The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 7A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, Sephember 13, 2012 - 7A
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household income decreases
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Number of gap between rich and poor
increased. The median, or mid-
ericans without point, household income was
$50,054, 1.5 percent lower than
alth insurance 2010 and a second straight annu-
al decline.
also drops In a blog post, the White
House said the latest figures
HINGTON (AP) - show that government policies
anks of America's poor can help the poor, middle class
ed stuck at a record level and uninsured, while more work
ir while household income remains to be done.
d. Still, the number of "While we have made progress
who don't have health digging our way out of the worst
nce declined. economic crisis since the Great
Census Bureau report Depression, too many families
d Wednesday provided a are still struggling and Congress
picture of the economic must act on the policies Presi-
ing of U.S. households for dent Obama has put forward to
the nation enters the final strengthen the middle class and
of a presidential election those trying to get into it," the
gn in which the economy White House post said.
o. 1 issue. At a fundraising event in
overall poverty rate Jacksonville, Fla., Obama's GOP
it 15 percent, statistically rival for the White House, Mitt
ged from the 15.1 percent Romney, said the president "is
the previous year. Experts the candidate that's pushed the
pected a rise in the pov- middle class into poverty. We're
te for the fourth straight the party of those who want a
but unemployment ben- brighter, prosperous future for
d modest job gains helped themselves and for their kids.
hat off, the bureau report- We're not the party of the rich.
last year, the official pov- We're the party of the people
ae was an annual income who want to get rich."
021 for a family of four. By total numbers, roughly
le unemployment eased 46.2 million people remained
from 2010 to 2011, the below the poverty line last year,
unchanged from 2010. That fig-
ure was the highest in the more
than half a century that records
have been kept. The 15 percent
poverty rate was about the same
as it was in 1993 and was the
highest since 1983.
Broken down by state, New
Mexico had the highest share
of poor people, at 22.2 percent,
according to rough calculations
by the Census Bureau. It was
followed by Louisiana, the Dis-
trict of Columbia, South Caro-
lina, Arkansas and Georgia. On
the other end of the scale, New
Hampshire had the lowest, at 7.6
percent.
Bruce D. Meyer, an economist
at the University of Chicago, said
it was disappointing that pov-
erty levels did not improve. He
described it as a sign of linger-
ing problems in the labor mar-
ket, even with recent declines
in the unemployment rate. "The
drop in the unemployment rate
has been due in significant part
to workers leaving the labor
force, because they are discour-
aged, back in school, taking care
of family or other reasons," he
said.
Some economists were just
relieved that the poverty level
wasn't higher in the struggling
economy.
A soldier stands guard outside the Jazeera Hotel, the temporary home of Somalia's new president Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud, which was hit by two explosions in Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012.
New Somali president survives
attack on second day in office
Two suicide
bombers attempt
assassaination
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)
- Somalia's new president sur-
vived an assassination attempt
on his second day in office when
two suicide bombers blew them-
selves up Wednesday while try-
ing to gain access into a heavily
guarded hotel that is his tempo-
rary residence, officials and wit-
nesses said.
The attack highlights the chal-
lenge that insecurity caused by
an Islamist insurgency poses to
Somalia's fledgling government,
which is expected to help trans-
form the east African country
from being a failed state to one
with functioning government.
The African Union Mission for
Somalia said one of its soldiers
was killed when the two suicide
attackers attempted to penetrate
the Jazeera Hotel where the Pres-
ident Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
and Kenya s foreign minister
were giving a news conference.
Three soldiers were wounded in
the blast.
The two suicide bombers set
off explosions after they were
shot by soldiers guarding the
Jazeera Hotel, while another was
intercepted and shot dead as he
attempted to scale the walls of
the hotel's compound, the Afri-
can Union Mission for Somalia,
known as Amisom, said in a state-
ment.
Witnesses say at least one more
person was killed, bringing the
total death toll to a minimum of
five, including the three attack-
ers.
The president who was elected
by Parliament on Monday, was
undeterred by the explosions and
continued to speak to the media,
AMISOM said.
