The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
MILFORD, Mich.
At least 2 cougar
sightings reported
in SE Mich.
At least two people have
reported possible cougar sight-
ings near Kensington Metropark
in suburban Detroit.
The Oakland Press of Pon-
tiac reports that experts say it's
unlikely one of the big cats would
be in Michigan's southern Lower
Peninsula.
Michael Pucker, interpretive
' naturalist at the park, says that if
the reports near Milford are cor-
rect the animal might be one that
was kept as a pet and escaped.
Michigan Department of Nat-
ural Resources spokesman Ed
Golder says it would be unusual
to have a cougar in the area. He
says some people see bobcats and
mistake them for cougars. Gold-
er says the DNR looks for tracks,
fur on a fence or other evidence
to help confirm such sightings.
The DNR has verified the
presence of cougars in the Upper
Peninsula.
SAN JOSE. Calif.
Apple's iPad Mini
much pricier than
rival tablets
Apple Inc.'s pencil-thin,
smaller iPad will cost much more
than its competitors, signaling
the company isn't going to get
into a mini-tablet price war.
The company debuted the
iPad Mini Tuesday, with a screen
two-thirds smaller than the full
model, and half the weight. Cus-
tomers can begin ordering the
new model on Friday. In a sur-
prise, Apple also revamped its
flagship, full-sized iPad just six
months after the launch of the
latest model.
Apple'slate founder SteveJobs
once ridiculed a small tablet from
a competitor as a "tweener" that
was too big and too small to com-
pete with either smartphones or
tablets. Now Apple's own M ni
enters a growing small-tablet
market dominated by Amazon.
com Inc.'s Kindle Fire.
ALEXANDRIA, Va.
Ex-CIA man
pleads guilty to
leaking identity
A former CIA officer pleaded
guilty Tuesday to leaking the
identity of one of the agency's
covert operatives to a reporter
and will be sentenced to more
than two years in prison.
As part of a plea deal, prosecu-
tors dropped charges for John
Kiriakou, 48, that had been filed
under the World War I-era Espi-
onage Act. They also dropped
a count of making false state-
ments.
The lawunder which Kiriakou
was convicted, the Intelligence
Identities Protection Act, had

not yielded a conviction in 27
years.
BEIRUT, Syria
Hezbollah rejects
international
probe in killing
Syria's powerful ally Hez-
bollah was accused Tuesday by
Lebanese political opponents of
playing a role in the assassina-
tion of a top intelligence officer
who used his post to fight Syrian
meddling in Lebanon.
The group, which dominates
Lebanon's government, rejected
calls to refer the investigation of
the killing to the international
tribunal that implicated Hezbol-
lah figures in the truck bombing
that killed former Prime Minis-
ter Rafik Hariri under similar
circumstances.
Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan
was killed Oct. 19 in a car bomb
that exploded next to his car in a
residential Beirut neighborhood,
shearing the balconies off apart-
ment towers and killing al-Has-
san, his bodyguard and a civilian.
Scores more were injured.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

CSG proposes revamp
of election code policies

VA Ann Arbor
Healthcare signs
lease in NCRC

Chc
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anges brought final night of the March elec-
tion - Law representative Jer-
in lenghtiest emy Keeney, the chair of the
rules committee, said the new
oposal of the election code was the result of
a month's work by several indi-
viduals. Keeney has intimate
experience with problems of
[ACOMO BOLOGNA the election code after serving
Daily StaffReporter as student legal aid during last
March's election hearing.
a two-week hiatus, the Parikh, whose highly con-
Student Government tested victory was the cata-
ly met and proposed lyst for part of the legislation,
thiest resolution of the helped co-author the resolution
r. The proposed policy and said the authors did "great
eplace the election code work" on the legislation.
of CSG's compiled code "When Keeney e-mailed me
onse to the highly con- over the summer asking me
presidential election last what are some of the things that
I want to see in this or some
of the last pieces of leg- points that I got to get across,
passed by the previous I'm very happy that they're,
ly called for a new elec- reflected here," Parikh said.
le following a hearing on Parikh said he was pleased to
l night of voting by the see legislation regarding cam-
niversity Election Com- paign finance, an area where
i concerning the abuse there was no previous mention
il listservs by Business in the election code.
Manish Parikh and vice "Not only did it need to be
nt Omar Hashwi, an LSA regulated but it also needed
Controversy over the list- to be reported and that's been
layed a role in the delay taken care of," he said.
results of the election Parikh added he was grate-
ly 12 hours and created ful that the resolution clearly
of uncertainty and fur- stated that only the owners of
lays following appeals of listervs listed by the MCommu-
ision. nity website would be recog-
15-page resolution vastly nized as the true owner of that
d the typical word count website - a point that nearly
utions, which often are cost him the election when
io to three pages long. e-mails were sent out by a sup-
gislation addresses top- porter to listservs that the sup-
as demerits, campaign porter did not own.
and the defining coordi- "I think that this will not
between a candidate and only set great precedent at
er supporters. Michigan but I think this
ng only a few feet away election code could be repli-
Parikh - who barely cated around student govern-
I disqualification on the ments across the nation as

