The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 3A * NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT Panel: Detroit in "severe financial emergency" A review team appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to examine Detroit's troubled finances deter- mined yesterday that a "severe financial emergency" exists in the city, a finding that could lead to the appointment of an emergency manager should state and city leaders fail to agree on an alterna- tive solution in time. Before the unanimous vote clarifying the depths of Detroit's fiscal problems, review team member and former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Conrad Mallett Jr. said the city's "old way of doing things has got to stop." The panel's vote came one day after an Ingham County judge sidelined a state-appointed emer- gency manager for the city of Flint, putting the mayor and City Council back in charge because of open meetings violations. Michi- gan officials criticized the Flint ruling yesterday and pledged to appeal. BOULDER CITY, Nev. Obama pledges to * pursue promise of clean energy President Barack Obama says that as long as he is in the White House, the U.S. will continue to pursue the promise of clean ener- gy. Speaking at a solar power facil- ity, Obama says he will not stand by and let countries like China or Germany corner the market on new energy technologies. He says clean energy will not only reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, it also will create jobs in the U.S. Obama mocked Republicans for having a lack of imagina- tion and dismissing clean energy technologies just because they are new. The president says America must take risks and stay ahead of the curve in order to be competitive. TOULOUSE, France Jewish leader: Toulouse suspect readied new attack A French Jewish leader says the gunman suspected in seven recent killings and claiming alle- giance to al-Qaida was about to strike again. Marc Sztulman of Jewish group CRIF said President Nico- las Sarkozy told community lead- ers the suspect was ready to attack again yesterday morning, before French police decided to surround his apartment building in the southwestern city of Toulouse. Twelve hours into the stand- off between the gunman and police, Sarkozy said the suspect is still "surrounded by the forces of order." CAIRO Egypt's Brother- hood mulling run for president The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political group, said yesterday it is consid- ering running its own candidate in upcoming presidential elec- tions, dropping its previous deci- sion to avoid direct participation in the race. The group appears to be play- ing one of its last cards in a power struggle against the ruling mili- tary council, after it failed to force the military to replace its Cabinet with a new one appoint- ed by the Islamist-dominated parliament. If a Brotherhood fields a can- didate and wins the presidency, the group would control the two main branches of power. In par- liamentary elections, the first since a popular uprising unseat- ed President Hosni Mubarak last year, it won nearly half the seats. -Compiled from Daily wire reports DOG THERAPY From Page 1A say how they miss their family dog or how hard it was for them to lose their dogs." Farrehi said she rescued Tig- ger from North Philadelphia a few years ago, and she immedi- ately realized Tigger's potential to become a therapy dog due to his friendly and calm demeanor. "The human-animal con- nection has been studied for some time now," Farrehi said. "We know pets can help reduce stress, blood pressure and even make us healthier." Farrehi added that she start- ed developing the program last year and piloted "therapy dog hours" in partnership with the Counseling and Psychological Services and College of Engi- neering this academic year. The official office hours program was approved this semester, Farrehi said. "Students usually come to visit Tigger when they are stressed out and need to relax," Farrehi said. "The therapy dog is there for students to pet and interact with, and generally help them feel good." According to Farrehi, the feedback from students has been entirely positive and has garnered enthusiasm around campus from students of all aca- demic disciplines. "We joke that Tigger's paws never hit the ground while he's on campus because everyone wants to hold him," Farrehi said. "We've had such a wide range of students, and Tigger is lov- ingly referred to as 'Dr. Tiggs' by many students." Laura Blake Jones, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said Tig- ger provides the College of Engineering with an innovative approach for the COE to reach out to students. "There is a growing body of research that supports the use of pet therapy in medical settings and schools," Jones said. Jones added that pet therapy is an effective way to supple- ment conventional counseling methods offered on campus. "All those connections and conduits to help get students to the resources and having a healthy campus community is what we are about doing," Jones said. "And this is an important part of it." Engineering Dean David Munson said he believes many mental problems commonly affecting large communities also impact University students. "We are not immune. Men- tal health issues are prevalent and need to be de-stigmatized," Munson said. "We need to be proactive and care for one another. Fortunately, we have outstanding resources on our campus to assist in this effort." A March 6 National Public Radio story highlighted many of the physical