The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, Febuary 1, 2012 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, Febuary 1, 2012 - 3A

* NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
More people stay in
state after years of
population drops
Fewer people - especially
young adults - appear to be leav-
ing Michigan for other states.
-Figures released yesterday
by the Michigan Department of
Technology, Management and
Budget show migration rates of
18- to 24-year-olds weren't as
steep in 2009-10.
The migration rate for ages
18-19 topped 5.5 percent in
2008-09, compared with about
4 percent the following year. For
20- to 24-year-olds, out-of-state
migration was about 5 percent in
2008-09 compared to about 4.5
percent in 2009-10.
State demographer Ken Darga
says "Michigan is finally starting
to add jobs after several years."
Still, more people are moving
out of the state than in.
SALT LAKE, Utah
Boy, 16, charged in
school bomb plot
Authorities yesterday charged
a 16-year-old boy with a felony
in what they say was a plot to
detonate a bomb at a Utah high
school.
The teenager, along with Dal-
lin Morgan, 18, had planned for
months to bomb an assembly at
Roy High School, about 30 miles
north of Salt Lake City, then steal
a plane from a nearby airport
and flee the country, police said.
Both were arrested last week.
Morgan has been charged with
possession of a weapon of mass
destruction. He is set for a court
appearance on Wednesday and
faces a possible life sentence if
convicted on the first-degree
felony charge.
KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii
Marines sentenced
in hazing case
A Hawaii-based Marine lance
corporal will spend 30 days in
jail and have his rank reduced to
private first class for punching
and kicking a fellow Marine who
killed himself shortly afterward,
a judge ruled late Monday, saying
she found no evidence the abuse
led to the suicide.
Lance Cpl. Jacob Jacoby, 21,
who pleaded guilty to assault,
acknowledged he punched and
kicked Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, of
Santa Clara, Calif., out of anger
and frustration that the fellow
Marine repeatedly fell asleep
while on watch for Taliban fight-
ers.
The case involves the actions
of Marines at an isolated patrol
base the U.S. was establishing to
disrupt Taliban drug and weap-
ons trafficking in Helmand prov-
ince.

LONDON
*n a rare move,
former RBS CEO
loses knighthood
The former Royal Bank of
Scotland chief who infuriated
the British public by leading the
bank to near-collapse and then
walking away with a fat pension
was stripped of his knighthood
yesterday, a rare punishment
that puts him in the company of
criminals and dictators.
Queen Elizabeth II "canceled
and annulled" Fred Goodwin's
knighthood for the key role he
played in the failure of RBS, a
financial disaster that helped
trigger the recession in Britain
and forced taxpayers to bail out
the bank, the Cabinet Office said.
Knighthoods are rarely
revoked, but the government
said Goodwin "had brought the
honors system into disrepute"
and that the "scale and severity"
of the impact of his actions made
it an exceptional case.
After losing the honor, Good-
win joins a group that also
includes the British spy Anthony
Blunt, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe and Romanian
dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

College endowments
rise after downturn

TRACI ECONE/AP
n this photo taken Monday in Santa Maria, Calif., neighbor Lorie Armstrong, left, hugs Alberto Covarrubias Sr., who is
mourning the death of his son, Santa Maria Police OfficerAlberto Covarrubias Jr.
Police oicer killed in raid
for having sex with minor.

Harvard University
has largest fund at
$31.7 billion
NEW YORK (AP) - College
and university endowments made
gains in the fiscal year that ended
in June, but many are still strug-
gling to make up ground they lost
in 2008 and 2009, according to a
report released yesterday.
Data gathered from 823 U.S.
colleges and universities show
that the institutions' endowments
returned an average of 19.2 per-
cent for the 2011 fiscal year, the
National Association of College
and University Business Officers
and Commonfund said. That's up
from 11.9 percent in fiscal year
2010.
Still, NACUBO President John
Walda said 47 percent of the insti-
tutions have endowment market
values below what they reported
1 2008.
"Even though we had a really
great year, many of our institu-
tions are still not at a point where
they've recovered in terms of
value from the recession," Walda
said.
Harvard University had the
largest endowment of any U.S.
university at $31.7billion, up from
$27.5 billion in fiscal year 2010.
Yale was second with $19.4 billion.
At the other end of the scale were
colleges with small endowments
like Pennsylvania's Keystone Col-
lege with $7.1 million and Tennes-
see's Pellissippi State Community
College with $5.7 million.
Colleges typically spend
around 5 percent of their endow-
ment annually to boost spending
on things like faculty salaries,