well," Parikh said.
In addition to reforms to the
election code, the assembly also
discussed two more resolutions.
The first called for supporting
a campus-wide calendar that
would provide a comprehensive
listing of all events put on by
University organizations.
The proposed legislation
would also add a segment to
e-mail notifications of funds
awarded by the Student Orga-
nization Funding Commission
sent to student organizations.
Every time a student organi-
zation receives funding, they
would also be informed of the
all-campus calendar and would
be provided a tutorial on how to
use the calendar.
A campus-wide calendar was
part of youMICH's platform
during the March elections and
LSA representative Michael
Dalton, an LSA junior who ran
on the youMICH ticket, pro-
posed the resolution.
The other proposed reso-
lution supported identifying
"cyberbulling" as a form of bul-
lying in the Statement of Student
Rights and Responsibilities.
Hashwi spoke in favor of the
resolution, saying cyberbullying
can easily go undetected.
"Even normal bullying hasn't
really drawn attention from
many people," Hashwi said. "It's
very easy to cyberbully some-
body"
LSA-SG vice president Melis-
sa Burns was the author of the
cyberbullying resolution and
attended the meeting to address
questions from the assembly
regarding the issue. She said she
will present a similar resolution
on Wednesday at the LSA-SG
meeting.

150 researchers
will move into new
space on North
Campus
By MOLLY BLOCK
Daily StaffReporter
The Veterans Affairs Ann
Arbor Healthcare System
and the University of Michi-
gan Health System, located
adjacent to one another, have
become more than just neigh-
bors.
On Monday, the VA signed
a $866,574 multi-year lease
agreement for 24,600 square
feet in the headquarters of the
Institute for Healthcare Policy
and Innovation at the Univer-
sity's North Campus Research
Complex.
The VA's Center for Clini-
cal Management Research,
which investigates solutions to
various health issues, will join
more than 400 University fac-
ulty and students in the facility,
according to Eve Kerr, director
of the center and professor of
internal medicine at the Uni-
versity Medical School.
Kerr said she believes the
NCRC willbe an attractive area
for collaboration between the
University and the VA health
care system.
"In general, NCRC is rapidly
becoming a hub for interdisci-
plinary research and partner-
ships between the University
and outside entities," Kerr said.
"So, the potential for VA
researchers to work alongside
U-M researchers in the same
building and as part of the
same institute made this pos-
sibility very attractive."
The VA's CCMR will move
150 researchers to the new
building, which will free the
20,000 square feet the CCMR
currently occupies in the VA
Hospital for additional veteran
facilities, Kerr said.
The lease agreement
strengthens ties between the
University and the VA, which
cares for more than 8 million
veterans, according to Kerr.
Most of the researchers in the

CCMR are also VA doctors,
University faculty at the Medi-
cal School, School of Public
Health or School of Nursing
or colleagues at the University
Institute for Healthcare Policy
and Innovation.
The IHPI will not only aid
the health care of veterans, but
the UMHS as well, according
to Kerr.
"While our research focuses
on improving care for veterans,
much of our work is also appli-
cable to health care delivery
at the University of Michigan
Health System and many other
health care systems," Kerr said.
"Having CCMR be a partner of
the newly established Univer-
sity of Michigan Institute for
Healthcare Policy and Innova-
tion brings incredible syner-
gies."
CCMR research studies the
impact of changes to health
care, specifically for veterans.
With the new space, it hopes to
find pragmatic solutions to the
most common and costly clini-
cal management challenges
to improve the health care of
veterans. Some of the most
studied cases include heart
disease, diabetes, mental ill-
ness and post-traumatic stress
disorder.
"CCMR studies ways to
improve the quality, effective-
ness, safety and efficiency of
veterans's healthcare," Kerr
said. "Many of our researchers
study ways to improve perfor-
mance measures and clinical
decision support for conditions
like diabetes, heart disease
and cancer. We have a core
group studying approaches to
improve patient safety for hos-
pitalized patients."
The CCMR also includes
the VA Serious Mental Illness
Treatment, Research, and
Evaluation Center and the Dia-
betes Quality Enhancement
Research Initiative. Programs
run collaboratively by both
entities will also be included in
the move including the Patient
Safety Enhancement Program,
the Center for Bioethics and
Social Sciences in Medicine
and the program on Qual-
ity Improvement for Complex
Chronic Conditions.

