The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, September19, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Two Michiganders
killed by West Nile,
death toll hits eight
Michigan Department of
Community Health officials say
two more Michigan residents
have died after contracting West
Nile Virus, the eighth human
fatalities from the mosquito-
* borne disease in the state this
year.
The deaths reported Tues-
day in the department's weekly
summary include an 87-year-old
Macomb County man and a
65-year-old Ogemaw County
man. State health officials say
the fatalities are part of five new
reported West Nile cases.
Officials tell The Macomb
Daily of Mount Clemens the
87-year-old man died earlier this
month in Macomb County.
As of Tuesday, 160 cases have
been reported statewide. The
state says there were 34 cases and
two deaths in 2011.
RALEIGH, N.C.
Feds: N.C. sheriff
targeted Latinos
A two-year investigation by
the U.S. Department of Justice
has found that a North Carolina
sheriff and his deputies routinely
discriminated against Latinos by
makingunwarranted arrests with
the intent of maximizing deporta-
tions.
In an 11-page report issued
Tuesday, the federal agency said
Alamance County Sheriff Terry
S. Johnson and his deputies vio-
lated the constitutional rights of
U.S. citizens and legal residents
by illegally targeting, stopping,
detaining and arresting Latinos
without probable cause.
The agency also said that
Johnson obstructed the federal
investigation launched in 2010
by withholding requested docu-
ments and falsifying records.
Federal investigators say mem-
bers of the department also
feared retaliation if they cooper-
ated.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia
YouTube blocks
anti-Islam film to
* halt Saudi protests
YouTub said Tuesday that it
wasstopplhgusers in SaudiArabia
from vie mlog an anti-Islam video
that has sparked protests across
thelMuslim world, after the king-
dom's press agency reported that
therp4ir had banned all access to
thefim and the site appeared to
be §lecked there.
The online video sharing site
said that it was preventing"Inno-
cence of Muslims" from being
seen on its site in Saudi Arabia
after being notified by the gov-
ernment there that the clip is
breaking the country's laws.
Google Inc., YouTube's owner,
has blocked access to the video in
Libya and Egypt following vio-
lence there, and in Indonesia and
India because it says the video
broke laws in those countries.
ANCHORAGE
Alaskans to get
$878 in yearly oil
wealth payout
It's not much - $878- but Sina
Takafua isn't balking at her first
annual payout from Alaska's oil
savings account.
"I'mjusthappy. It'sfreemoney,"
she said of the amount after taxes
that she'll receive just for living in
the state, in her case the northern-
most town of Barrow.
State officials on Tuesday
announced the amount of Alaska
Permanent Fund dividends to
be distributed Oct. 4 to all men,
women and children who have
lived in the state for at least one
year. This time around, that's
nearly 647,000 people.
This year's amount is the low-
est since 2005 and the ninth-
lowest in the program that began
three decades ago. Last year's
dividend was $1,174.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Judge upholds
immigration law
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks after the teachers union House of Delegates voted to suspend their strike Tuesday.
Chicago teachers end
strike, return to school
98 percent of the
700-plus delegates
vote to end strike
CHICAGO (AP) - The city's
teachers agreed Tuesday to
return to the classroom after
more than a week on the picket
lines, ending a spiteful stalemate
with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that
put teacher evaluations and job
security at the center of a nation-
al debate about the future of pub-
lic education.
Union delegates voted over-
whelmingly to formally suspend
the strike after discussing details
of a proposed contract settle-
ment worked out over the week-
end. Classes were to resume
Wednesday.
Delegates poured out of a
South Side union hall singing
"solidarity forever."
"I'm very excited. I miss my
students. I'm relieved because
I think this contract was better
than what they offered," said
America Olmedo, who teaches
fourth- and fifth-grade bilin-
gual classes. "They tried to take
everythingaway."
Said Shay Porter, a teacher
at the Henderson Academy ele-
mentary school: "We ignited the
labor movement in Chicago."
The walkout, the first in Chi-
cago in 25 years, shut down the
nation's third-largest school dis-
trict just days after 350,000 stu-
dents had returned from summer
vacation. Tens of thousands of
parents were forced to find alter-
natives for idle children, includ-
ing many whose neighborhoods
have been wracked by gang vio-
lence in recent months.
Union Presifdent Karen Lewis
said the union's 700-plus del-
egates voted 98 percent to 2 per-
cent to reopen the schools.
"Wesaidthatwecouldn'tsolve
all the problems ofthe world with
one contract," Lewis said. "And it
was time to end the strike."
Tuesday's vote was not on
the contract offer itself, but on
whether to continue the strike.
