of flip-
flopping. In the end, the chal-
lenger's strength also proves
his vulnerability.
Election 2012 is looking a
lot like the presidential race of
2004.
Democrats in and around
President Barack Obama's
campaign are preparing to run
against former Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney - the man
they believe likely to emerge
from the Republican contest -
byborrowingfromthe playbook
George W. Bush and Republi-
cans used to defeat Sen. John
Kerry seven years ago.
As candidates, Kerry and
Romney are remarkably similar.
Both are wealthy men, prod-
ucts of Massachusetts politics,
eloquent on the stump but per-
ceived as remote or aloof on the
campaign circuit.
Even before Romney has
won a single nominating con-
test, Obama's camp is singling
him out as a fickle politician
and is preparing to go straight
at Romney's perceived strength
- his record as a businessman
in the face of a flat-line econo-
my. It was a strategy Republi-
cans employed against Kerry,
who faced flip-flopping claims
himself and whose strength as
a decorated Vietnam veteran
running in the first post-Sept.
11 election was undermined by
attack ads.
A key feature of the Obama
strategy is Romney's tenure as
head of Bain Capital, a private
MANAEDBY
MIKI
JAPANESE
RESTAURANT
equity firm he co-founded in
1984 that saved and launched
businesses such as Staples and
Domino's Pizza but sliced jobs
elsewhere through cost-cutting
and consolidation.
It's not the first time Rom-
ney's tenure at the helm of
Bain Capital has come under
attack. Sen. Edward M. Ken-
nedy pulled away from Rom-
ney during his 1994 Senate race
in Massachusetts by airing a
series of ads that featured work-
ers from an Indiana paper plant
that Bain took over, laying off
employees, cutting wages and
reducingbenefits.
"Basically, he cut our
throats," a worker said in one of
the ads.
"When we made the decision
to define him to voters of Mas-
sachusetts and took a hard line
in doing so, we had a lot of suc-
cess," said Democratic consul-
tant Tad Devine, who crafted
the ads for Kennedy and later
served as a senior adviser to
Kerry's presidential campaign.
Obama advisers are keenly
aware of Kennedy's line of
attack and are counting on sim-
ilar results.
"In his professional life,
he was an expert in stripping
down companies and leading
them to bankruptcy and profit-
ing from these ventures, with a
lot of jobs lost in the process,"
said Obama strategist David
Axelrod, previewing a potential
line of attack.
"Whenever you're running
for president of the United
States and you represent your-
self ina certain way and you say
here's my core asset, then you
need to be able to stand by your
record," Axelrod added in an
interview. "It was problematic
for him then; it will be problem-
atic for him now."
Republicans concede that
Romney could be vulnerable.
But they say the Romney camp
should be ready for the
onslaught.
Michael Dennehy, a New
Hampshire-based Republican
strategist, said he remembers
Kennedy's anti-Romney ads as
being "just brutal and very, very
effective."
"To some extent it will
be effective again," he said.
"The variable is how Romney
responds and what they have
learned from that 1994 race for
Senate."
Dennehy, who helped run
Sen. John McCain's presiden-
tial races in 2000 and 2008,
added: "I think we can expect
from Obama's campaign a very
scorched-earth approach. It's
the only way he can win."
Top Romney strategist Eric
Fehrnstrom said Obama, faced
with a stagnant economy, is
grasping for ways to win. "Now,
they are employing a 'kill Mitt'
strategy," he said. "I suspect
they'll go through many other
strategies before they realize
this election is a referendum on
Obama's failed leadership on
jobs."
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