The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 5A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 5A

POLICY
From Page 1A
"In the Michigan Senate, if
someone moves for immedi-
ate effect, they actually count
the vote and make sure there is
a two-thirds majority," Irwin
said. "In the House of Repre-
sentatives, there is a longstand-
ing practice of not counting the
votes ... immediate effect has just
become a routine in the Legisla-
ture."
Irwin said Democrats have
been exasperated to the point of
physical objection on the floor to
the motion of immediate effect.
"We made (a call for a roll call
vote) in writing, we made it ver-
bally, we tried jumping up and
down on the House floor and
waving our arms to try and get
the Speaker's attention," Irwin
said.
A temporary injunction
involving three bills passed with
immediate action was reviewed
Monday, in addition to the state
Democrats' lawsuit, but it was
ultimately stayed by the Court of
BIRDS
From Page 1A
O Foighil, director of the Muse-
um of Zoology, said the shipment
is important because there are not
many Hawaiian Birds in the Uni-
versity's collection, as compared
to from other locations. He added
the vast majority of extinctions
have happened on the Pacific
Islsnd, and studying the birds
cai help conservation efforts for
Newell's Shearwaters.
"The neat thing about these
specimens is that you can get
insights into all aspects of their
biology," 6 Foighil said.
O Foighil said the collections
in the Museum of Zoology have
a "global frame of reference,"
despite its midwestern location.
Two thirds of the world's species
of birds are represented in the
collection, and the set has a large
sampling of birds from South
Asia, Africa and North America.
"We try and preserve a sample
of everything that we can because
' you never know what somebody

Appeals.
Irwin said though both par-
ties have moved for immediate
effect when they held the major-
ity, the process has begun to be
abused in matters that heavily
influence Michigan citizens.
Irwin cited the GSRA union-
ization ban, passed Feb. 21, and
the domestic-partner benefits
ban, passed Dec. 22, as immedi-
ate effect legislation that passed
without a two-thirds majority.
Ari Adler, Bolger's press sec-
retary, said the practice of imme-
diate effect has been in place for
many years and has not provento
be problematic.
"(The House Republicans)
believe we will prevail in the
lawsuit," Adler said. "The pro-
cedures we follow in the House
are constitutional, they follow
the House rules and they follow
longstanding precedent through-
out the legislative history."
Adler said House Democrats
are attempting to politicize a leg-
islative tradition by turning to
legal action.
"The House Democrats are
trying to score political points

by raising this as an issue when
it really hasn't been one for
decades," Adler said.
According to Adler, 98 per-
cent of the legislation passed in
the previous term from 2009 to
2011, under a Democratic major-
ity, was passed under immediate
effect.
Adler said immediate effect
has become necessary since
the legislative session has was
expanded after 1963, delaying
important legislation from going
into law.
"Because we have sessions
now that go all the way through
the year, if you were to pass a
bill this week, for example, and
it did not go under immediate
effect, it would not go into effect
until almost a year later," Adler
said.
Adler said there is no issue in
the use of immediate effect in
the House and all regulations are
being followed.
"We don't see anything
wrong with the way the votes
have been handled; they follow
the constitution and the House
rules."

DINGELL
From Page 1A
called the environment the most
central issue to his campaign.
After learning about the amount
of pollutants emitted by an aver-
age coal plant and the lack of
accountability placed on plant
owners by the government, he
said he believes that manufactur-
ing plants should be charged not
just for carbon emissions, but also
for mercury and lead emissions.
"Everybody in the environ-
mental movement knows that
Dingell is not with them, but he
likes to pretend that he is," Mar-
cin said. "That's just the way
that he's been forever."
Marcin noted thathis decision
to enter the race also stemmed
from his desire to reform the tax
code, which he claims "needs to
take a bath." One reform propos-
al Marcin offered was the option
for taxpayers to write in direc-
tions for how 20 percent of their
taxes should be spent.
"I don't know of any other
Congressman that wants to give
that power to ordinary people,"
Marcin said. "I've never heard
that proposed, and that's anoth-
er idea that I don't think people
are against - I just don't think
they've ever even considered it."
Marcin said he cast himself as
a political outsider whose ideas,
including the proposal for mer-
cury and lead emissions taxes,

