The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 3A
The Michigan Daily michigandailycom Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Senate committee
aproves blue cross
legistation
A legislative committee has
approved bills, to overhaul Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
that don't include abortion pro-
visions that led Republican Gov.
Rick Snyder to veto the measure
in December.
Legislation passed quickly on
Tuesday would transform the
state's largest health insurer
from a charitable trust into a
customer-owned nonprofit. The
bills aren't expected to run into
much resistance in the Republi-
can-led Senate.
Less clear is how they'll fare
in the GOP-controlled House,
where newly elected members
know less about the issue.
Snyder opposed the last-min-
ute addition of language that
would have barred insurers and
businesses from providing elec-
tive abortion coverage.
SAN FRANCISCO
Federal court
upholds San Fran.
0 nudity ban
A federal judge cleared the
way Tuesday for the city of San
Francisco to ban most displays of
public nudity, ruling that an ordi-
nance set to take effect on Feb. 1
does not violate the free speech
rights of residents and visitors
who like going out in the buff.
U.S. District Court Judge
Edward Chen refused to block
the ban temporarily or to allow a
lawsuit challenging it to proceed.
"In spite of what plaintiffs
argue, nudity in and of itself is
not inherently expressive," Chen
wrote.
NEW ORLEANS
BP investigation
closed by Justice
Department
BP PLC closed the book on
the Justice Department's crimi-
nal probe of its role in the Deep-
water Horizon disaster and Gulf
oil spill Tuesday, when a federal
* judge agreed to let the London-
based oil giant plead guilty to
manslaughter charges for the
deaths of 11 rig workers and pay a
record $4 billion in penalties.
What the plea deal approved
by U.S. District Judge Sarah
Vance doesn't resolve, though,
is the federal government's civil
claims against BP. The company
could pay billions more for envi-
ronmental damage from its 2010
spill.
Vance noted that the compa-
ny already has racked up more
than $24 billion in spill-related
expenses and has estimated it
will pay a total of $42 billion to
fully resolve its liability for the
disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
MOZAMBIQUE
Flood kills
23, displaces
thousands
A U.N. official in flood-hit
Mozambique says at least $15
million in aid is needed to help
after flood waters have killed 38
people and displaced hundreds
of thousands.
The U.N. says more than
150,000 have been displaced by
flooding in the southern African
nation of Mozambique over the
last several days. Marie Con-
selee Mukangendo, of the U.N.
children's agency UNICEF, said
Tuesday the overall death toll
stands at 38.
Mukangendo said the Chika-
halani camp alone is holding
an estimated 65,000 people but
has only 28 latrines. She called
the situation dire. The U.N. said
it estimates at least $15 million
would initially be needed in
relief aid.
Mozambique suffered record
floods in 2000 that killed more
than 700 people.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Syrian Envoy
warns U.N. of
destruction
Shannon Warnock, far right, a salvage hand with Big River Ship Builders & Salvage, secures his flotation device after load-
ing a boat with MDEQ employees at Le Tourneau Landingto work on the damaged barge stalled on the west bank of the
Mississippi )River near Vicksburg, Miss.
Tanker splls oilntoMiss
7,000 gallons of
crude oil leaked
into river
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP)
- The Coast Guard said Tues-
day that about 7,000 gallons of
crude oil were unaccounted for
aboard a leaking barge that had
rammed a railroad bridge near
Vicksburg on the Mississippi
River, which remained closed
for a third day as crews slowly
pumped out oil.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jona-
than Lally said it's not clear that
all of the 7,000 gallons leaked
into the river since the colli-
sion early Sunday. Some of it,
he said, could have seeped into
void spaces inside the barge.
Lally said a plan to pump oil
from the stricken barge onto
another barge - a process
knodwn as lightering - had been
approved but it was unclear
how long that would take or
when the river might reopen to
vessels..He said the other barge
was in route.
Environmental impact, Lally
said, has been minimal because
a boom is containing the leak
around the bargwe and the leak
is slow.
On Tuesday, tugs were pin-
ning the ruptured barge to the
bank on the Louisiana side of
the river, across from Vicks-
burg's Riverwalk and Lady
Luck casinos. Their engines
churned the muddy water for
which the Mississippi is so
famous. A few workers could
be seen walking on top of the
stricken barge.
An orange boom bobbed in
the water just downstream and
another boom was set up as a
second line of defense to keep
the oil from spreading.