student financial aid and other
operating costs. Most colleges
depend largely on tuition revenue
and government support, but at
elite universities, endowment
spending accounts for a substan-
tial partof the budget; at Harvard,
for instance, roughly one-third of
the operating budget comes from
income generated by the univer-
sity's endowment.
Steve McAllister, vice presi-
dent for finance at Washington
and Lee University in Lexington,
Va., said the university's $1.2 bil-
lion endowment allows it to offer
need-based financial aid to 45
percent of students.
"Last year markets were
strong," McAllister said. "You
do have periods like 2008 where
markets are less than coopera-
tive."
The 73 colleges and universi-
ties with endowments over $1 bil-
lion had returns of 20.1 percent
last fiscal year while those under
$25 million showed returns of 17.6
percent.
Verne Sedlacek, president and
CEO of Commonfund, which
manages money for colleges and
other nonprofit institutions, said
many of the smaller institutions
have low-risk investment strate-
gies that don't yield high returns.
Of the 20 largest endowments
on the list, five belong to public
universities such as the Univer-
sity of Texas and the University of
California that are facing budget
pressures from state legislatures.
"The challenge there is to try to
make up for what's going on with
state appropriations," Walda said.
The donations that colleges
rely on to replenish their coffers
also have not rebounded from
pre-recession levels.

California city
stunned by
revelations
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP)
When a police officer dies
on the job, a department and
a community mourn togeth-
er. But not this week in Santa
Maria, where they are too
stunned and outraged.
Officer Alberto Covarrubias
Jr. was shot and killed early
Saturday at the end of his shift
working a DUI checkpoint. The
shooter was his best friend on
the force and best man at his
wedding just three weeks ear-
lier.
More shocking still was
that the shooting occurred as
detectives moved in to arrest
Covarrubias, 29, on charges of
having sex with a 17-year-old
girl.
Now, as Covarrubias' family
prepares to bury him without a
police funeral, two retired offi-
cers who spoke to police at the
scene of the shooting offered
new details of the case:
- The girl was a member of
the department's Police Explor-
er program for young people
interested in law enforcement
careers.
L A lieutenant at the check-
point had alerted the officers
assembled, including Covarru-
bias, that the girl was part of an
investigation and that she was
going to be pulled off check-
point duty.
The former officers disclosed

the details to The Associated
Press only on condition of ano-
nymity. Police officials have not
returned repeated calls seeking
comment.
Since the shooting, a memo-
rial of candles and flowers has
risen where Covarrubias was
killed. The death of an officer
on duty is rare, though the city
came close in December when
two were wounded by "friendly
fire" during a botched SWAT
team raid.
"It doesn't make sense," said
Davinder Singh, who manages
the 7-11 store 50 yards from the
memorial. "It's not supposed to
happen that way."
Santa Maria, nestled
between oak-studded hills and
cooled by the Pacific 10 miles
away, is a mixture of 1950s
California and the kind of stuc-
co-clad, cookie-cutter develop-
ment seen elsewhere. Over the
years, Latinos have increasing-
ly moved in to the city about 170
miles northwest of Los Angeles.
It's easy to see their influ-
ence - they now comprise 70
percent of the city's 100,000
residents. A new Rite-Aid drug
store sits around the corner
from a Mexican herbal medi-
cine shop, Clinica Naturista.
And a throw-back hamburger
stand on the main drag serves
menudo, a Mexican stew, on
weekends.
Killings are uncommon; the
city averages less than a half-
dozen homicides a year, mostly
gang-related. But the recent
spate of violence hassome city
officials worried.

"We're in tough times trying
to get business and people to
settle here," said Mike Cordero,
a City Council member who
served 30 years on the Santa
Maria police force.
Police have disclosed few
details about the Covarrubias
case, leaving residents to won-
der why police felt compelled to
make the arrest while the four-
year veteran was on duty and
how it could have ended with a
bullet in the officer's chest.
Covarrubias' family wants
answers, too.
"What happened to proce-
dure?" asked his father, Alberto
Covarrubias Sr. "Why did they
go to arrest him in the field?
If it was so urgent why didn't
they just say there was a family
emergency and he had to come
to the station?"
Chief Danny R. Macagni
did not respond to repeated
requests for an interview, nor
did City Manager Rick Hayden
or City Attorney Gilbert Tru-
jillo.
At a news conference the
day after the shooting, neither
Macagni nor his top deputies
were wearing the black bands
across their badges that are
customary after an officer is
killed.
"Events unfolded very rapid-
ly," he said. "It was very clear to
the investigators that he knew
what was going to happen. I
cannot divulge why we know
that. The information that we
hail we knew we could not let
him get in the car and drive
somewhere.


