The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, February 4, 2013 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, February 4, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
ALLEGAN, Mich.
15 inches of snow
in West Michigan,
more expected
Western Michigan is clean-
ing up after a winter storm that
brought 15 inches or more of snow
in some areas, and the National
Weather Service says up to 10
inches of fresh snow is possible
through Monday night.
The weather service says parts
of Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Van
Buren counties got more than
15 inches between Wednesday
night and Saturday night. It says
fresh snow will start falling Sun-
day, bringing two to four inches
inland and localized accumula-
tions of up to 10 inches along Lake
Michigan.
In populous southeastern
Michigan, two to three inches
of fresh snow is expected by late
Monday.
BOSTON
Bus hits overpass
in Boston, more
than 30 injured
A charter bus carrying high
school students from Pennsylva-
nia crashed when it attempted to
pass under a low bridge in Bos-
ton on Saturday night, injuring
more than 30 people, four seri-
ously, and leaving some trapped
for more than an hour, authori-
ties said.
The students had been in the
area to visit Harvard University.
The bus, which was carrying 42
students and adult chaperones,
was heading back to the Phila-
delphia area when it struck
an overpass on Soldier's Field
Road, a major crosstown road, at
around 7:30 p.m., Massachusetts
State Police said.
Authorities said the Calvary
Coach bus did not belong on
the road, where a 10-foot height
limit is in place and over-sized
vehicles are not authorized.
State Police said the driver,
whose name was not released,
"failed to heed signs" warning of
the height limit and will likely be
cited for an overheight violation.
LOS ANGELES
School reforms
bring backlash in
Los Angeles
Thefederalgovernment'spush
for drastic reforms at chronically
low achieving schools has led to
takeovers by charter operators,
overhauls of staff and curricu-
lum, and even school shutdowns
across the country.
It's also generated a grow-
ing backlash among mostly low-
income, minority communities.
Some residents see the reforms
as not only disruptive in strug-
gling neighborhoods, but also as
civil rights violations since turn-
around efforts primarily affect
black and Latino students.
CAIRO
Riot police
0 beating caught on
camera in Egypt
An Egyptian man who was
beaten and dragged naked by
riot police during a violent pro-
test changed his story on Sunday,
telling prosecutors that secu-
rity forces harmed him - a day
after he accused protesters of
undressing and assaulting him.
The beating was caught on
camera by The Associated Press,
and the video was broadcast
live on Egyptian television late
Friday as protests raged in the
streets outside the presidential
palace. The AP video showed
police trying to bundle the naked
man into a police van after beat-
inghim.
The beating prompted a rare
statement ,of regret from the
Interior Ministry, which prom-
ised to investigate the attack.
The president's office said it was
pained by the images and called
the assault "shocking."
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Activist calls
for increased
prison reform
Speaker says current
system stands as
new form of slavery
By AARON GUGGENHEIM
DailyStaffReporter
Late Friday evening, Robert
King, a former member of the
Black Panther Party, spoke to
a crowded room in Rackham
Auditorium on what he said are
the inequities of the American
criminal justice system and the
prison-industrial complex.
King, weathered and soft-
spoken, has spent much of his
life in the corrections system, 29
in solitary confinement.
To speak about prison reform,
he has traveled to 20 different
countries and 47 states to speak
about prison reform. He also has
spoken about the need to release
Albert Woodfox and Herman
Wallace, both of whom are still
being held in an Angola in soli-
tary confinement after 36 years
for the alleged murder of a pris-
on guard. Woodfox, Wallace
and King, the subjects of several
documentaries, are collectively
known as the Angola Three.
King said that his experience
growing up in New Orleans in
the 1950s was an experience in
systematic racism:
"Igrewup in aculture orsoci-
ety where some people where
considered second-class citi-
zens," King said. "Every person
of color was considered a suspect
when a crime was committed."
As a black 22-year-old with
time served, King became the
suspect for a local robbery soon
after release from a stint in pris-
on. Despite not matching the
description of the perpetrator,
he was arrested and eventually
sentenced to 35 years in prison..
"I felt that the system, to put
it in a six-letter word, was rot-
ten," King said. "I began to see
that it was time to take matters
into my own hands ... I was not
against the system, the system
was against me."
King escaped from prison
once and when he was recap-
tured, King said he began his
involvement with the Black Pan-
ther Party because it advocated
for reform of the criminal jus-
tice system and for unequivocal
equal treatment of black people.
Reflecting on his time in
Angola, King said the prison sys-
tem was comparable to slavery
in the manner in which it dehu-
manized him and other inmates.
"I don't think people really
understand the impactof prisons
... there is a little bit of madness
in prison," he said. "All parts of
prison demoralize and dehu-
manize."
King said he survived prison
because he became politicized
on the topic of prison reform and
strove not to let the prison sys-
tem impact his mental health as
it did for so many others in soli-
tary confinement.
"I was impacted by Angola. I
must admit that everybody was
to some degree," he said. "(But)
I was determined not to let it
impact me the way it impacted
other people."
Law School student Gabe
Newland, symposium direc-
tor for the Michigan Journal of
Race and Law, helped organize
the event with student group
Human Rights Through Educa-
tion. The event was a prelude to
a symposium on solitary confine-
ment that was held Saturday.
Newland said King was
brought to speak because of the
growing discussion in the pris-
on-reform movement on how
solitary confinement constitutes
cruel and unusual punishment.
He added that many states are
coming around to eliminating
solitary confinement as a cost-
saving measure.
"(We wanted) to bring togeth-
er people who look at this prob-
lem from different angles,"
Newland said.
Reform of the prison system is
something that will benefit soci-
ety as a whole, he added.