The economic impact is
another matter.
At least 54 vessels, includ-
ing towboats and barges, were
idled Tuesday on the closed
16-mile stretch of one of the
nation's vital commerce routes.
Vessel traffic tends to be
less in January than during
peak harvest season, when
grain from the U.S. heartland
is shipped south to be loaded
onto massive ships near New
Orleans.
"The Coast Guard advised
our hazardous materials unit
that the river would be closed
indefinitely to all traffic," Lt.
Julie Lewis of the Louisiana
State Police said.
About 168.4 million tons of
cargo a year moves along the
Mississippi River between
Baton Rouge, La., and the
mouth of the Ohio River, car-
ried by nearly 22,300 cargo
ships and 162,700 barges,
according to the Army Corps
of Engineers. About 3.6 million
tons of cargo is handled annu-
ally by the port of Vicksburg.
When low water threatened
to close the river earlier this
month, the tow industry trade
group American Waterways
Operators estimated that 7.2
million tons of commodities
worth $2.8 billion might be
sidelined over the last three
weeks of January.
Urges end to
Security Council
overcome divisions
UNITED NATIONS (AP)
- The international envoy to
Syria told the Security Council
on Tuesday that "Syria is being
destroyed bit by bit" and his
mediation effort cannot go for-
ward unless the council unites
to push the Syrian government
and opposition forces toward
some compromise.
The Security Council has
been divided over Syria for
months, with the United States,
Britain, France and other West-
ern powers backing the armed
opposition and pushing for res-
olutions that raised the threat
of sanctions. Three times, Rus-
sia and China have cast vetoes
to block those resolutions.
"I'm embarrassed to be
repeating the same thing: Syria
is being destroyed," Lakhdar
Brahimi, the joint U.N-Arab
League envoy to Syria, said
after closed-door consultations
with the Security Council.
Brahimi blamed both Syr-
ian President Bashar Assad's
government and the Western-
backed opposition forces.
"Objectively, they are coop-
erating to destroy Syria. Syria is
being destroyed bit by bit. And
in destroying Syria, the region
is being pushed into a situa-
tion that is extremely bad, and
extremely important for the
entire world," Brahimi said.
He said that is why the Secu-
rity Council has a duty to over-
come its divisions.
Brahimi suggested that the
Security Council revisit the
Geneva Communique of June
2012, a broad but ambiguous
proposal endorsed by the West-
ern powers and Russia to pro-
vide a basis for negotiations.
Assad's role in any transi-
tion government was a red line
during the negotiations of the
Geneva Communique, and was
left vague. The United States
and Russia continue to dis-
agree on Assad's role, though
both signed off on the commu-
nique.
Brahimi says the Secu-
rity Council should now look
toward the provisions of the
Geneva Communique as a solu-
tion.
"A very critical element is the
creation of this governing body,
which is really a transition gov-
ernment, with full executive
powers," Brahimi said.
"I think there was a very
clever creative ambiguityinthis
creation, but I told them that
ambiguity has to be lifted now.
Now you have to say what those
full executive powers would be.
All the powers of state have got
to go to that government," he
told reporters outside the coun-
cil.government-funded Korea
Institute of Geoscience and
Mineral Resources.
Without a council push on
the Assad government and
opposition, the Geneva Com-
munique and his mediation
"cannot be implemented as it
is.
Brahimi addressed wide-
spread rumors that he was
about to quit, as his predeces-
sor, former U.N. secretary-
general Kofi Annan, did last
year when he ran into a similar
impasse.
Washington works
to keep weed legal
State plans But law enforcement officials
say marijuana from Colorado's
ahead on coming dispensaries often makes its
way to the black market, and
implementation even the head of the Colorado
agency charged with tracking
SEATTLE (AP) - So far, no the medical pot industry sug-
one is suggesting checkpoints gests no one should copy its
or fences to keep Washington measures.
state's legal pot within its bor- The agency has been beset
ders. by money woes and had to cut
But Gov. Jay Inslee insists many of its investigators. Even if
there are ways to prevent the the agency had all the money it
bulk smuggling of the state's wanted, the state's medical pot
newest cash crop into the black rules are "a model of regulatory
market, including digitally overreach," too cumbersome
tracking weed to ensure that it and expensive to enforce, Laura
goes from where ittis grown to Harris said ina statement.