The contract will now be sub-
mitted to a vote by the full mem-
bership of more than 25,000
teachers.
The walkout was the first for
a major American city in at least
six years. It drew national atten-
tion because it posed a high-
profile test for teachers unions,
which have seen their political
influence threatened by a grow-
ing reform movement. Unions
have pushed back against efforts
to expand charter schools, bring
in private companies to help
with failing schools and link
teacher evaluations to student
test scores.
The strike carried political
implications, too, raising the
risk of a protracted labor battle
in President Barack Obama's
hometown at the height of the
fall campaign, with a prominent
Democratic mayor and Obama's
former chief of staff squarely
in the middle. Emanuel's force-
ful demands for reform have
angered the teachers.
The teachers walked out Sept.
10 after months of tense contract
talks that for a time appeared
to be headed toward a peaceful
resolution.
Emanuel and the union agreed
in July on a deal to implement a
longer school day with a plan to
hire back 477 teachers who had
been laid off rather than pay reg-
ular teachers more to work lon-
ger hours. That raised hopes the
contract would be settled before
the start of fall classes, but bar-
gainingstalled on other issues.
Emanuel decried the teach-
ers' decision to leave classrooms,
calling the walkout unnecessary
and a "strike of choice."
Almost from the beginning,
the two sides couldn'teven agree
on whether they were close to a
deal. Emanuel said an agreement
was within easy reach and could
be sealed with school in session.
The union insisted that dozens of
issues remained unresolved.
Chicago's long history as a
union stronghold seemed to
work to the teachers' advantage.
As they walked the picket lines,
they were joined by many of
the very people who were most
inconvenienced by the work
stoppage: parents who had to
scramble to find babysitters or a
supervised place for children to
pass the time.
To win friends, the union
representing 25,500 teachers
engaged in something of a pub-
licity campaign, telling parents
repeatedly about problems with
schools and the barriers that
have made it more difficult to
serve their kids. They described
classrooms that are stifling hot
without air conditioning, impor-
tant books that are unavailable
and supplies as basic as toilet
paper that are sometimes in
short supply.
As the strike entered its sec-
ond week, Emanuel turned to
the courts to tryto force teachers
back to the classroom by filing a
lawsuit that described the walk-
out as an unlawful danger to the
public.
The complaint sought a court
order to end the strike, saying it
was illegal because it endangered
the health and safety of students
and concerned issues - evalu-
ations, layoffs and recall rights
- that state law says cannot be
grounds for a work stoppage.
Police to enforce
controversial Ariz.
law immediately
PHOENIX (AP) - A judge
in Arizona ruled Tuesday that
police can immediately start
enforcing the most contentious
section of the state's immigra-
tion law, marking the first time
officers can carry out the so-
called "show me your papers"
provision.
The decision by U.S. District
Judge Susan Bolton is the latest
milestone in a two-year legal
battle over the requirement. It
culminated in a U.S. Supreme
Court decision in June that
upheld the provision on the
grounds that it doesn't conflict
with federal law.
Opponents responded to the
Supreme Court decision by ask-
ing Bolton to block the require-
ment on different grounds,
arguing that it would lead to
systematic racial profiling
and unreasonably long deten-
tions of Latinos if it's enforced.
She said early this month she
wouldn't block it, and gave the
go-ahead Tuesday for the law
to take effect.
The section of the law
requires that officers, while
enforcing other laws, question
the immigration status of those
suspected of being in the coun-
try illegally. The "show me
your papers" name comes from
opponents.
Arizona's law was passed
in 2010 amid voter frustration
with the state's role as the busi-
est illegal entry point into the
country. Five states -Alabama,
Study sugg
linked Witi
Plastic packaging
closely related to
unhealthy weight
for white children
NEW YORK (AP) - A pro-
vocative new study suggests a
connection between the BPA
chemical used in food packag-
ing and childhood obesity, but
the researchers say their find-
ings don't prove it's the cause.
While most people have
traces of the plastics chemical
in their bodies, the study found
that children with the highest
levels in their urine were twice
as likely to be obese as those
with the lowest.
There are other factors that
could explain the results, and
many reasons why children
gain too much weight, the
researchers said.
"Clearly unhealthy diet
and poor physical activity are
the leading factors contribut-
ing to obesity in the United
States, especially in children,"
said lead author Dr. Leonardo
Trasande of New York Univer-
sity.
But the study does hint that
causes of childhood obesity may
Georgia, Indiana, South Caro-
lina and Utah - have adopted
variations on Arizona's law.
A call to the office of Gov.
