The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, December 8, 201- 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Michigan Senate
bans domestic
partner benefits
Republicans who control the
Michigan Senate have approved
bills aimed at blocking the offer-
ingoftaxpayer-paid health insur-
ance to domestic partners living
with some public employees.
The main bill in the package
passed by a 27-9 vote yesterday,
with only Democrats in opposi-
tion. It returns with changes to
the House, which approved the
bill earlier this year.
The legislation would pro-
hibit some public employers
from extending health benefits to
unmarried partners of employees,
whether they are of the same sex
or opposite sex. It would apply to
public schools, local governments
and some state employees.
It would not apply to public
universities, which have consti-
tutional power to determine their
own policies.
SEATTLE
Nations marks
70th anniversary
of Pearl Harbor
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich looks back at the crowd and waves as he returns home with his wife Patti is Chicago,
yesterday, after he was sentenced by Judge James Zagel to14 years in prison for his convictions on 18 corruption counts.
Blagojevich gets 14-
year prison sentence
Events held to
remember 2,390
Americans who
died in attack
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii
(AP) - In wheelchairs and on
walkers, the old veterans came
yesterday to remember the day
70 years ago when the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor. But FDR's
"date that will live in infamy" is
becoming a more distantmemory.
Fewer and fewer veterans who
experienced the attack on Dec. 7,
1941, are alive to mark the anni-
versaries and most of them are
in their 90s, many prevented by
health problems from traveling
to Hawaii. One survivors' group
said it would disband because
age and infirmity made it too dif-
ficult to carry on.
"People had other things
that they wanted to do with the
remainder of their lives," Pearl
Harbor Survivors Association
president William Muehleib
said. "It was time."
The 2,390 Americans who
died in the attacks are not forgot-
ten. Besides Pearl Harbor, there
are remembrances elsewhere.
In Phoenix, the goal every
year isto draw 1,177 people - the
number who died on the USS
Arizona - to march through the
city, but organizers don't come
close to that anymore.
Just 45 people showed up last
year. Yesterday, about 300 people
gathered for a mile-long remem-
brance walk, carrying miniature
U.S. flags and tags bearing the
names of Pearl Harbor casualties.
"As time goes by, it might
actually fade. This may be the
last significant anniversary
when we could thank a survivor.
Get out there. Get your chance
to thank them," event chairman
Ben Ernyei said.
Those who made it to Pearl
Harbor were treated to a hero's
reception. The 5,000 spectators
whistled, shouted and applauded
loudly as the 120 or so survivors
stood to be recognized, and oth-
ers asked for autographs and
took photos with them.
Muehleib said local chapters
of his group will function as long
as they have members and sur-
vivors can gather socially, but
they will no longer have a for-
mal, national organization. He
also predicted survivors would
attend future commemorations
at Pearl Harbor.
The association - founded
in 1958 - has 2,700 members,
he said. There are an estimated
7,000 to 8,000 Pearl Harbor sur-
vivors.
President Barack Obama
hailed the veterans in a state-
ment proclaiming yesterday as
"National Pearl Harbor Remem-
brance Day."
"Their tenacity helped define
the Greatest Generation and
their valor fortified all who
served during World War II,"
he said. "As a nation, we look
to December 7, 1941, to draw
strength from the example set
by these patriots and to honor all
who have sacrificed for our free-
doms."
Sen. Daniel Inouye,D-Hawaii,
witnessed the attacks as a young
man in Honolulu and fought in
World War II, losing his right
arm in combat and earning the
Medal of Honor.
"As we continue to lose mem-
bers of the Greatest Generation,
those who witnessed the attack,
lived through the war and saw
the world change, we must
remember the events of Decem-
ber 7," he said ina speech on the
Senate floor.
Occupy movement F
protests move to
foreclosed homes
The Occupy Wall Street pro-
tests are moving into the neigh-
borhood.
Occupy protesters across the
country are reclaiming fore-
closed homes and boarded-up
properties as they find it increas-
ingly difficult to camp in public
spaces.
Groups in more than 25 cities
held protests yesterday on behalf
of homeowners facing evictions.
In Atlanta, protesters attempt-
ed to disrupt an auction of seized
homes. New York protesters ral-
lied outside a Brooklyn foreclosed
house and said a group of home-
less people were going to move in
to the building.
The events reflect the protest-
ers' lingering frustration over the
housing crisis that has sent mil-
lions of homes into foreclosure
after the burst of the housing
bubble..
ATLANTA
Test scores show
improvement in
urban schools
Students in urban schools
are doing better in reading and
math, even in Atlanta, which
has been embroiled in a cheating
scandal on state exams.
Federal officials said there
was no evidence that the cheat-
ing had carried over to the
National Assessment of Edu-
cational Progress - called the
"Nation's Report Card" - and
that Atlanta fourth- and eighth-
graders have made substantial
gains since 2002.
The national test is adminis-
tered by independent officials
rather than by the school dis-
trict. Atlanta is one of 21 urban
districts that volunteered to be
part of the federal testing pro-
gram, which is congressionally
mandated to gauge how students
are performing using a uniform
measure.
MEXICO CITY
Mexico says
Gadhafi's son tried
to enter country
Mexico said yesterday that a
son of the late Libyan dictator
Moammar Gadhafi and three
relatives had plotted to sneak into
Mexico under false names and
take clandestine refuge at a posh
Pacific coast resort.