were not derived from either
Democratic or Republican plat-
forms or ideals.
Referring to Dingell's per-
ceived status as the Dean of
the House of Representatives,
Marcin said he doesn't believe
Dingell does an adequate job
supporting working families.
"You can go to his website,
right there, right in your face
it says 'Fighting for Michigan's
Working Families,"' Marcin
said. "That doesn't mean any-
thing to me."
Zinnia Kallabat, an admin-
istr or for Dingell's campaign,
refuted Marcin's charge that
Dingell's promise to fight for the
families of Southeast Michigan
is meaningless.
"Whether it is affordable
health care, protecting Medi-
care from Republican attempts
to replace it with a voucher sys-
tem, making sure our food is safe
and our water is clean, or fight-
ing to bring jobs to our region,
the well-being of the families
of Michigan is his top prior-
ity," Kallabat wrote in an e-mail
interview.
Kallabat also denied the
notion that Dingell has mar-
ginally considered issues of
pollution, climate change and
contamination of the Great
Lakes. In his 57 years in Con-
gress, Dingell has held oil com-
panies responsible for spills,
authored the Clean Air Act and
pushed forward the cleanup of

the Detroit River, according to
Kallabat.
"Protecting our environ-
ment and making sure we have
a secure energy future are and
have been critical issues for
Congressman Dingell," she
wrote. "In Southeast Michigan,
you can see the impact from his
leadership."
Dingell's opponent in the
2002 Democratic primary elec-
tion was Lynn Rivers, a four-
term incumbent in Congress
who landed in Dingell's district
due to state redistricting follow-
ing the 2000 Census. Dingell
defeated Rivers by a margin of
59 percent to 41 percent.
His most recent challenge in
the general election was in 2010,
when he defeated Ann Arbor
cardiologist Rob Steele with 56
percent of the vote. After con-
ceding defeat, Steele said the
vote was closer than he had
anticipated.
Though Marcin said his can-
didacy is "a long shot," Kallabat
wrote that Dingell is not brush-
ing off Marcin's chances.
Marcin said he is hopeful
because he believes Ann Arbor
could be receptive to a candi-
date who is attentive to environ-
mental issues and supportive of
same-sex marriage.
"Here's my question: At the
end of the day, what's John
Dingell going to do in his 30th
term that he couldn't do in his
first 29?" he asked.


wants to study in the future,"
Hinshaw said.
Newell's Shearwaters spend
most of their adult lives at sea,
and only return to the Hawaiian
island of Kaua'i to breed and incu-
bate their eggs. The birds are cur-
rently listed as endangered on the
International Union for Conser-
vation of Nature Red List, which
aims to determine the conserva-
tion status of many species.
Bird Division Collection Man-
ager Janet Hinshaw said the birds
eat food in the ocean during the
day and fly back to their burrows
at night during egg incubation,
noting they sometimes get dis-
tracted by the bright lights and
end up crashing to their death.
Hinshaw said she specifically
had to request the specimens
from the FWS, since the service
keeps useful specimens for only
a limited amount of time before
destroyingthem.
"The only way to keep (the
specimens) alive for scholarly
work indefinitely is through a
research museum," 6 Foighil said.
6 Foighil noted that the muse-

um has specimens that date back
to the 1830s that allow for contin-
ued academic study.
"We don't know what people
are goingto be doing in the future,
so that's why we tryto save things
in as many different forms as pos-
sible," Hinshaw said.
Hinshaw said she preserved
the specimens as both round skins
and flat skins. Ina round skin, the
innards and the majority of the
bird's bones are taken out and the
skin is dried and stuffed with cot-
ton to allow study and measure-
ment of the size, girth and length
of the specimen. Ina flat skin, the
innards are also taken out, but
the bones within one wing and
one leg are left complete, and the
bird is preserved with one wing
stretched out. This allows the
form and length of a specimen's
wing to be studied.
She added that the skull and
most of the skeleton is also pre-
served for study, and that a small
tissue sample for DNA analysis
and wing clippings for isotope
analysis were also taken from the
specimens.