Jan Brewer, who signed the
measure into law, wasn't
immediately returned Tuesday
afternoon.
A coalition of civil rights
groups is awaiting a ruling
from the 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals on their latest
effort to prevent the question-
ing requirement from taking
effect.
"Our next step is seeing
what happens with that," said
Linton Joaquin, a lawyer for
National Immigration Law
Center, one of the groups in the
coalition.
Some backers of the law
questioned the level of coop-
eration they will get from fed-
eral immigration agents, who
will be called to verify peo-
ple's immigration status and
be responsible for picking up
illegalsimmigrants from local
officers.
Federal immigration officers
have said they will help, but
only if doing so fits with their
priorities, including catching
repeat violators and identify-
ing and removing those who
threaten public safety and
national security.
If federal agents decline to
pick up illegal immigrants,
local officers in some cases will
likelyhave to let them go unless
they're suspected of commit-
ting a crime that would require
them to be brought to jail.
Bolton is the judge who ini-
tially blocked the law after
the Obama administration
challenged it on the grounds
ests BPA
iobesity
be more complicated, he added.
He said it isthe first national
research to tie a chemical from
the environment to childhood
obesity, and seems to echo
what some studies have seen in
adults.
One puzzling result: Signifi-
cant differences were detected
onlyinwhite children. For black
and Hispanic kids, obesity rates
were similar for those with the
lowest levels of BPA as those
with the largest amount. The
researchers couldn't explain
that finding.
The study was released Tues-
day and is in Wednesday's issue
of the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
BPA, or bisphenol A, has
been used since the 1960s and
become so widespread that it's
found in virtually all Ameri-
cans. Government health offi-
cials have deemed low levels of
it to be safe, but haven't been
able to decide what amount
of BPA - if any - would be a
health concern.
BPA is used to make hard
plastics for food and beverage
containers and many consumer
goods and for metal can linings.
Environmental groups have
worried it interferes with chil-
dren's development.
NATO order limits collaboration
with Afghan forces in operations
U.S. troops now
required to always
carry weapons
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
- NATO's decision to restrict
operations with small Afghan
forces to mitigate the threat
of insider attacks means fewer
boots on patrols and a shift in
how the U.S.-led coalition will
fight the war in Afghanistan.
It's unclear whether the
coalition's exit strategy can suc-
ceed with less partnering with
Afghan policemen and soldiers,
who are slated to take over for
foreign combat troops by the
end of 2014, just 27. months
from now. What is clear is that
the mantra that Afghans and
coalition forces are fighting the
Taliban "shoulder to shoulder"
is looking more and more like
they're standing at arm's length.
Earlier this year, the U.S.
military stopped training about
1,000 members of the Afghan
Local Police, a controversial
network of village-defense
units. U.S. commanders have
assigned some troops to be
"guardian angels" who watch
over their comrades in interac-
tions with Afghan forces and
even as they sleep. U.S. officials
also recently ordered American
troops to carry loaded weapons
at all times in Afghanistan, even
when they are on their bases.
Until now, coalition troops
routinely conducted operations
such as patrolling or manning
outposts with small units of their
Afghan counterparts. Under
the new rules issued on Sunday,
such operations with small-sized
units are considered no longer
routine and require the approval
of the regional commander.
NATO's decision reflected
escalating worries about the
insider attacks, coupled with
the widespread tensions over
an anti-Islam video that has
prompted protests around the
world, including Afghanistan.
Early Tuesday, a suicide
bomber rammed a car packed
with explosives into a minibus
carrying foreign aviation work-
ers to the airport in the Afghan
capital, killing at least 12 people
including nine foreigners -
eight South Africans, a Kyrgyz-
stani and three Afghans.
Haroon Zarghoon, a spokes-
man for the Islamist militant
group Hizb-i-Islami, claimed
responsibility, saying it was car-
ried out by a 22-year-old woman
named Fatima and was meant to
avenge the anti-Islam film that
ridicules the Prophet Muham-
mad.
But the underlying reason
for the new directive that curbs
contact between Afghan and
international forces is the spike
in insider attacks.
So far this year, 51 interna-
tional service members have
died at the hands of Afghan
forces or militants wearing their
uniforms. That is more than 18
percent of the 279 international
troops who have been killed in
Afghanistan since the begin-
ning of the year, according to
figures compiled by The Associ-
ated Press.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta argued that the attacks
do not mean the Taliban are get-
ting stronger. "I think what it
indicates is that they are resort-
ing to efforts that try to strike at
our forces, try to create chaos
but do not in any way result in
their regaining territory that
has been lost," he told report-
ers during a press conference in
Beijing.
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