The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday December 13, 2011 - 3 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, December13, 2D11 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS MANCHESTER, N.H. Romney, Gingrich get aggressive in campaign remarks Trading accusations of greed, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich challenged each other yesterday to return millions made in private business as the race for the GOP presidential nomination turned increasingly acerbic and personal at the start of a three-week sprint to the Iowa caucuses. Far from Iowa, the two men campaigned miles apart from each other in next-up New Hamp- shire, where Romney has long dominated in polls but where Gingrich is aggressively working to make inroads. Romney called on Gingrich to return the estimated $1.6 million he received for providing stra- tegic advice to Freddie Mac, the quasi-government agency that guarantees home mortgages. BLACKSBURG, Va. Hundreds mourn officer slain in Va. Tech shooting A Virginia Tech police offi- cer ambushed in a shooting that revived memories of the 2007 massacre on campus was eulo- gized before hundreds as a loving husband, father and public ser- vant. Bagpipers somberly escorted the flag-draped coffin of Deriek W. Crouse into acampus coliseum for yesterday's funeral as officers, family, friends and dignitaries looked on. Gov. Bob McDonnell called the Army veteran who had served in Iraq a lifelong public servant. Crouse was slain Thursday during a routine traffic stop in the coliseum's parking lot. A student at a nearby college who police said shot Crouse was found dead after- ward of a self-inflicted gunshot wound-nearby. Investigators said they found no link between them. LOS ANGELES Lowe's criticized for pulling ads from Muslim TV show Lowe's Home Improvement has found itself facing a backlash after the retail giant pulled ads from a reality show about Ameri- can Muslims. The retail giant stopped adver- tising on TLC's "All-American Muslim" after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association complained, saying the program was "pro- paganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and pres- ent danger to American liberties and traditional values." The show premiered last month and chronicles the lives of five families from Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb with a large Muslim and Arab-American population. A state senator from Southern California said Sunday he was considering calling for a boycott. TORONTO Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol Canada's environment minis- ter said yesterday his country is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Peter Kent said that Canada is invoking the legal right to with- draw and said Kyoto doesn't represent the way forward for Canada or the world. Canada, joined by Japan and Russia, said last year it will not accept new Kyoto commitments, but renouncing the accord is another setback to the treaty con- cluded with much fanfare in 1997. No nation has formally renounced the protocol until now. The protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is aimed at fighting global warming. Canada's previous Liberal gov- ernment signed the accord but Prime Minister Stephen Harp- er's Conservative government never embraced it. -Compiled from Daily wire reports Spruce tree cut down, stolen from the Arb es Of Bota Arbo grinc To natur arbor Wedr retur was r O': cials 300 f appe: the fc a tre( arbor O' appri abou the t for u Officials individuals who are underesti- mating its worth. timate value of Arboretum officials report- ed thatthe tree is worth about tree at $400 $400, according to University Department of Public Safety By STEVE ZOSKI spokeswoman Diane Brown. Daily StaffReporter However, O'Dell said he per- sonally thinks the tree was ficials at the Matthaei worth $1,200. nical Gardens and Nichols Brown said charges filed retum say they've been against the suspect(s) in the hed. incident would depend on what m O'Dell, collections and parts of the tree, if any, are al areas specialist at the recovered. She also noted that etum, said he noticed last the value of the tree affects nesday that one of the arbo- the severity of charges the n's two Serbian sprucetrees perpetrator(s) could face. educed to a mere stump. ' "In larceny and in malicious Dell said arboretum offi- destruction of property, the found tracks that led about consequences change when the eet to Geddes Road and dis- value of the property increas- ared afterward. This marks es," Brown said. ourth-consecutive year that Brown said if the suspect(s) e has been cut down in the are charged with larceny and retum, according to O'Dell. the value of the tree is between Dell described the tree as $200 and $1,000, the penalty oximately 10 feet tall with for the crime would be 93 days t a four-inch trunk. He said in jail, a fine of $500 or three ree was