The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 30,2011 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Proposal could
help heating fund
for poor residents
Michigan House Republi-
cans have a plan to protect low-
income residents from potential
utility shut-offs this winter, their
leaders said yesterday.
Lawmakers announced plans
to put $62 million into the state's
emergency relief fund to help
keep the heat on for low-income
residents. The money would
come from federal funds that
Republicans say could be used
for the heating program.
The plan also would formalize
the end of the collection of a util-
ity charge that ratepayers have
been assessed. A state appeals
court in July struck down the
financing system used by Michi-
gan's Low Income and Energy
Efficiency Fund.
The new legislative plan
would refund the about $40 mil-
lion that had continued to be
collected to affected utility rate-
payers.
MCARD
From Page 1A
staff or faculty ... same thing
goes for them."
LSA is the last school with-
in the University to move to
the new system. The Medical
School has used a system simi-
lar for a number of years, and
College of Engineering build-
ings on North Campus have
operated on the system for
about a year.
Brown said the new Mcard
system is hardest to implement
for LSA buildings because so
many people who aren't affili-
ated with LSA use the school's
facilitates.
On Sept. 7, students received
an e-mail encouraging them to
trade in their Mcards before
Nov. 1. The notice also indicat-
ed that extra locations to trade
in Mcards would open tempo-
rarily to quicken the exchange
process. Despite the Nov. 1
deadline, students, faculty and
staff can still exchange their
old Mcards for news ones,
accordingto Brown.
The Michigan Daily could
not obtain the number of peo-
ple who have already gotten
new Mcards as of last night.
Under the new system,
buildings will be open to the
public until 6 p.m. Between 6
p.m. and 10 p.m., the buildings
will only be accessible to those
with new Mcards, Brown said.
After 10 p.m., buildings will
be closed to those without
special access, which includes
people who are members of
certain organizations that use
the facilities. There are some
exceptions to these hours, like
buildings that have computer
labs, accordingto Brown.
Business junior Nikhil
Kulkarni exchanged his
Mcard to make it more conve-
nient when entering buildings.
"This way, now I can get
into the buildings after hours,"
Kulkarni said. "I don't have
to always walk around to the
entrances that are open."
LSA sophomore Tanika
Raychaudhuri also got the
new Mcard so she could easily
access the buildings.
"I just did because they sent
out an e-mail sayingthatif you
didn't it might be hard to get
into certain University build-
ings at night," Raychaudhuri
said. "I thought it might be
good just to get it changed."
Since new law, some stores
see increased sales of liquor
From Page1A
Galyana added that beer case
and liquor sales have risen by 5
percent over the last month at
the store, in accordance with his
prediction last month that cus-
tomers would alternatively buy
cases of beer or liquor as an alter-
native to kegs.
Other local keg retailers have
seen less of a decline in keg sales.
Sunny Bhagat, owner of Blue
Front Kegs on Packard Street,
said he could not tell if his keg
sales declined from October to
November. However, he said
many of his customers knew of
the law's implementation before
coming in to buy a keg. In fact,
Bhagat found out about the law
when three or four of his cus-
tomers told him they read about
it in the newspaper.
"It doesn't make a differ-
ence to them," Bhagat said, add-
ing that most of his customers
haven't reacted negatively when
filling out the tags.
The store's unchanging sales
of beer cases - which, Bhagat
noted, cost more per amount
of beer than kegs - since last
month also obscured whether
the law has had any effect on keg
sales, he said. And though beer
keg sales in Bhagat's store this
November are down 50 percent
from last November's numbers,
he said part of this is due to the
failing economy and fewer home
football games this month.
"It fluctuates because of the
games and finals," Bhagat said.
Skeptics of the law pointed to
the difficulty of enforcement as
one reason the law would not be
effective on preventing minors
from gaining access to alcohol.
Irwin said he has always thought
the law would not achieve the
cultural changes necessary to
eliminate underage drinking.
"It's already plenty illegal
to buy alcohol as an underage
person or to provide alcohol to
an underage person, so I'm not
sure how this law is going to
change that or make it any more
intense," he said.
However, Irwin acknowl-
edged, like Meadows and Bhagat,
that one month not enough time
to project the law's impact.
"If we were able to check back
in on this in a year and find out
what really happened, we might
have a better idea of whether this
was a bona fide effort to really
reduce underage drinking or just
an opportunity for some folks to
take credit for doing something
about underage drinking," he
said. "I suspect that we'll look
back and determine that the lat-
ter of the two choices was right
... but I'm open to being proven
wrong."