Al-Shabab, a radical Islamist
militia that is affiliated with al-
Qaida and waging an insurgency
against the Somali government,
quickly claimed responsibil-
ity for the attack. Al-Shabab had
opposed Mohamud s election,
saying it had been manipulated
by Western powers.
Somali parliamentarians were
tasked with electing a president
since no election could be held,
given the state of security around
the country.
African Union forces are help-
ing the Somali government fight
al-Shabab, which the U.S. has
designated as terrorist group and
which neighboringAfrican coun-
tries consider a threat.
Police Corp. Yusuf Ali said
he was guarding the Somalia
immigration department near
the Jazeera Hotel when the two
blasts occurred.
An Associated Press photog-
rapher inside the hotel for the
president's news conference with
Kenyan Foreign Minister Sam
Ongeri confirmed the two offi-
cials were safe. The photographer
said he saw at least five bodies
near the gate of the hotel. Witness
Mohammed Nuradin confirmed
that death toll.
President Mohamud has
taken up temporary residence
at Jazeera Hotel in a highly pro-
tected zone near the airport
before moving to the presidential
palace. During Monday's elec-
tion, he defeated Sheik Shariff
Sheikh Ahmed who was seeking
re-election as president after hav-
ing led a transitional government
for three years. Somalia has had
transitional administrations
since 2004.
Mohamud, 56, an academic
and activist, is expected to form
the county's first functioning cen-
tral government since 1991, when
warlords, overthrew a longtime
dictator.
JEFF CHIU/AP
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks in front of an image of the iPhone 5 during an Apple event in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sept.
12, 2012.
Apple unveils thinner iPhone
Missouri lawmakers rebut federal
contraception mandate in override
New phone, iPods to
come to U.S. stores
next Friday
SAN FRANCISCO - For the
first time, the iPhone is grow-
ing even as it slims down. After
sticking for five years to the same
screen size, Apple on Wednesday
revealed a new phone that's taller,
and has a bigger display.
The iPhone 5 will go on sale in
the U.S. and eight other countries
next Friday, Sept.21.
Even though it's taller than the
iPhone 4S, it's lighter, thanks to a
new screen technology that makes
the whole phone thinner.
The bigger screen - 4 inches
measured diagonally - creates
room for another row of icons on
the screen and lets widescreen
movies fit better. The calendar will
now show five days at a time instead
ofjustthree. Previous iPhone mod-
els carried 3.5-inch screens.
In another big change, the
iPhone 5 will come with the capa-
bility to connect to the fastest new
wireless data networks in the U.S.
and overseas.
The improvements mean the
iPhone 5 is taking a bigger leap
up the evolutionary chain than
its predecessor, which wasn't that
much different than the iPhone 4.
The new device also carries
another distinction: It's the first
iPhone developed and unveiled
since the death of Apple founder
Steve Jobs.
The iPhone that Jobs had con-
ceived ushered in what he billed
as "the post-PC era" - a shift that
is causing people to rely less on
personal computers and more on
mobile gadgets they can hold in
their hand. Jobs died last October
the day after Apple introduced the
iPhone 4S, which was the fifth
version of Apple's phone.
There was little surprise in
Wednesday's announcement.
Despite the pains the company
takes to hide its plans, the rough
launch date, the new screen and the
capability to connect to so-called
LTE networks had been reported
for months by blogs and analysts.
"There was nothing unexpect-
ed in terms of the new features of
the iPhone," said Tavis McCourt,
an analyst with Raymond James.
That's a contrast to last year,
when Apple watchers were first
surprised by a delay in the launch,
and then by the fact that the
iPhone 4S didn't offer much new
except Siri, a voice-activated assis-
tant. The 4S, nevertheless, has
been a smash success. During the
first nine months that the iPhone
4S was on the market, Apple's rev-
enue from iPhones has exceeded
$63 billion, helping to establish
Apple as the world's most valuable
company ever, as measured by its
stock price.
One thing that did surprise
McCourt this year: Apple is
launching the phone in so many
countries so quickly. On Day One,
the phone willbe available in Aus-
tralia, Canada, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and
the U.K., besides the U.S.
