The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, November 9, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, November 9, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Bing appoints two
Detroit assistant
police chiefs
DETROIT (AP) - Detroit
Mayor Dave Bing has appointed
two new assistant chiefs as part of
a restructuring of the city's police
department.
Janice Butler was lured out
of retirement and named Thurs-
day to become assistant chief for
administration, while deputy
chief Paul Welles has been moved
up to assistant chief for patrol and
investigation.
Police commissioners still have
to approve the appointments.
Commander James White also
has been moved up to deputy
chief, while two deputy chiefs
under ex-chief Ralph Godbee have
been reassigned.
Godbee resigned last month
after a female subordinate
revealed the two had been in a
sexual relationship.
Bing says 26 officers will be
promoted to sergeant, lieutenant
and inspector ranks.
LOS ANGELES
Anti-Muslim film-
maker imprisoned
for violating parole
The California man behind an
anti-Muslim film that led to vio-
lence in many parts of the Middle
East was sentenced Wednesday
to a year in federal prison for pro-
bation violations in an unrelated
matter, then issued a provocative
statement through his attorney.
The sentence was the result of a
plea bargain between lawyers for
Mark Bassely Youssef and federal
prosecutors. Youssef admitted in
open court that he had used sev-
eral false names in violation of
his probation order and obtained
a driver's license under a false
name. He was on probation for a
bank fraud case.
Shortly after Youssef left the
courtroom, his lawyer, Steven
Seiden, came to the front steps of
the courthouse and told reporters
his client wanted to send a mes-
sage.
"The one thing he wanted me to
tell all of you is President Obama
may have gotten Osama bin
Laden, but he didn't kill the ideol-
ogy," Seiden said.
PASO ROBLES, Calif.
Calif. mayoral
candidate arrested
on Election Day
A Central Coast candidate for
mayor lost big this week.
Paso Robles, Calif., write-in
candidate Jeff Rougeot was arrest-
ed on Election Day for investiga-
tion of crimes that include felonies
for making criminal threats and
brandishing a firearm.
The 45-year-old car audio busi-
ness owner remained in the San
Luis Obispo County jail Thursday
with bail at $1.1 million.
Rougeot doesn't have an attor-
ney of record and a telephone call
Thursday to his car stereo business
rangunanswered.
Mayor Duane Picanco got 86
percent of the vote to easily defeat
Rougeot and another candidate.
SOPHIA, Bulgaria
Archaeologists
discover Thracian
golden jewelry
Archaeologists say they have
unearthed an almost 2,400-year-
old golden hoard in an ancient
Thracian tomb in northern Bul-
garia.
The treasure was found on
Thursday near the village of
Sveshtari, 400 kilometers (250
miles) northeast of Sofia, team
leader Diana Gergova said.
She said that among the arti-
facts, dating back to the end of
the fourth or the beginning of
the third century B.C., were gold
jewelry and applications for horse
trappings, a tiara with reliefs of
lions and fantasy animals, as well
as four bracelets and a ring.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
TRANSIT
From Page 1A
members Briere, Taylor, Higgins,
Kunselman and Hieftje spon-
sored the resolution to back away
from the plan.
Council members expressed
their frustration that other com-
munities rejected the project
after ongoing efforts to push it
forward to fruition.
"This whole effort basically
spent a lot of money to basically
bring us back to the beginning,
and that's unfortunate," Kunsel-
man said. "I'm glad that we are
doing this tonight because it's
important that the Council that
created this effort is also going to
close it. The good news is that we
will be able to start fresh."
Councilmember Hoenke
said he was upset that the other
municipalities rejected the
authority, which he thought
would have been a benefit to the
communities.
"I'm a little disappointed in
the townships," Hoenke said.
"I think a countywide transit
authority would have added a lot
to our community ... I think this
going outside of what we hope."
Lumm retorted, claiming that
communities need to make deci-
sions that are in their best inter-
est.
"You have to trust them to do
what is important to the resi-
dents," Lumm said.
Councilmember Briere said
the dissolution of the current
transit authority would leave
board members from other com-
munities without a position since
the citywide authority does not
allow for members that are not
residents. She said the Council
should decide whether to include
non-residents or not.
"It has to be one or the other,"
Briere said. "Either we want the
members of the AATA board to'
be residents of Ann Arbor or we
want to open it up to other juris-
dictions too."
f Mayor Hieftje said this con-
versation wouldn't be the last on
public transit.