and psychologi- cal therapeutic benefits students can receive through spending time with animals. Rebecca Johnson, director of the Research Center for Human- Animal Interaction at the Uni- versity of Missouri's Sinclair School of Nursing, told NPR that an individual's level of oxytocin rises after an interaction with animals. Johnson pointed out that not' only does oxytocin induces feel- ings of joy within humans, it also has profound effects on our brain's ability to heal and gener- ate new cells. Engineering senior Luree Brown said her experience with the therapy dog has been very positive. "You just look into his eyes, and you instantly feel better," Brown said. "Dogs have an abil- ity to tell your feelings, and he returns the love that you need. Mental healthiness is almost the hardest healthiness to obtain, however, Dr. Tiggs makes it easy." Brown added that a therapy dog takes away the anxiety some people have when seeking con- ventional therapy. "The therapy dog greets you with excited wags of his tail," Brown said. "I think that he has become a celebrity on cam- pus now. People from all majors (and) ages are lining up just to have a session." RECYCLING From Page 1A "We had a little bit of a blip last year because a lot of people were donating their used fea- ture phones, wanting to buy new smart phones," he said. "We had to work down our inventory a little bit, but we're back on the growth curve and growing20-25 percent a year." McKeown said the company prefers "recommercing" the phones they receive because it allows for the reuse of old phones instead of remakingnew ones. "Recommercing is better than recycling because it gives (cell phones) a second or third life and you won't have to make a new one," he said. "Those phones that are at the end of their useful life, we recycle those with our recycling partners. We're zero landfill ... we audit our partners so we make sure we have things done the right way." McKeown said the environ- mental impact ReCellular has made has been significant. "We've saved hundreds of thousands of pounds of landfill," he said. "We recycle enough gold to make five to six thousand wedding bands, and we recycle enough copper to actually wrap the Statue of Liberty." Rita Loch-Caruso, aprofessor in the School of Public Health and the Department of Envi- ronmental Health Sciences, said improper disposal of electronic devices can be hazardous to the environment because they can release potent chemicals into the air. "Among the many concerns, electronic devices have toxic chemicals that can get released into the environment during recycling," she said. "Exposure of workers (in the recycling industry) is also a concern." Loch-Caruso explained that many of the harmful chemicals that electronics emit are "endo- crine disruptors," which means that they interfere with hor- mones in humans and animals and can result in a variety of permanent developmental prob- lems. LSA senior Jennifer Thomas said she switches phones when her contract ends every two years, and chooses to keep her old phones rather than throw them away or recyclingthem. "I don't think I've ever thrown (a cell phone) away," Thomas said. "I feel like I have a stock pile at home ... I gave my latest one to my nephew to play with." LSA junior Megan Cole explained that while she recy- cled her first phone herself, her current carrier, AT&T, now recy- cles her phones for her. "When I was with Verizon still, I took it to an electronic recycler, but the second time when I switched, AT&T took it at the store," she said. i HEALTH CARE From Page 1A said. "Everything we can do to assure a higher level of insurance for poor students is a good idea." Winfield added that while more than 3,000 students sub- scribed to University-offered insurance program a decade ago when premiums were about $1,000, only 1,350 students are enrolled today as premiums are now near $3,000. "We are seeing people drop out at the rate of 150 to 250 (stu- dents) every year," Winfield said. "We're facing this problem and not yet sure how to solve it." The UHS survey also found that of the students who have insurance coverage, 67 percent responded that they were cov- ered by their parents' plans, while 30 percent said they were not and 3 percent said they were unsure. Of those who were cov- ered by their parents' plans, 80 percent said they were covered before the enactment of the health care reform. "Every time you manipulate something, you change the cost of the insurance, and students are price-sensitive," Winfield said. "I would prefer to see that all students have to have a mini- mum level of health insurance. I think that is not explicit in the ACA law, which says everybody should have health insurance, but the penalty is such that it doesn't really rise to the level of feeling mandatory." Mark Fendrick, co-director of the University's Center for Value- Based Insurance Design, said one of the most important facets of the reforms is the free high-prior- ity preventative care Americans, including University students, can now receive with no co-pay. These "high-value preventive treatments" include obesitycoun- seling, immunizations, cholester- ol screening, depression testing, tobacco use counseling and tests for sexually transmitted diseases, according to Fendrick. "It's been very exciting to see a report from the Kaiser Fam- ily Foundation that showed that approximately 73 million Ameri- cans between the ages of 0 and 64 have private coverage, and because of this expansion of pre- ventive services in the Affordable Care Act, 54 