The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Feds accuse
Michigan judge of
real estate fraud
Federal authorities filed a law-
suit to seize the Florida home
of a Michigan Supreme Court
justice, accusing her of fraud by
hiding control of the real estate
while persuading a bank to allow
a short sale on another property.
Diane Hathaway is not
charged with a crime,but forfei-
ture complaints in federal court
typically lead to a criminal case.
In 2010, Hathaway and her
husband, Michael Kingsley,
submitted a hardship letter to
ING Bank seeking a short sale
on their home in Grosse Pointe
Park, a Detroit suburb. The cou-
ple did not disclose that they had
put their home in Windermere,
Fla., in the name of Kingsley's
daughter, the government said.
DETROIT
Ex-Mich. college
professor charged
with child porn
Sexually explicit videos of chil-
dren found on the computer of a
Michigan college professor had
nothing to do with his research,
which focused on Internet cen-
sorship and the use of children in
advertising, among other things,
his lawyer said Tuesday.
William Merrill appeared in
federal court Tuesday in Flint and
pleaded not guilty through his
lawyer to possession of child por-
nography charges. He is charged
separately with state-level child
porn charges.
He resigned from his tenured
position in the school's College of
Education and Human Services
earlier this month after authori-
ties confronted him about three
child porn videos found on his
school computer.
LONDON
Church of
* England says no
to female bishops
LONDON (AP) - The Church
of England's governing body
blocked a move Tuesday to per-
mit women to serve as bishops in
a vote so close it failed to settle
the question of female leader-
ship and likely condemned the
institution to years more debate
on the issue.
The General Synod's daylong
debate ended with the rejec-
tion of a compromise that was
intended to unify the faith-
ful despite differing views on
whether women should be
allowed in the hierarchy. But
backers failed to gain the neces-
sary majority by six votes.
"There is no victory in the
coming days," said Rev. Angus
MacLeay. "It is a train crash."
The defeat was a setback
for Archbishop of Canterbury,
Rowan Williams, who retires
at the end of December, and his
successor, Bishop Justin Welby.
UNITED NATIONS
Security Council
puts sanctions on
Congo rebels
TheU.N.SecurityCouncilvoted
unanimously Tuesday to sanction
the leaders of Congo's M23 rebel
force, which hours earlier occu-
pied the eastern Congolese city of
Goma as U.N. peacekeepers stood
by without resisting.
But it did not name two coun-
tries accused of supporting the
Congo rebels: Rwanda and Ugan-
da.
The council demanded that the
M23 rebels withdraw from Goma,
disarm and disband, and insisted
on the restoration of the crumbing
Congolese government authority
in the country's turbulent East.
The resolution adopted impos-
es targeted sanctions, including
a travel ban and assets freeze, on
the M23 rebel group leadership.
Individualnations are supposed to
enforce the sanctions and report
to the council.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U. S., Mexico
agree to share
Colo. River
A cornmuter sits on the sidewalk as she waits for a bus outside the Retiro train station during a nationwide 24-hour general strike in Buenos Aires
on Nov. 20. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is facing a strike, led by union bosses who once were her rmost steadfast supporters.
Breakaway unions strike
throughout Argentina
Commutes shut
down as transit
systems strike
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
(AP) - Argentine President Cris-
tina Fernandez faced a nation-
wide strike on Tuesday, led by
the union bosses who used to be
her most steadfast supporters.
Many workers stayed home
as the strike made commuting a
puzzle, with some trains and bus
lines paralyzed and small groups
of people blocking highways in
about a dozen places around the
capital. Banks, courts and many
schools were closed, many hos-
pitals offered only emergency
services, most Argentine flights
were canceled and garbage
wasn't being picked up.
Butinotherways, itwas a nor-
mal day in Buenos Aires, where
cafes and small stores stayed
open.
The strike was called as a
political show of force by truck-
ers union boss Pablo Moyano, the
longtime leader of Argentina's
vast General Workers' Federa-
tion, and one of the closest allies
of the president's late husband
and predecessor, Nestor Kirch-
ner.