the stores where it is sold. Last fall, voters made Wash-
With sales set to begin later ington and Colorado the first
this year, he hopes to be a good states to pass laws legalizing the
neighbor and keep vanloads of recreational use of marijuana
premium, legal bud from cruis- and setting up systems of state-
ing into Idaho, Oregon and licensed growers, processors
other states that don't want peo- and retail stores where adults
ple getting stoned for fun. over 21 can walk in and buy up
It's not just about generating to an ounce of heavily taxed
goodwill with fellow gover- cannabis.
nors. Inslee is trying to per- Both states are working to
suade U.S. Attorney General develop rules for the emerging
Eric Holder not to sue to block pot industry.
Washington from licensing pot The Obama administration
growers, processors and sell- could sue to block the legal
ers. Marijuana remains illegal markets from operating, on the
under federal law. grounds that actively regulat-
"I am going to be person- ing an illegal substance conflicts
ally committed to have a well with federal drug law. The DOJ
regulated, well disciplined, is reviewing the laws but has
well tracked, well inventory- given no signals about its plans.
controlled, well law-enforce- It has never sued states like
ment-coordinated approach," Colorado that have regulated
said Inslee, who expects to give medical marijuana, even though
Holder more details by next it could under the same legal
week. principles.
Keeping a lid on the weed Part of the DOJ's political
is just one of the numerous calculus in deciding whether to
challenges Washington state sue is likely to be how well the
authorities and their counter- department believes the two
parts in Colorado - where vot- states can keep the legal weed
ers also legalized pot use - will within their borders. During a
face in the coming months. meeting with Inslee last week,
The potential of regula- Holder asked a lot of questions
tory schemes to keep pot from about diversion, Inslee said.
being diverted isn't clear. Colo- Alison Holcomb, who led
rado already has intensive rules Washington's legal pot cam-
aimed at keeping its medi- paign, said it's important to
cal marijuana market in line, respect states that haven't legal-
including the digital tracking ized weed by not flooding their
of cannabis, bar codes on every black markets. The first step,
plant, surveillance video and she said, is for the state to fig-
manifests of all legal pot ship- ure out how much pot should
ments. be produced, and then grant
U.N. plans response to N. Korea
Threat of atomic
device could worsen
nation's isolation
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -
With North Korea appearing set
to detonate an atomic device, the
U.N. agency that detected two
previous tests says itis preparedto
confirm anexplosion when it takes
place. But experts say it might be
difficult to establish whether the
blast is nuclear in nature.
The best indication of a test
will be seismic tremors and gases
released into the air, phenom-
ena that the Preparatory Com-
mission for the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty identi-
fied from previous testing.
The Vienna-based organiza-
tion's most potent detection tools
are more than 150 seismic sta-
tions across the globe. Although
very small in yield, North Korea's
first test in 2006 was picked upby
the CTBTO, as was a second test
in 2009.
Last week, North Korea
warned that it plans a third
nuclear test to protest tough-
ened international sanctions
meant to punish it for firing a
long-range rocket in December.
The world sees the launch as a
ballistic missile test banned by
the U.N., while Pyongyang says
it launched a satellite into orbit
as part of a peaceful space devel-
opment program.
The U.S., South Korea and
their allies have pressed the
North to scrap its nuclear test
plans, saying it will only worsen
the country's decades-old inter-
national isolation.
The threats have placed scien-
tists and experts in South Korea
-on high alert as any test is likely
to aggravate tensions on the
Korean Peninsula.
South Korea's Defense Minis-
try said Tuesday it believes North
Korea has nearly completed its
nuclear test preparations, con-
firming satellite analysis last
week by the U.S.-Korea Institute,
a research group at the Johns
Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies.
Its satellite images' of the
Punggye-ri site - where the pre-
vious two tests were conducted
- show that the North Koreans
may have been sealing a tunnel
into a mountain where a nuclear
device would be detonated.
In the event of such an under-
ground nuclear test, both the
CTBTO facilities and earthquake
monitoring stations in South
Koreacan detectseismic tremors.
But although this is a strong
indication of a test, it is not an
absolute confirmation.
An earthquake expert at the
state-run Korea Meteorological
Administration said his office
aims to find out the magnitude
of the tremor, the time it started
and the exact location on the map
within 10 minutes of the explo-
sion. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he wasn't
authorized to speak to the media.
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