most likely taken times the value of the prop- se as a Christmas tree by erty. If the tree is more than SLOTTOW From Page 1 dent Mary Sue Coleman sup- ports investment in a new program called Michigan Investment in New Technol- ogy Startups because analysis of University faculty start-ups over the past 20years has shown a 70-percent annual return, which makes it a safe invest- ment. At the University's Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, Slottow will present the MINTS program that proposes invest- ing up to $500,000 - with the potential of an additional $1 million - in University faculty start-ups. He projectsthat there will be an investment of about $20 million to $30 million in MINTS over the next 10 years, or $3 million each year. "It's good for faculty, and it's good for the endowment," Slot- tow said. FACULTY DISCUSSES RESOLUTION ON PEACEFUL PROTEST Later in the meeting, the Sen- ate Assembly discussed a reso- lution expressing the faculty's solidarity with peaceful pro- tests on college campuses, spe- cifically at the University. The resolution was drafted in response to the recent events at the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley that led to police violence against peaceful protesters, SACUA Chair Kate Barald said. "Not that there's any incident here that led to this, and cer- tainly, we hope that no incident will have a need for this kind of resolution," Barald said. Despite unanimous support for the resolution, the Senate Assembly did not meet quo- rum and therefore, could not pass the resolution discussed at the meeting. SACUA members passed the resolution at their meeting last week. SENATE ASSEMBLY DISCUSSES RESOLUTION FOR REPORTING CRIMES The Senate Assembly also discussed a resolution that expresses sympathy and sup- port for the survivors of the Pennsylvania State University sex abuse scandal. The resolu- tion cites potential causes, such as inequities in power between survivors and perpetrators and among people reporting the crime, as well as an underre- porting of criminal behavior. It also includes suggestions for action that can prevent simi- lar events from occurring at the University, such as educating $1,000 in value, Brown said the suspect(s) could be sentenced to no more than one year in jail and charged with a fine of no more than $2,000 or three times the value of the property stolen. Brown said there has been a yearly trend of December tree- cuttings in the arboretum, but detectives have had difficulty solving the crimes. "What I understand from previous years (is that) they typically are reported in the month of December, and we don't have a lot of success in finding suspects," Brown said. O'Dell said the tree was donated by Ilene Forsyth, a professor emeritus of history of art, whose home shares a prop- erty line with the arboretum. He added that he thinks future tree cuttings could be prevented through additional DPS patrols and a neighborhood watch in the area bordering the arboretum. There are plans to replace the tree next season, according to O'Dell. the community and developing training programs for faculty and staff. "The objective here was to try to get information to people who could act as early as possible in the process because I think all of us noted that the main issue beyond the act and the lack of reporting was the cover-up," Barald said. Last month, former Penn State football coach Jerry San- dusky was charged with child sex abuse. Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno and former Penn State President Graham B. Spanier were dis- missed from their positions, asa result of the incident. Barald said the resolution - passed by SACUA last week - is i portant.sth e areZ entities on campus a empoy people who deal with minors - including high school students and small children - for day camps, day care, sports pro- grams and music camps. Earlier in the meeting, Slot- tow mentioned that in Cole- man's e-mail regarding the Penn State scandal, which was sent to all students and faculty on Nov. 15, included was a link to an anonymous hotline and compliance website on which individuals can report when they observe something they believe to be "unethical, inap- propriate or illegal." STUDY BY THE NUMBERS From Page 1 Collegegraduation rate differences the phenomenon is replicated in gender differences, as women continue to graduate at a higher The percent increase in the graduation rate than men. Bailey said she and Dynarski rt1 oy 98h ometheets r20h0 cannot explain the differences in graduation rates across theyo groups, but their findings bring to light many questions regard- Theprlnincestentsegradatn ing preparation for higher educa- ra af rlyw1980s tden rrhr tion among low-income students. "One of the things that is an important difference is (the) gap in high-school graduation," Bai- r ley said. "You're not going to do fpmle d w rddcom- well in college if you don't have ed tce <