Egypt's top court to rule
on constitutional panel

Court refers undercutting the powers of the
Supreme Constitutional Court.
controversial case Supporters of the panel say
it was set up by an elected par-
to a higher court liament and broadly represents
Egypt's political factions. Critics
CAIRO (AP) - An Egyptian counter that the process is domi-
court on Tuesday asked the nated by majority Islamists, such
country's highest tribunal to as the Muslim Brotherhood of
rule on whether to disband the Egypt's new president, Moham-
body tasked with writing a new med Morsi, and more radical
constitution. The delay in a rul- groups.
ing is a possible blow to liberals, A new constitution would be a
since it could give Islamists time key step in establishing a democ-
to finish drafting the contested racy to replace the Mubarak's
document. regime, ousted last year in an
The referral of the case to a uprising led by progressive, secu-
higher court is the latest twist lar activists.
in a bitter struggle between But in the nearly 20 months
Islamists and their secular since then, Islamists have
rivals over Egypt's first constitu- emerged as the strongest politi-
tion since it set out on a path to cal force. Morsi was elected
democracy, following the ouster president after the Brotherhood
of longtime President Hosni and the even more conservative
Mubarak lastyear. Salafis party swept parliamen-
Islamists, who dominate the tary elections, leaving the liber-
constitutional assembly, are rac- alswith minimal representation.
ing to put a draft to a public ref- The parliament was later dis-
erendum before the judges rule, banded.
while leading members of the Instead of ruling on a petition
panel appealed for dialogue to submitted by liberals challeng-
overcome the divisions. ing the legitimacy of the panel,
Leftist and liberal parties Judge Nazih Tangho of the
expressed doubts about such a High Administrative Court on
dialogue. Tuesday sent the case to Egypt's
The work and the composi- Supreme Constitutional Court.
tion of the 100-member con- The decision sets up a
stitutional assembly have been new showdown between the
the subject of fierce debate. The Supreme Constitutional Court,
focus is the potential for stricter packed with secularist judges,
implementation of Islamic law, and Egypt's ruling and power-
or Shariah, and empowerment ful Brotherhood. The same court
of religious scholars that liberals dissolved the Brotherhood-led
fear could signal a turn toward a parliament, ruled the election
theocratic state. law unconstitutional and turned
Along with the contentious down Morsi's attempt to restore
role of religion in the nation's it upon his election in June.
affairs, Islamists and liberals are Last week, the Constitutional
haggling over other proposed Court criticized the panel's move
articles relating to women rights, to strip the court's power right
freedom of worship, presidential to rule on laws passed by parlia-
powers, immunity for the mili- ment. The proposed articles also
tary from civilian oversight and maintainthe president's grip over

the court, as he appoints its head
and members.
The panel drafting it said it
could be ready for public discus-
sion as early as the first half of
November. The new constitution
then willhave to be put to a public
referendum within 30 days.
Tangho said he referred to the
case to the Constitutional Court
to look into alawhMoral passed in
July that gave the constitutional
panel legal immunity, a clause he
said needs vetting because no one
shouldbe abovelegalsupervision.
"The law was meant to pre-
vent the High Administrative
Court from looking into appeals
against the panel," he said.
A senior Brotherhood mem-
ber, Ahmed Abu Baraka, said,
"the court here is saying that
this is not my business and I am
not interfering in the writing of
the constitution nor its panel, in
respect to the principle of sepa-
rationbetween powers."
The Muslim Brotherhood's
political arm, Freedom and Jus-
tice Party, praised the ruling as
ushering "a new meeting point
to all spectrum of the Egyptian
society." constitution.
Hafez Abou Saada, one of the
lawyers challenging the panel,
appealed to leaders of the body
to stop work until a final ruling
is issued.
"Ifthey are reallyaseeking con-
sensus, then a panel whose legiti-
macy is questionable should not
be working," Abou Saada said.
Former President Jimmy
Carter said it has become clear
that the secular versus reli-
gious aspects of the constitution
remain the crucial questions, but
he said he was "gratified" with
the panel's work. Speaking in
Cairo Tuesday, Carter said his
center will apply to send observ-
ers to the constitutional referen-
dum.

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