"This is not so much the end of
this discussion of expanded tran-
sit but a restart and a reboot of
this discussion including the local
partners," Hiefje said.
During public commentary
before the vote, two members of
the Washtenaw Transit Author-
ity - a commission of Washtenaw
county residents advocating for
increased transit - asked the
Council to continue support for
the transit program.
Carolyn Lusch, a member
of the Washtenaw Partners for
Transit, said though she agreed
that the plan should be well
planned, the county is in desper-
ate need of immediate and effec-
tive transit options.
"We need to keep moving for-
ward deliberately," Lusch said.
"The strong support for the con-
cept of transit is a first step. But
you can't ride a concept home
from your shift ... We need buses
run frequently, efficiently and to
allthe placesweneed themtogo."
AATA CEO Michael Ford said
in an AATA press release that the
authority will continue to discuss
means of countywide transit in
the future.
"Efforts to extend the benefits
of transit to a greater number of
Washtenaw County residents
will continue," Ford said in the
release. "This issue is a high pri-
ority for our region's economic
vitality and growth."
Ford added that the authority
will continue to work with sur-
rounding communities including
Ann Arbor, SalineYpsilanti, Pitts-
field Township, Scio Township,
Superior Township and Dexter.
AATA will also review existing
services and costs to ensure its
history of strong fiscal steward-
ship is not disrupted, according to
Ford. The review will determine
the feasibility of continuing to
provide the services implemented
as part of AATA's initial invest-
ment under its Five-Year Transit
Program.
Ford said some new services
that may not be feasible without
funding from Council include
the doubled frequency of week-
day service on the #4 Washtenaw
route, AirRide, a bus that runs
between Ann Arbor and Detroit
Metro Airport, ExpressRide
routes connecting Ann Arbor
with Canton and Chelsea and
Expanded NightRide service area
eastward to Ypsilanti.
"We understand these services
enjoywidespreadpopularitywith
AATA passengers," said Ford.
"We hope to avoid any reduction
or elimination of AATA opera-
tions."
VOTE
From Page 1A
on average, voters under 30
favored President Barack Obama
by a 24-percent margin over Mitt
Romney. The 49-percent overall
turnout was the second high-
est, behind only 2008, since the
center started recording exit poll
data in 1996. However, the num-
ber may rise as contested and late
ballots are counted in the coming
weeks.
Had Romney won even half
the youth vote, according to the
report's analysis, he would have
won the Electoral College and
the presidency.
Speaking on Tuesday night,
Political Science Prof. Michael
Heaney said this election
couldn't match the spirit of the
2008 campaign, and the excite-
ment was more of a reversion to
the mean.
"I would say that this was
probably a typical election in
terms of excitement, but it was
clearly less than 2008 when
there was an exceptionally high
level of excitement,"- Heaney
said. "This was typical - perhaps
a little bit below average."
According to exit poll data col-
lected by the Associated Press,
Romney won the white vote
59 percent to 39 percent, while
Obama carried all other racial
groups surveyed. Across the
nation, Obama carried 50 per-
cent of college-educated voters
and 51 percent of non-college
educated voters. Romney had
the support of 48 percent and 47
percent of those respective cat-
egories.
Aaron Kall, the director of the
University Debate Team, said on
Tuesday night that Obama's suc-
cess largely relied on high turn-
out from minority and younger
voters.
"The turnout was the most
important thing - there was a
high percent of turnout among
the African-American and Lati-
no vote, and also the young vote,"
Kall said. "In some of those cat-
egories the turnout was even
higher than in 2008."
Kall added that Republican-
backed efforts to enforce or cre-
ate new voter identification laws
in several states motivated many
minorities and youth voters to
exercise their voting rights in
response to these proposals.
"I think some of these actions
backfired and caused a larger
turnout in 2012," Kall said.
Daily News Editor Andrew
Schulman contributed
to this report.
Lawyer pleads not
guilty to aiding cartels
China's communists
prepare for transition
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The
)mmunist Party state of Chinese politics today.
It's a largely ceremonial gather-
is to meet publiC ing of 2,200-plus delegates who
meet while the real deal-making
als for better is done behind-the-scenes by
government the true power-holders.