Texas town forced to import water

Four or five water already treated liquid will be
hauled in from 17 miles away,
shipments needed treated a second time and put
into the town's water system.
each day "The hauling of water is just
a Band-Aid approach. It's just a
SPICEWOOD, Texas (AP) short-term approach," said Joe
- Under dark clouds and rain, Don Dockery, a Burnet County
two tanker trucks for the first commissioner that oversees the
time delivered thousands of Spicewood area.
gallons of water Monday to a LCRA realized last week
Texas town that came precari- how dire the situation was,
ously close to becoming the and informed Dockery on
state's first'community to run Monday. By the next day, the
out of water during a historic situation was worse - the well
drought. had dropped another 1.3 feet
The 8,000-gallon water deliv- overnight. The severest forms
ery arrived in Spicewood after of water restrictions were put
it became clear the village's in place, and LCRA said there
wells could no longer produce would be no new hookups to the
enough water to meet the needs town's water supply.
of the Lake Travis community's Ryan Rowney, manager of
1,100 residents and elemen- water operations for the LCRA,
tary school, said Clara Tuma, said the agency plans to truck
spokeswoman of the Lower Col- water into Spicewood for sever-
orado River Authority. al more weeks while exploring
Several towns and villages in alternatives, including drilling
Texas have come close to run- a new well or piping water from
ning out of water during the nearby Lake Travis. But the
driest year in Lone Star State agency doesn't want to rush into
history, but until now none has any project, and prefers for now
had to truck in water. Most to pay $200 per truckload of
found solutions to hold them water while ensuring the tens of
over, often paying tens of thou- thousands of dollars it will cost
sands of dollars to avoid hauling to find a permanent solution are
water, a scenario that conjures well-spent.
up images from the early 1900s, "If we need to haul every day,
when indoor plunibing was a we will. This will probably go
novelty. on for several more months,"
In reality, water stillran Mon- Rowney said.
day through pipes and faucets of Trucks, including at least one
the Central Texas town, though 6,000 gallon tanker, will make
the source will soon be differ- about four or five deliveries a
ent. Instead of being pumped day, he said, but the town will
from wells into the community's still have to remain under the
129,000-gallon storage tank - a severest water restrictions.
two day's supply of water - the "All you can do is take a bath,

a shower, and that's really all
you're allowed to do. You can
flush the commode, but even
that we're asking people to do
judiciously," Rowney said.
Spicewood is a community
about 35, miles from Austin,
home to many retirees who
spend their weekdays in the
city and drive to their lakeside
homes on the weekends. Resi-
dents are now being careful,
taking shorter showers, and
some are even bringing their
clothes to Laundromats.
Until last week, when it
became clear they could run out
water, the most exciting event
in Spicewood was the upcoming
wild game chili cookoff adver-
tised on a roadside sign at the
entrance to the small commu-
nity.
"When we had water it was
pretty nice here," deadpanned
Riley Walker a 73-year-old state
transportation employee.
Walker bought land in Spice-
wood in 1988 when only a hand-
ful of families lived here. He
built a house and moved into
town full time in 2002.
"I have faith they will haul
water in. They don't really have,
a choice, there are alot of people
here," Walker said.
Joe Barbera, president of the
local property owner's associa-
tion, said residents have been
"really worried about this for a
longtime now," but have always
been conservation minded.
"You look around and you
don't see any immaculate
lawns," he added. "This is just
normal use for a normal com-
munity."

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS,
President Barack Obaina sits ina Chevrolet Silverado at the Washington Auto
Show yesterday.
Oama praises auto
industry's comeback

President tries out
cars at Washington
. Auto Show
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Barack Obama hailed the
rebound of the U.S. auto indus-
try yesterday, trumpeting an
economic story he hopes to use
to his political advantage in key
Rust Belt states such as Michigan
and Ohio. In a not-so-veiled shot
at Republican presidential front-
runner Mitt Romney, Obama
said it was worth remembering
that there were some leaders
"willing to let this industry die."
Obama sat inside shiny new
plug-in electric hybrids and burly
trucks during a quick tour of the
Washington Auto Show, declar-
ing, "The U.S. auto industry is
back." Obama emphasized his
administration's rescue of Gen-
eral Motors and Chrysler from
the brink of collapse as Romney
was surging in Florida's GOP pri-
mary, a contest that could bring
him a step closer to winning the
Republican nomination.
The president did not men-
tion Romney by name, but told
reporters it was "good to remem-
ber the fact that there were some
folks who were willing to let this
industry die. Because of folks
coming together we are now
back at a place where we can
compete with any car company

in the world."
Romney spokeswoman
Andrea Saul said the former
Massachusetts governor was
"thrilled" to see the companies'
success but said it was "unfor-
tunate that the government first
attempted a bailout, which was
precisely as unsuccessful aq he
predicted, cost taxpayers bil-
lions, and left the government
improperly entangled in the pri-
vate sector."
For Obama, the auto bailout
has been a case study for his
efforts to revive the economy and
a potential point of contrast with
Romney, who opposed Obama's
decision to pour billions of dol-
lars into the auto companies. The
president's campaign views the
auto storyline as a potent argu-
ment against Romney, the son
of a Detroit auto executive who
later served as Michigan gover-
nor.
Indeed, the auto show tour
was just another example of
the White House taking every
opportunity to highlight its
efforts to rebuild the auto indus-
try, with aides frequently point-
ing to GM's reemergence as the
world's largest automaker and
job growth and profitability in
the U.S. auto industry.
. "The fact that GM is back, num-
ber one, I think shows the kind of
turnaround that's possible when it
comes to American manufactur-
ing," Obama said.

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