Moyano and some other union
leaders broke away from Fer-
nandez this year as she tried to
contain the demands of a now-
divided labor movement by sup-
porting a rival slate in union
elections. He has increasingly
appeared alongside her political
opponents since then, speaking
out against the government he
long championed.
As his strikers tried to snarl
traffic on Tuesday, Moyano said
their demands include "the total
elimination of income taxes," as
well as other new salary hikes
and benefits.
The point is to make the Fer-
nandez administration under-
stand that it "can't manage the
country in the way that it does,
without providing answers,
with authoritarian attitudes,
imposing everything and defy-
ing all the world," Moyano said
in an interview with Argentina's
Channel 13.
Fernandez, meanwhile, called
on workers to act responsibly and
defend all she's accomplished
for workers in Argentina, rather
than return to a past when a rela-
tive few enjoyed the benefits of
economic growth.
"The first ones to become hun-
gry or be left without jobs will
be the workers," she warned in
a posting Tuesday on her offi-
cial Facebook page. "That's why
I want to call on my comrades,
the workers, to show great
responsibility and defend, not
my government - not at all -
but the political project that has
generated more than 5.5 million
jobs."
Most union workers won
pay hikes of 25 percent or more
this year, in line with what pri-
vate analysts say is Argentina's
true annual inflation rate, much
higherthanthe 10 percent ayear
cited by the government's wide-
ly discredited inflation index.
For most, those pay hikes put
them over the threshold to begin
paying income taxes, some-
thing many lower-paid work-
ers never had to do before. For a
single worker, that annual salary
threshold is about $15,600. Tax
rates then rise from zero to 35
percent, with most workers los-
ing about a fourth of their take-
home pay to income taxes.
"The government should stop
robbing workers with the income
tax," said the Workers' Party
leader Nestor Pitrola, who joined
a blockade of the Pueyreddon
bridge over the Riachuelo river, a
key access point from the south.
Most flights were grounded
in Argentina, frustrating tour-
ists at Buenos Aires' downtown
airport, where machinists'
union leader Ricardo Cirielli
said 100 percent of the work-
ers who maintain the jets of
Aerolineas Argentinas and LAN
Argentina were on strike. Other
international carriers weren't
affected, he said.
Countries rewrite
rules after taxing
five year effort
CORONADO, Calif. (AP) -
The United States and Mexico
agreed Tuesday to rewrite rules
on sharing water from the Colo-
rado River, capping a five-year
effort to create a united front
against future droughts.
The far-reaching agreement
signed near San Diego gives
Mexico badly needed storage
capacity by grantingrights to put
some of its river water in Lake
Mead, which stretches across
Nevada and Arizona.
Mexico will forfeit some of its
share of the river during short-
ages, bringing itself in line with
western U.S. states that already
have agreed how much they will
surrender in years when waters
recede.
Water agencies in California,
Arizona and Nevada also will
buy water from Mexico, which
will use some of the money to
upgrade its infrastructure.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken
Salazar called the agreement the
most important international
accord on the Colorado River
since a 1944 treaty.
"We have chosen cooperation
and consensus over discord," he
said.
The agreement, coming in
the final days of the administra-
tion of Mexican President Felipe
Calderon, is a major amendment
to the 1944 treaty considered
sacred by many south of the
border. The treaty grants Mex-
ico 1.5 million acre-feet of river
water each year - enough to
supply about 3 million homes"-
making it the lifeblood of Tijua-
na and other cities in northwest
Mexico.
Mexico will surrender some
of its allotment when the water
level in Lake Mead drops to
1,075 feet and reap some of the
surplus when it. rises to 1,145
feet, according to a summary of
the agreement prepared by the
Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California, which will
buy some of Mexico's water.
The agreement expires in five
years and is being billed as a trial
run, potentially making it more
palatable in Mexico.
"These are big political steps
for Mexico to take," said Jef-
frey Kightlinger, Metropolitan's
general manager. "Chances are
we won't have a surplus and
we won't have a shortage but, if
we do, we'll have the guidelines
in place on how we're going to
handle it."