WASHINGTON INVISIBLE
House votes to ease From Page 1A
airport screening
for military
The House yesterday voted
unanimously to allow military
travelers on official duty to get
a special preference to move
through airport security checks
faster.
The bill, approved 404-0,
would give the Homeland Secu-
rity Department six months to
devise a preference system for
the Armed Forces. The legisla-
tion went to the Senate.
If the bill becomes law, the
earliest beneficiaries would
likely be troops returning from
Afghanistan next year and their
family members, who also would
receive preferential treatment.
TEHRAN; Iran
British Embassy
stormed by angry
Iranian protesters
Hard-line Iranian protest-
ers stormed British diplomatic
compounds yesterday, hauling
down the Union Jack, torching
an embassy vehicle and pelting
buildings with petrol bombs in
what began as an apparent state-
approved show of anger over the
latest Western sanctions to pun-
ish Tehran for defiance over its
nuclear program.
The hours-long assault on
the British Embassy and a resi-
dential complex for staff - in
chaotic scenes reminiscent of
the seizing of the U.S. Embassy
in 1979 - could push already
frayed diplomatic ties toward
the breaking point.
Iran's parliament approved a
bill Sunday to downgrade rela-
tions with Britain, one of Ameri-
ca's closest allies with diplomatic
envoys in the Islamic Republic.
OSLO, Norway
Norway killer
found insane,
unfit for prison
Confessed mass killer Anders
Behring Breivik belongs in psy-
chiatric care instead of prison,
Norwegian prosecutors said yes-
terday after a mental evaluation
declared him legally insane dur-
ing a bomb-and-shooting ram-
page that killed 77 people.
The court-ordered assessment
found that the self-styled anti-
Muslim militant was psychotic
during the July 22 attacks, which
would make him mentally unfit
to be convicted and imprisoned
for the country's worst peace-
time massacre.
The report, written by two
psychiatrists who spent 36
hours talking to Breivik, will
be reviewed by an expert panel
before the Oslo district court
rules on his mental state didn't
have enough evidence to justifiy
holding him longer.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
either reflected or scattered
from the object," he said. "If
there's no light coming into
your eyes, then things become
unperceivable."
However, unlike the magi-
cal cloaks used by fictional
wizards, Guo said the coating
can't completely hide an object
because it can't conceal the
object's shadow. Acoated object
must be placed against a dark
background to become com-
pletely invisible.
The carbon nanotube could
potentially be used by the
military for national security
purposes, like concealing an
airplane against the night sky,
according to Guo.
Guo's curiosity about objects
and their visibility extends to
the study of space. He said he
is particularly intrigued by
the properties of dark mat-
ter - invisible space matter
that accounts for much of the
universe's mass and may have
similar properties to the carbon
nanotubes.
Guo hypothesizes that the
coating could potentially cover
extremely large objects like
planets.
"It's certainly possible to hide
an object of that size," he said.
FUNDING
From Page 1A
parency.
Speaker of the Assembly
Matthew Eral said some MSA
members were uncomfortable
that such a large transfer could
be made by the finance commit-
tee without the entire assem-
bly's input.
"There does need to be more
legislative oversight for the
transfer of funds that large,"
Watson said.
Watson said he expects Eral
to write a resolution creating
more legislative oversight for
financial issues, which he said
he will support.
The transfer was deemed
necessary by the Finance Com-
mittee because student organi-
zations requested more money
than expected during the first
and second cycles of funding
this semester. The current sys-
tem has three cycles during
which student organizations
can apply for funding.
The three funding applica-
tion due dates for this year are
Sept. 30, Oct. 28 and Dec. 2.
Because so much funding was
allocated during the first two
cycles, the Student Organiza-
tion Funding Commission had
less money than usual for the
third cycle.
However, this financing sys-
tem for student organizations
won't be in place much longer.
After Jan. 1, MSA will employ a
new funding method in which
student organizations won't
need to wait for a new cycle
to apply for funding, but can
instead do so based on need.
This semester, Watson and
MSA Vice President Brendan
Campbell have been working
independently of the Student
Assembly to implement the new
system.
"Brendan and I actually ran
on the promise that we were
(goingto) change funding, part-
ly because it doesn't really work
for student orgs," Watson said.
Watson said many student
organizations form at the end of
cycles or don't plan far enough
ahead, making it difficult to
receive funding from the current
system. Watson added that MSA
will have abetterunderstanding
of how much funding organiza-
tions are requesting and will be
able to allocate funds more accu-
rately in the future.