million Americans have access to high-value preven- tive treatments that they did not have before," Fendrick said. In November, Fendrick was invited by the offices of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo) to testify before the Affordable Care Act and the the Senate Committee on Health, health plans to take the results of Education, Labor & Pensions those screenings one step further about a policy developed by the to allow those individuals who test University regarding the value- positive easy access to providers based insurance design. Fendrick and treatments," Fendrick said. explained that the model includes Winfield said financial aid for reducing barriers, such as co- health care coverage would be pays, for patients and providing preferable, but not probable with access to some of the high-value the current economic climate. He medical services that were includ- added that students face a double- ed in Obama's health care law. edged sword when choosing to Fendrick added that the cover- pay for their own health insur- age of preventative measures is a ance coverage. good start, but there needs to be "If you don't have insurance increased accessibility to treat- and you get sick, you have big ment for individuals who are financial difficulties," Winfield diagnosed as high-riskor test pos- said. "On the other hand, if you itive in preventative medical tests. have insurance that's so expen- "What I would love to seesive, then you might not be able extended is, say, once a Univer- to stay in school. The lynchpin is sity of Michigan student were financial aid, depending on the to be screened for depression or cost of the insurance." screened for sexually transmit- ted diseases ... (I would like for) VIOLATIONS From Page 1A hearing for that," Borock said. "Yes, there are 10 hearings scheduled, but that doesn't mean there are 10 valid complaints or any valid complaints." Twenty-seven demerits have already been issued to candi- dates who missed a manda- tory candidates' meeting. LSA sophomore Louis Mirante, the MForward vice presidential can- didate, and LSA freshman Swati Sudarsan, an MForward candi- date for assembly representative, each received two demerits as the result of a complaint filed by members of youMICH concern- ing chalking on the Diag. Addi- tionally, MForward, as a party, received two demerits as a result of the violation of chalking pol- icy, which concerns guidelines for proximity of campaign chalk material to other campaigns' advertising. Since presidential and vice presidential slates are issued demerits as a pair and not indi- vidually, Mirante and LSA junior Aditya Sathi, the MForward presidential candidate, have three total demerits - Sathi missed the candidates' meeting and Mirante received two from the hearing concerning chalk- ing. A source affiliated with CSG who wished to remain annony- LIKE THE DAILY ON FACEBOOK mous said these demerits have been part of a strategic plan by youMICH and OurMichigan to remove their rivals through tech- nicalities. "OurMichigan seems to be trying to sue other parties out of the election and deny the student body's democratic right to choose which campaign should win," the source said. "youMICH, although they haven't alleged as many suits, tried to sue MFor- ward out of the election." The source added that you- MICH alleged that each of three instances of MForward's supposed chalking infractions should result in four demerits, which would give MForward 12 total demerits. With 12 demerits, MForward and all 37 of its candi- dates would be disqualified from the elections. Of the 14 complaints, eight Respondent observing it, it's doing a disser- ent ytorMICH vice to all students," Mersol-Barg yen MFor ward said. "It's not part of a strategy to Iey Tina GallagherMFctrad win." ,en Manish Parikh(Independent) Borock added that there are ty Tyktus Manish Par ikh(Independent) safeguards to prevent a campaign youMICH from suing its way to electoral victory, including a provision to have been filed by LSA junior maintain "equity" Robert Bowen. Bowen was for- "I interpret to mean that ... if merly the campaign manager there are extenuating circum- of MForward but Public Policy stances that the UEC can be more junior Kevin Mersol-Barg, the lenient or if somethingis particu- OurMichigan presidential candi- larly egregious, malicious, wan- date, said Bowen is now affiliated ton, willful then we can be more with the OurMichigan campaign. Mersol-Barg also said the source's claims about OurMichi- gao are untrue. "OurMichigan, for one, can win on its own merits," he said. "We have more endorsements than any other candidate or slate of tickets. I think our work speaks for itself" Mersol-Barg added that wrongdoings by other parties ' were so egregiousthat OurMichi- L '' gan also had to file complaints. t) "If we let all of these other candidates get away with com- mitting these grave violations (to) harsh," Borock said. He continued, saying that a candidate being disqualified does not reflect well on the elections. "I don't think that's good for the University. I don't think that's good for the students," Borock said. "The point of an election is to have students choose who their student body leaders are." Borock also mentioned that turnout for the election has already exceeded his expecta- tions, noting that over 14 percent 0 I< U SAi/TUIRY 24nh IBAE4PE 431 EAST LIBERTY SUIE 200 ANN ARMED U i41S4 BRING A VAlS ID All A ECENT PISTI. YU UIUT EA 21Erou S m TE IE IKU ' 1N ota IPAR TO EBETWEENMTHIRESEOF 20551324 K~~~~W 6(EONWWU II A I s )