In 2007, facing an eight-year
drought, California, Arizona
and Nevada agreed on how
much each state should sacrifice
during shortages on the 1,450-
mile river that flows from the
Rocky Mountains to Mexico.
That same year, the U.S. and
Mexico promised to work on
ways to jointly address short-
ages.
The negotiations gained a
sense of urgency for Mexico
in 2010 after a magnitude-7.2
earthquake damaged canals and
other infrastructure, forcing
it to store water temporarily in
Lake Mead.
"They have some storage but
it's not enough for drought and
emergencies," said Halla Razak,
Colorado River program direc-
tor at the San Diego County
Water Authority.
Dark matter detector nears
activation in SD gold mine
Army veteran was driver of
float in Texas parade crash.
Driver seeking
professional council
to cope with grief
MIDLAND, Texas (AP) - The
driver ,of a parade float filled
with wounded veterans and
their spouses that was struck by
a freight train in West Texas is
an Army veteran himself who is
"in shock" over the accident that
killed four people, an attorney
said Tuesday.
Dale Andrew Hayden was
driving a flatbed truck that
investigators say edged across a
railroad crossing despite warn-
ing signals of a fast approaching
train, Hayden's attorney, Hal
Brockett said.
"Words can't express the sor-
row and remorse for the people
who got hurt and killed," Brock-
ett said in an interview.
The revelation of who the
driver was came as the National
Transportation Safety Board
conducted a sight distance test at
the crash site. Atrain and atruck
similar to those involved in the
accident were driven across the
site at various intervals, and the
railroad crossing was activated.
Four veterans were killed
.in the collision in Midland on
Thursday. Sixteen people were
injured.
Investigators say the float
began crossing the train tracks
even though warning bells were
sounding and the crossing lights
were flashing. A Union Pacific
train travelling at more than 60
mph ran into the truck as the
occupants scrambled to jump to
safety.
Hayden, who has a military
career spanning more than three
decades, now works as a truck
driver for Smith Industries, an
oilfield services company. Brock-
ett said the company placed
Hayden on medical leave.
Hayden is "kind of catatonic"
and not ready to be interviewed,
Brockett said. "He's just very
much in shock."
Doug Fletcher, a Dallas attor-
ney representing Smith Indus-
tries, said Hayden is an Army
reservist who has been driving
for the company for two years
and aay have driven in the
parade before.
Hayden is undergoing "pro-
fessional counseling," Fletcher
said. "He is beyond distraught."
Fletcher said the company is
taking steps to protect the driv-
er after he received "some hate
emails."
No one responded to a knock
on the door at a mobile home
listed as Hayden's residence
Tuesday.
At the NTSB sight distance
test, a train pulling 10 cars rolled
through the intersection, then
was backed up about a half mile
and driven right to the threshold
of the crossing. The train wasn't
traveling at the same speed as
the one that crashed Thursday.
The same type of simulation
was undertaken with the truck.
NTSB investigators in yellow
vests took photos.
Reporters watched from a
parking lot that still has the
painted outlines of where bod-
ies were thrown from the parade
float.
Midland police ' also are
investigating the crash, but it's
not clear what, if any, criminal
charges will be filed.
"I really can't speculate as to
what any charges might be," said
the county's district attorney,
Teresa Clingman, because the
police "investigation is not com-
plete."
John Klassen, the U.S.
attorney in Midland, said he's
unaware of any federal crimi-
nal authorities investigating the
accident.
According to the NTSB, the
railroad crossing warning sys-
tem was activated 20 seconds
before the accident, and the
guardrail began to come down
seven seconds after that.
But some Midland residents
have said there isn't enough time
between when the signal begins
and the trains arrive. They say
guardrails aren't completely
down by the time a train comes
by.
The Union Pacific freight train
heading to Louisiana was esti-
mated to be going at 62 mph at
the time of the crash.
The veterans had been invited
to Midland, a transportation and
commerce hub in the WestTexas
oilfields, for a three-day week-
end of hunting and shopping in
appreciation of their service. A
local charity, Show of Support,
had organized the trip, parade
and other festivities. Show of
Support officials have declined
to identify the driver.