"I think all of us have a stake in
what's going on here," Newland
said. "What we do to people who
we are punishing for crimes says a
lot about who we are as a society."
LSA junior Ciarra Ross said
she was appreciative of the event
because of how it fit in with the
current LSA theme semester
"Understanding Race."
"It was definitely necessary
... I definitely appreciate it quite
a bit," Ross said.
Ross said she agreed with
King's description of the pris-
on system as a continuation of
slavery.
"Slavery has just taken a new
form and this is a reality that
slavery still exists."
General Motors Chief Executive G. Mustafa Mohatarem talks about the auto industry markets abroad at the Asian
business conference Friday.
GM exec. speaksat23rd
annual Asian business event
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xecutive notes countries that are now 'rich,'
auto industries played a very
uto industry's key role in them becoming rich,"
Mohatarem said. "As per capita
erging markets grows, the demand for transpor-
tation grows with it. The two are
By KASEY COX interlinked."
Daily StaffReporter In his address, Mohatarem
presented graphs and charts
kick off the 23rd annual illustrating how GM observes
usiness Conference, Gen- trends - population trends - and
totors chief economist G. decides where they want to go
fa Mohatarem debated the next. However, poverty, politi-
of the Asian economy in cal instability and a countries'
ynote address to a crowd changing economic policies must
rly 100 people on Friday be taken into account, he said.
g. "Just because there is a large
;ted by a mixed board. population, it doesn't mean it's
chools and colleges across going to take off," Mohatarem
is, the conference also had said.
on Saturday that included Mohatarem said there will be
speakers on regions and challenges for China as intra-
ies including China, India Asian trade grows and China
pan, as well as experts on continues to allow North Amer-
e, entrepreneurship, tech- ica and Europe to dominate their
rand transportation. export market.
using mostly on the "If you look at discussions in
otive industry in China, the 1980s, they often asked when
arem discussed what to Japan would pass the U.S.,"
or when investing in and Mohatarem said. "Now we are
g with foreign nations. He seeing the same discussion with
ghted that the auto indus- China."
importance in emerging On Friday, the audience rep-
ts, especially in Asia. resented a variety of young
you look at most of the professionals, faculty and lead-
ers of Asia and other multina-
tional companies. Among them,
undergraduate LSA and Busi-
ness School students listened
and expressed their excitement
about the Saturday panels.
LSA freshman Zach Wloch
said that the description of the
China panel, though it is a vague
topic, captivated his interest.
"I came here just to find out
more aboutwhat the futureholds
for markets in Asia and to learn
more about business as a whole,"
Wloch said. "It was interesting it
gave me a different perspective
on different topics. I didn't really
know much about the topic of
automotive markets in China
and other Asian countries. It was
more learning new things."
Ross masters student Muriel
Makarim was co-chair confer-
ence organizer and said she took
away that it's crucial to adapt
to various cultures within Asia
from Saturday's ASEAN/finance
panel speaker, Zachary Emig,
director of securitized product
trading at Deutsche Bank.
"There is no one strategy to
do business in Asia since every
country is so different," Makarim
said. "Companies need to be
aware of that to be successful."
Bus driver fatally shot
. Details emerge
about 65-year-old
alleged shooter
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP)
- As an Alabama standoff
and hostage drama marked a
sixth day Sunday, more details
emerged about the suspect at
the center, with neighbors and
officials painting a picture of an
isolated man estranged from his
family.
Authorities say Jim Lee
Dykes, 65 - a decorated Viet-
nam-era veteran known as
Jimmy to neighbors - gunned
down a school bus driver and
abducted a 5-year-old boy from
the bus, taking him to anunder-
ground bunker on his rural
property. The driver, 66-year-
old Charles Albert Poland Jr.,
was buried Sunday.
Dykes, described as a loner
who railed against the govern-
ment, lives up a dirt road out-
side this tiny hamlet north of
Dothan in the southeastern
corner of the state. His home is
just off the main road north to
the state capital of Montgomery,
about 80 miles away.
The FBI said in a statement
Sunday that authorities con-
tinue to have an open line of
communication with Dykes.
The little boy requested Cheez-
Its and a red Hot Wheels car,
both of which were delivered
to the bunker, a separate state-
ment said. Authorities had said
they also were delivering medi-
cine and other comfort items,
and that Dykes was making the
child as comfortable as possible.
In the nearby community of
Ozark on Sunday, more than
500 people filed into the Civic
Center to pay a final tribute to
Poland, who was being hailed
as a hero for protecting the
other children on the school bus
before he was shot Tuesday.
Poland is now "an angel who
is watching over" the little
boy, said Dale County School
Superintendent Donny Bynum,
who read letters written by
three students who had ridden
on Poland's bus. "You didn't
deserve to die but you died
knowing you kept everyone
safe," one child wrote.
Outside the funeral, school
buses from several counties
lined the funeral procession
route. The buses had black rib-
bons tied to their side mirrors.
Dykes grew up in the Dothan
area. Mel Adams, a Midland
City Council member who owns
the lot where reporters are gath-
ered, said he has known Dykes
since they were ages 3 and 4.
He said Dykes has a sister
and a brother, but that he is
estranged from his family.
Adams said he didn't know
what caused the falling-out, but
that he knew Dykes "had told
part of his family to go to hell."
Midland City Mayor Virgil
Skipper said Dykes' sister is in a
nursing home. Adams said that
law enforcement officers have
talked to Dykes' family mem-
bers and advised them not to
speak with reporters, and that
officers told his sister there was
nothing she could do to help the
child in the bunker.
Session 1: May 28 -June 27 Session 11: July 2 -August 6
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