A week later, it will go on sale in
22 more countries, including Italy,
Poland and Spain.
Another surprise about the
iPhone 5 is that it's 18 percent
thinner than its predecessor. The
company was expected to take
advantage of any additional space
to expand the phone's battery, not
make the phone thinner.
Apple followed its usual script
for the new iPhone's coming-out
party. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Jobs'
hand-picked successor, kicked off
the festivities before an audience
of reporters, bloggers, applications
developers and specialguestswith
a summary of the company's mile-
stones. He then handed things
over to his top lieutenants, agroup
led by marketing chief Philip
Schiller and mobile software
executive Scott Forstall.
It has become such a familiar rit-
ual that Cook, Schiller and Forstall
all appeared to be wearing the
same attire as they did at Apple's
last product event in June. Adopt-
ing a personal work uniform was
something that Jobs embraced.
After learning that designer Issey
Miyake had made work uniforms
for Sony Corp. employees in Japan,
Jobs eventually paid Miyake to
make him the black mock turtle-
necks that became the signature
piece of clothing in an ensemble
that included jeans and New Bal-
ance sneakers.
With Jobs gone, the Apple exec-
utives left the showmanship to the
rock band Foo Fighters, who closed
outthetwo-hour presentationwith
three songs, including one called
"My Hero" dedicated to the com-
pany's employees for developing
products like thie iPhone 5.
It's the year's most antici-
pated phone. The number Apple
can sell, analysts believe, is lim-
ited mostly by the production
capacity of its suppliers. There
had been concerns that supplies
could be tight. Even so, analysts
are expecting Apple to sell tens
of millions of phones before the
year is out, including perhaps as
many as 10 million during the
last 10 days of this month.
Gubenatorial veto
overriden in rebuke
of Obama policy
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)
- Missouri lawmakers enacted
new religious exemptions from
insurance coverage of birth con-
trol Wednesday, overriding a
gubernatorial veto and delivering
a political rebuke to an Obama
administration policy requiring
insurers to cover contraception.
Although Missouri and 20
other states already had some
sort of exemption from contra-
ceptive coverage, Missouri's
newly expanded law appears to
be the first in the nation directly
rebutting the federal contracep-
tion mandate, according to the
National Conference of State
Legislatures and supporters of
the law.
Republican legislative lead-
ers barely met the two-thirds
majority needed to override the
veto by Gov. Jay Nixon. They
got help from a few of Nixon's
fellow Democrats and ultimate-
ly persuaded one particular
Republican lawmaker who had
opposed the measure to support
the override.
The Senate vote was 26-6.
The House vote was 109-45, the
minimum needed for an over-
ride. Most provisions of the new
law took effect immediately,
though some parts won't kick in
for another 30 days.
Shortly after the vote, an
attorney for the Greater Kansas
City Coalition of Labor Union
Women said it was seeking an.
injunction against the measure.
Among other things, the suit
being filed in Cole County Cir-
cuit Court claims the new Mis-
souri law conflicts with President
Barack Obama's health care law
and thus should be struck down.
The Missouri measure was
championed by the Missouri
Catholic Conference, Missouri
Right to Life and other religious
and anti-abortion groups. Sup-
porters said it is meant to register
their disapproval of a policy by
President Barack Obama's admin-
istration that requires insurers to
cover birth control at no addition-
al cost to women, including those
employed by religiously affiliated
nonprofits such as hospitals, col-
leges or charities.
Numerous pending lawsuits
claim the federal policy infringes
on religious rights, including one
filed Wednesday by Christian-
oriented Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.
"This bill is about protecting
our religious liberties. This bill
is about protecting businesses
from the overreach of govern-
ment," said Rep. Sandy Craw-
ford, R-Buffalo, who handled
the legislation in the House.
ROSS SCHOOL OF RUSINES S
~.LURI NTTT
Zell Lurie Institute
Entrepreneurship Programs
Information Session
Learn about Start-up Grants
($500-$10,000), Michigan Business
Challenge, TechArb Accelerator
and more!
Today! 9/13, 5:30 PM
Ross School of Business R0220
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