The elaborate plan to bring al-
Saadi Gadhafi to Mexico allegedly
involved two Mexicans, a Cana-
dian and a Danish suspect, all of
whom have been detained, Interi-
or Secretary Alejandro Poire said.
He did not reveal which rela-
tives had planned to accompany
Al-Saadi Gadhafi, who is known
for his love of professional soc-
cer and run-ins with police in
Europe.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
g
01
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ing an
ormer Illinois trying with uncharacteristic
humility to avert severe punish-
)V. tried to sell ment. "I was the governor and I
should have known better and I
bama's former am just so incredibly sorry."
It was not enough for Zagel,
Senate seat who gave the 54-year-old a sen-
tence close to the 15 to 20 years
ICAGO (AP) - The Rod prosecutors had sought.
evich who once chal- "The abuse of the office of
d a prosecutor to face him governor is more damaging
man, the glad-handing than the abuse of any other
tan who took to celebrity office, except the president's,"
tows to profess his inno- he said.
, was nowhere to be found "Whatever good things you
'day as he was sentenced did for people as governor,
rears in prison for corrup- and you did some, I am more
concerned with the occasions
wning and pulling ner- when you wanted to use your
at his tie, the disgraced powers ... to do things that
r governor seemed like were only good for yourself,"
er person as he stepped up Zagel said.
ress the sentencing judge. Blagojevich slumped for-
r once as conspicuous as ward in his chair - momen-
mously lavish head of dark tarily frozen as the judge
vas wiped out, a victim of pronounced the sentence.
ne convictions on charges Moments later, his wife,
ncluded attempting to sell Patti, fell into his arms; when
lent Barack Obama's U.S. he pulled back from their
e seat. embrace, he brushed tears
a low voice, the two-term from her cheek.
crat apologized again "When it is the governor
gain, telling Judge James who goes bad," Zagel said,
he had made "terrible "the fabric of Illinois is torn
kes." and disfigured and not easily
aused it all. I'm not blam- repaired."
tybody," Blagojevich said, Illinois governors have
gone bad with stunning fre-
quency. Four of the last nine
have been sentenced to prison,
including Blagojevich's pre-
decessor, George Ryan, who
remains behind bars.
Blagojevich, who received
more than twice as much time
as any of the other governors,
was also more of a national
spectacle - both because of the
charges against him, and how
he responded to them.
In the most notorious of the
FBI wiretaps that sealed his
fate, Blagojevich is heard crow-
ing that his chance to name
someone to Obama's Senate
seat was "f---ing golden" and
he wouldn't let it go "for f---ing
nothing." His lawyers claimed
the comments were simply
"musings," but jurors and the
judge agreed they were evi-
dence of a crime.
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Afare.'ovws
Parents and Santas
careful not to get
kids' hopes up
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A job
for their mom or dad. Money for
the heating bill. Food or a place
to live. Maybe gloves or boots.
More and more, Santas say
the children on their laps are
asking for less for themselves
- and Santa is promising less as
well.
With unemployment stub-
bornly high, more homes in
foreclosure and the economic
outlook dim, many children who
visit Santa are all too aware of
the struggle to make ends meet.
"These children understand
the conditions around the home
when they ask for stuff," said
Richard Holden, a 69-year-
old Santa from Gastonia, N.C.
"They understand when there
are other children in the fam-
ily, they need to be cautious or
thoughtful of them as well and
not ask for 10to 12 items."
Cliff Snider, who's been play-
ing Santa since he was a teen-
ager, agrees.
"I think the parents are say-
ing, 'It's an economic thing. Just
list two to three things you real-
ly want to have,"' he said. "Par-
ents are tryingto encourage the
children to be thrifty."
And the 64-year-old Snider
does his best to help out. When
he gets a big-ticket request, he
typically responds: "There's an
awful lot of children asking for
that this year. What else do you
want?"
At the Charles W. Howard
Santa Claus School, Santas
learn lines like, "Wow, that's a
big gift. Is there anything else
you might like?"
These days, though, Santas
are havingto use it less and less.
"I think it's becoming more
popular not to have that long
list," said Tom Valent, dean of
the Howard Santa school in
Midland, Mich., which gets
more than 3,000 letters to
Santa a year and just graduat-
ed its 75th class. "Families are
teaching their children to be as
much of a giver as a receiver."
Starlight Fonseca has been
teaching her five children, ages
5 to 14, "that we're not the only
ones who have to cut things
back. We're not the only ones
struggling."
The 31-year-old mother and
her husband Jose had been
relying on a stipend from the
University of Texas law school
that Fonseca lost when an ill-
ness made it impossible for her
to keep her grades up. She'd
hoped to graduate in May but
was unable to attend school
this semester and can't get stu-
dent loans due to poor credit.
Fonseca tells her kids that
"to make it fair for everyone,
Santa has to cut back for every-
one.... We paint it in a way that
Santa is doing the best he can
to make everybody happy at
Christmas."
It's especially hard for the
oldest children.
"They were two little kids
who used to be excited about
Christmas, and now they know
every gift under the tree should
have gone to the utility com-
pany," she said. "It shouldn't be
that way, but that's where we
are now."