Killed were Marine Chief
Warrant Officer 3 Gary Stouffer,
37; Army Sgt. Maj. Lawrence
Boivin, 47; Army Sgt. Joshua
Michael, 34; and Army Sgt. Maj.
William Lubbers, 43.
According to Army records,
Hayden holds the rank of staff
sergeant, and his occupational
specialty is light wheel vehicle
mechanic.
He began his military career
as an active-duty soldier from
1980 to 1988. He did two stints in
the Oklahoma National Guard in
the 1990s beforesigningup again
for the Army Reserve in Decem-
ber 2003, according to Army
records. He served in Iraq until
March 2005 and was deployed
to Afghanistan in 2009 until the
following September.
Ten million dollar
experiment waiting
one mile below
surface
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -
Scientists hoping to detect dark
matter- deep in a former South
Dakota gold mine have taken
the last major step before flip-
ping the switch on their deli-
cate experiment and say they
may be ready to begin collect-
ing data as early as February.
What's regarded as the
world's most sensitive dark
matter detector was low-
ered earlier this month into a .
70,000-gallon water tank near-
ly a mile beneath the earth's
surface, shrouding it in enough
insulation to hopefully isolate,
dark matter from the cosmic
radiation that makes it impos-
sible to detect above ground.
And if all goes as planned,'
the data that begins flowing
could answer age-old questions
about the universe and its ori-
gins, scientists said Monday.
"We might well uncover
something fantastic," said
Harry Nelson, a professor of
physics at University of Cali-
fornia, Santa Barbara and a
principal investigator on the
Large Underground Xenon
experiment. "One thing about
our field is that it's kind of bru-
tal in that we know it's expen-
sive and we work hard to only
do experiments that are really
important."
This one hasn't been cheap,
at about $10 million, but like the
discovery of the Higgs boson
- dubbed the "God particle"
by some - earlier this year in
Switzerland, the detection of
dark matter would be a seis-
mic occurrence in the scientific
community.
Scientists know dark mat-
ter exists by its gravitational
pull but, unlike regular matter
and antimatter, it's so far been
undetectable. Regular matter
accounts for about 4 percent of
the universe's mass, and dark
matter makes up about 25 per-
cent. The rest is dark energy,
which is also a mystery.
The search in South Dakota
began in 2003 after the Home-
stake Gold Mine in the Black
Hills' Lead, S.D., shuttered for
good. Scientists called dibs on
the site, and in July, after years
of fundraising and planning, the
LUX detector moved into the
Sanford Underground Research
Facility, 4,850 feet below the
earth's surface. It took two days
to ease the phone booth-sized
detector down the once-filthy
shaft and walkways that origi-
nally opened for mining in 1876
during the Black Hills Gold Rush.
There, the device was fur-
ther insulated from cosmic
radiation by being submerged
in water that's run through
reverse osmosis filters to deion-
ize and clean it.
"The construction phase is
winding down, and now we're
starting the commissioning
phase, meaning we start to
operate the, systems under-
ground," said Jeremy Mock, a
graduate student at the Univer-
sity of California, Davis who
has worked on the LUX experi-
ment for five years.
Carefully submerging the
delicate detector into its final
home - a water-filled vat that's
20 feet tall and 25 feet in diam-
eter - took more than two
months, Mock said.
Scientists are currently
working to finish the plumb-
ing needed to keep the xenon as
clean as possible. The xenon, in
both liquid and gas form, will
fill the detector and be con-
tinuously circulated through a
purifier that works much like
a dialysis machine, pulling the
substance out to remove impu-
rities before pushing it back
into the detector.
Keeping the water and xenon
pristine will help remove what
Nelson called "fake sources"
- or stuff that scientists have
seen before, such as radiation,
that could serve as false alarms
in their efforts to detect dark
matter.
Nelson likens the experiment
to Sherlock Holmes' approach
to discovering the unknown by
eliminating the known.
Once the. data start to flow,
it'll take a month or two before
the detector is sensitive enough
to claim the "most-sensitive"
title, Nelson said.
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