The centerpiece event of the
opening of the weeklong con-
IJING (AP) - China's gress - a 90-minute speech by
communists opened a Hu - served politics, allowing
l congress to initiate a him to define his legacy after a
r handover to new leaders decade in office, while marshal-
day with a nod to their ing his clout to install his allies
tionary past and a broad in the collective leadership that
se of cleaner government Xi will head.
keeping off-stage the "An important thing for him
event - the bargaining is to make sure that there's no
eats in the new leadership. critical, no negative summary
the main players were judgment of the past 10 years,"
d on the stage in the Great said Ding Xueliang, a Chinese
f the People: President Hu politics expert at Hong Kong
, his successor Xi Jinping University of Science and Tech-
collection of retired party nology. Still, Ding said, "90 per-
rs. A golden hammer and cent of the effort is on putting
the Communist Party's your people in place."
ol, hung on the back wall. The party's public silence
a nearly two-hour open- on a leadership transition that
eremony, scant mention everyone knows is taking place
made of the transition or and that politically minded Chi-
a week Hu will step down nese have been talking about
rty chief in favor of Xi in has deepened a palpable sense
would be only the second of public unease. Many Chinese
y transfer of power in 63 feel the country is at a turning
of communist rule. point, in need of new ideas to
congress is writ small the deal with a slowing economy,
growing piles of debt and ris-
ing public demands for more
accountable, transparent gov-
ernment, if not democracy.
In signs of the public disquiet,
at least four ethnic Tibetans in
western China set themselves
on fire on the eve of the congress
in protests against Chinese rule
of Tibetan areas, according to
overseas Tibet support groups
and the Tibetan government-in-
exile in India.
At dawn in Tiananmen
Square, next to the congress
venue, a woman in her 30s
threw pieces of torn paper into
the air and shouted "bandits and
robbers!" - a curse often leveled
at corrupt local officials. She
was taken away by the security
forces, which have smothered
all of Beijing for the congress.
In his speech, Hu cited many
of the challenges China faces
- a rich-poor gap, environmen-
tally ruinous growth and imbal-
anced development between
prosperous cities and a strug-
gling countryside. Yet he offered
little fresh thinking to address
them and said restoring a rela-
tively high growth would be
the best way to deal with public
expectations.
Delgado served
as a-Carnegie
Mellon trustee and
donated generously
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - In
public, Marco Antonio Delgado
was a philanthropist, a promi-
nent El Paso businessman and a
trustee at Carnegie Mellon Uni-
versity. But secretly, investiga-
tors say, he was trying to launder
more than half a billion dollars
for a Mexican drug cartel.
Delgado pleaded not guilty
Thursday in El Paso to federal
charges that accuse him of con-
spiring to launder $600 million
of a cartel's drug profits from July
2007 through December 2008.
Homeland Security Investiga-
tions said he was linked to a car-
tel based in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Ifconvicted,the marriedfather
faces up to 20years in prison.
A recently unsealed indict-
ment doesn't provide details on
how Delgado planned to carry
out the scheme, though details
could be revealed during a bond
hearipg Wednesday, when pros-
ecutors try to convince a judge to
keep Delgado in jail.
His wife and son declined
comment after Thursday's hear-
ing, as did his attorneys. Delgado
was arrested last week.
Records show that Delgado
was an active philanthropist in
the El Paso area, donating to the
Symphony Orchestra, and was a
member of the boards of educa-
tional charities.
Delgado also gave Carn-
egie Mellon, his alma mater,
$250,000 to establish a fellow-
ship in 2003. He later became a
trustee of the prestigious uni-
versity in Pittsburgh, a post that
allowed him to rub elbows with
top executives of large compa-
nies such as GM, USB Wealth
Management and Oracle.
University spokesman Ken
Walters confirmed that Delgado
was.a trustee from 2006 through
mid-2012, saying: "I wish it was
someone else."
By his own account, Delgado
even dabbled in Mexican politics.
A biography recently pulled from
the university's website said Del-
gado took leave from his profes-
sional activities to join Mexican
President-elect Enrique Pena
Nieto's campaign in early 2012,
and that he was currently part of
his transition team.
Eduardo Sanchez, a spokes-
man for the transition team, said
they had never heard of Delgado
and pointed to the group's web-
site, which doesn't list Delgado
as a member. Such teams are
tasked by the president-elect to
meet with current officials and
gather information to assure
a smooth transition between
administrations.
JIPIa