"Essentially, we're making
more funding available to stu-
dent orgs without increasing
the actual amount of money
we're using, which I think is
beautiful," Watson said.
He added that the delay in the
system's implementation is due
to unresolved MSA administra-
tion issues, but he is confident in
the new method's effectiveness.
WEST
From Page 1A
groups perceive things.
"Anytime you talk about race,
you're not just talking about
semantic facts, you're talk-
ing about the legacy of white
supremacy that has convinced
people of color that they're less
beautiful, less intelligent and
less human. And they believed
it," West said.
He added that the summit is
intended to draw attention to
racial issues, even if these issues
engender discomfort.
"When you're talking about
making race heard, you're going
to hear some things you're not
used to hearing," West said.
But according to West, every-
one is interconnected and inter-
dependent.
"I believe even the people in
the crack houses are our broth-
ers and sisters because they can
bounce back," West said. "Mal-
colm Little was a drug addict and
a gangster, Elijah (Muhammad)
loved him enough to turn that
Negro into one of the greatest
freedom fighters of the 20th cen-
HILLEL
From Page 1A
interview that the ideal candidate
would have experience with both
Israeli and American culture.
"We are looking for an educa-
tor who can facilitate informal ...
learning opportunities that will
strengthen students' relationship
with Israel and enhance their
overall college experience," Rosen
wrote.
According to Hillel's proposal,
6,000 University students identify
as Jewish. In 2011, 326 University
students participated in Taglit-
Birthright Israel - a program
that allows Jewish students to
travel to Israel for 10 days free
of charge. This number was the
most of any participating institu-
tion.
Because many University stu-
dents participate in Taglit-Birth-
right Israel, having an Israeli
professional on campus to guide
students before and after partici-
pating in the trip would improve
the program, Rosen wrote.
tury named Malcolm X."
West also told audience mem-
bers to keep abreast of interna-
tional developments.
"Keep track of what is going
on in Africa with the elections
in Cairo .." he said. "Watch,
because our destiny is strictly
tied to theirs on a global level."
West concluded by discussing
the racial disparity in drug con-
victions in the United States.
"Young black people take 13
percent of drugs, white brothers
and sisters take 13 percent of the
drugs, young black folks are 62
percent of drug convictions," he
said. "But we're not supposed to
talk about this. We need to tell
the truth now."
According to West, President
Barack Obama any complicates
discussions about race.
"I love Barack Obama, but
he profoundly confuses things
because it leads people to think,
'How can the black folks pos-
sibly be upset when we have a
black president sitting in a white
house?' But that is progress. I
won't deny that."
West ended his presentation
by saying that civil rights icons
like Martin Luther King Jr. and
"We have a responsibility to fol-
low up on (Taglit-Birthright Israel
students') experiences in a deeply
meaningful way, and we think a
powerfulwayrto do that is through
relationships," Rosen wrote.
The fellow would also devote
20 percent of his or her time to
work with the greater Ann Arbor
Jewish population, according to
Rosen.
LSA senior Naomi Scheiner-
man, who serves as Israel chair
on Hillel's programming board,
said the fellow would be a "sha-
liah" - which means messenger in
Hebrew - for students.
Malcolm X were driven by love.
"The love of Martin was so
deep for the country, for poor
people, for working people, for
Vietnamese babies," he said. "It
was so profound, people couldn't
take it, you had to kill him. Mal-
colm X was the same way. Their
love wasn't a play thing."
School of Education senior
Christian Little said West's pre-
sentation resonated with her.
With plans to work for Teach for
America next year, she lauded
West's speech.
"I thought it was absolutely
inspiring," Little said. "I'm really
about education revolution, and
what he was saying about loving
someone to the point that it is col-
orblind is just really amazing."
LSA senior Garrett Johnson,
who is studying history, said
West's speech shed light on criti-
cal issues such as oppression and
inequity.
"There's incredible social
inequality, much of (which is)
structural and based on histori-
cal precedence," Johnson said.
"... It's something that needs to
be discussed and made known to
as many people as possible as it
has begun to be."
"There are a bunch of Israe-
lis on campus, but having a pro-
fessional Israeli perspective on
campus adds to the diversity and
multiculturalism (of the Univer-
sity)," Scheinerman said.
She added thatthe fellow would
also bring valuable political expe-
rience to share with members of
the campus community.
"Having someone who is Israeli
here will prove beneficial to have
an informed perspective (on the
Arab-Israeli conflict)," Scheiner-
man said. "From a political per-
spective, it's important to hear
from firsthand experience."
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