PROGRAM
From Page 1A
business incubator, which is
sponsored by the College of Engi-
neering's Center for Entrepre-
neurship, the Zell Lurie Institute
for Entrepreneurial Studies and
the Office of the Vice President
for Research.
Schiff said what sets Fetch-
notes apart from other products,
such as popular digital note-
sharing applications like Ever-
note, is its ability to organize
small amounts of information in
a small, efficient number of steps.
"There's not something that
satisfies that point for the notes
that might be three or four words

and not three or four pages,"
Schiff said.
Horak said he's helped develop
the application to have "extreme
speed and simplicity," addingthat
beta users have contributed sev-
eral suggestions on how people
can utilize Fetchnotes, including
ways to count calories and com-
pile notes for a book.
Schiff said he got the idea for
Fetchnotes after the notes on
his BlackBerry memo pad were
deleted one day and not retriev-
able since they were only saved
to his phone and no other exter-
nal services. Schiff talked to his
peers, and his mission for a bet-
ter mobile phone note service
became viable for mass consump-
tion.

So far, Schiff said the project
has been "bootstrapped" and
has very little funding. Despite
the financial challenges, look-
ing ahead, Schiff and Horak said
they'd like to have the application
take on a "freemium" format, in
which users can access the pro-
gram's basic functions free of
charge, but also have the option
to pay for additional features.
Schiff and Horak added that
they're looking forward to fund-
ing models that involve garnering
potential advertising opportuni-
ties from businesses.
"There's a lot of people that
want to sell business ideas, but
you would be very hard-pressed
to find someone who wants to buy
one," Schiff said.


BANNERS
From Page 1A
ber (1991-93). Joining Webber
were Maurice Taylor (1993-97),
Robert "Tractor" Traylor (1995-
98) and Louis Bullock (1995-99).
An ensuing NCAA ruling
imposed a bevy of restrictions and
sanctions on the basketball pro-
gram, capped by a 10-year forced
disassociation between the Uni-
versity and the four players and
the teams they represented. That
10-year period ends in 2013.
"From my point of view, tak-
ing the banners down was the
right thing to do because it was a
very difficult time for the Univer-

sity and we were ashamed of what
happened because the University
has higher standards than that,".
Coleman said. "We're the Univer-
sity of Michigan - that shouldn't
happen."
Coleman's contrast those made
by former University President
James Duderstadt, who held that
position during the Fab Five's
Final Four runs in 1992 and 1993.
In anticipation of an ESPN doc-
umentary featuring the Fab Five
released last March, Duderstadt
told Yahoo that if he were still the
University's president, he would
"certainlytry to find a way" to put
the bannersback up.
"The players themselves, I don't
think (they) caused us any harm

at all," Duderstadt said of the Fab
Five. "I don't think it was a good
idea to pull down the NCAA ban-
ners or try to hide the seasons. I
view them as a positive part of the
University's history."
Within the documentary itself,
though, Coleman and Athletic
Director Dave Brandon stood
steadfast that the University
should not raise the banners once
the 10-year separation ends.
Brandon said the University
would be injuring its image by
turning a blind eye to a gambling
and money-laundering scandal,
even if it's a decade old.
The effect of that decision,
though, is that the actions of four
players spoiled the legacy of a long

string of Michiganteams and indi-
vidual players. Webber's Fab Five
teammate Jalen Rose produced
the ESPN documentary in hopes
of boosting the image of the scan-
dal-ridden program. But it hasn't
changed the University adminis-
trators' minds.
"The reality is that it's a team
sport," Brandon said in the docu-
mentary. "The team wins together
and the team loses together and
the team is accountable together.
"Do I think it's fair to (the play-
ers) individually? No. Do I think
it's the only way we can handle it
institutionally? Yes."
Brandon said the University
had apologized for its actions dur-
ing the 1990s, and he asked that

Webber do the same. Webber has
not yetcommented and didn't con-
tribute to the Fab Five report.
Coleman determined that the
scandal was on a larger scale than
just the basketball program - it
was University-wide.
"That was my analysis - that
the higher-ups who should have
known didn't ask questions - and
it damaged the University and the
program for a very long time,"
Coleman said Tuesday.
Brandon was unavailable for
comment on Wednesday and has
not publicly commented on the
topic since last March.
The decision regarding wheth-
er to raise the banners once again
has not yet been discussed by the

Athletic Department or the Uni-
versity administration, though it
remains to be seen whether the
NCAA would even allow Michi-
gan to raise banners in 2013 that
are notofficially recognized.
Until then, the banners will sit,
as they have for the past decade,
placed on a shelf beside a nonde-
script cardboard box, each plastic
roll bearing a one-line description:
1992 NCAA FINAL FOUR
BANNER
1993 NCAA FINAL FOUR
BANNER
For now, they remain dusty, for-
bidden and forgotten.
- Daily Staff Reporter Peter
Shahin contributed to this report.


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