The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, March 25, 2013 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
SOUTHFIELD, Mich.
Postal workers
protest end of
Saturday service
Hundreds of postal workers
who oppose plans to cut home
delivery from six days to five
picketed Sunday outside U.S.
Postal Service offices in Michi-
gan.
About 600 U.S. Postal Service
employees and their support-
ers marched in protest at a post
office in the Detroit suburb of
Southfield, while about 100 from
around the state demonstrated
in Grand Rapids.
"It's about saving lot of jobs,"
letter carrier Henry Jaracz told
The Detroit News from South-
field. "I have a customer on my
route. He has his own business
and he gets payroll checks on
Saturday. A lot of businesses are
open on Saturday and depend on
us to deliver on Saturdays."
CHICAGO
Mayor says school
closings are tough
but necessary
Mayor Rahm Emanuel
responded Saturday to wide-
spread criticism of his plan to
close 54 Chicago Public Schools,
saying he wasn't interested in
doing what was politically easy
and that the pain of the closings
doesn't compare to the anguish
of "trapping" kids in failing
schools.
"If we don't make these
changes, we haven't lived up to
our responsibility as adults to
the children of the city of Chi-
cago," Emanuel said in his first
public statements since Thurs-
day's announcement. "And I did
not run for office to shirk my
responsibility."
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.
Saplings from
Anne Frank's tree
take root in U.S.
Saplings from the chestnut
tree that stood as a symbol of
0 hope for Anne Frank as she hid
from the Nazis for two years in
Amsterdam are being distrib-
uted to 11 locations in the United
States as part of a project that
aims to preserve her legacy and
promote tolerance.
The tree, one of the Jewish
teenager's only connections to
nature while she hid with her
family, was diseased and rotted
through the trunk when wind
and heavy rain toppled it in
August 2010. But saplings grown
from its seeds will be planted
starting in April, when the Chil-
dren's Museum of Indianapo-
lis will put the first one in the
ground.
The 11 U.S. locations, which
also include a park memorial-
izing 9-11 victims in New York
City, an Arkansas high school
that was the heart of the deseg-

regation battle and Holocaust
centers in Michigan and Wash-
ington state were chosen by The
Anne Frank Center USA from 34
applicants.
BANGUI, Central African Republic
Rebels overthrow
Central African
Republic leader
Rebels overthrew Central
African Republic's president of
a decade on Sunday, seizing the
presidential palace and declar-
ing that the desperately poor
country has "opened a new page
in its history." The country's
president fled the capital, while
extra French troops moved to
secure the airport, officials said.
The rebels' invasion of the
capital came just two months
after they had signed a peace
agreement that would have let
President Francois Bozize serve
until 2016. That deal unraveled
in recent days, prompting the
insurgents' advance into Bangui
and Bozize's departure to a still
unpublicized location.
- Complied from
Daily wire reports

DAAP runs
CSG slate

Candidates
advocate affirm.
action, campus
diversity
By GIACOMO BOLOGNA
Daily StaffReporter
Despite consistent defeat in
student government elections
in recent years, the Defend
Affirmative Action Party is
running a presidential ticket
and a slate of 17 representative
candidates in the March 27 and
28 Central Student Govern-
ment elections.
Social Work student Ashley
Garrick, DAAP's presidential
candidate, is the only gradu-
ate student running for presi-
dent or vice president this year.
Increasing minority enroll-
ment is a major platform point
for the party, and Garrick said
the issue is personal for her.
"Sometimes I'm the only
black person in the class, or
the only minority in the class,"
Garrick said. "I have a hard
time understanding how we're
so quick to promote social jus-
tice and diversity and being
culturally aware" without
diverse classrooms.
DAAP's platform also
includes a host of other social
issues, including support-
ing the passage of legislation
that would give some undoc-
umented residents a path to
citizenship, charging in-state
tuition rates for undocu-
mented Michigan residents
and supporting full rights for
LGBT students.
These platform points con-
trast with those of other cam-
paigns as none of the four
other candidates emphasize
that CSG should be an advo-
cate for social change. DAAP's
platform, however, lacks many
of the unifying issues of other

campaigns, such as promoting
entrepreneurship or address-
ing how student organizations
are funded.
LSA sophomore Chene
Karega, DAAP's candidate for
vice president, said while win-
ning the election is important,
it's also important to promote
affirmative action and social
issues.
"We do believe we can win
the presidency," she said. "But
it's also about the message,
because if we're not here talk-
ing about these things it won't
be talked about."
At the candidate's debate on
Thursday night, every presi-
dential candidate said they
supported affirmative action,
and Karega said DAAP will
continue to fight for its cam-
paign goals within CSG wheth-
er or not they win.
"If we don't win, we do plan
on working with our parties to
make sure our agenda is heard,
but more importantly we
always try to make our voice
heard at (assembly) meetings,"
she said.
Members of DAAP were
present at an assembly meet-
ing as recent as Tuesday when
they addressed representatives
about a march for immigrants'
rights in Washington, D.C. on
April 10.
While other parties such as
forUM might be advocating
for diversity, Karega said there
isn't enough emphasis on affir-
mative action.
DAAP's campaign man-
ager Issamar Almarez, who is
not a University student, said
DAAP's campaigners have
been going through the dorms
to talk with students, who
have been supportive of the
issues DAAP has been advo-
cating. Almarez added that she
believes many students agree
that issues such as declin-
ing minority enrollment are
important, but that they don't

NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
LSA senior Tom Riley flaunts a fur coat at the Mr. Michigan male pageant in the U-Club of the Union on Sunday.
Students hold male
pageant for charity

Over $20,000
raised to support
medical relief
for children
By ARIANA ASSAF
DailyStaffReporter
Nothing guarantees a good
time like red fur coats, Chip-
pendales routines and pies
being thrown in faces.
On Sunday afternoon, nearly
200 people gathered at The
University Club in the Michi-
gan Union for the annual Mr.
Michigan competition, an event
put on by the Foundation for
International Medical Relief of
Children.
FIMRC co-president Maddy
Stumpos, an LSA senior,
described the competition as "a
male beauty pageant." During
the introduction, she and fellow

co-president, LSA senior Kelly
Ketchum, announced that the
organization had already raised
$20,000.
All proceeds are going
towards FIMRC's mission of
providing medical care for
underprivileged children
around the world.
Participants kicked off the
festivities with a flash-mob-
style dance routine to a mash-
up of songs by popular artists
including Justin Bieber and
Beyoncd, then moved on to indi-
vidual introductions of the con-
testants.
Some highlights included
learning that LSA sophomore
David Mullen-Muhr, who rep-
resented MRelay in the Mr.
Michigan competition, is an
ordained minister, while LSA
junior Matthew Johnson, who
was representing Circle K,
impressed the crowd by show-
ing off his salsa dancing skills
on his way to the stage.

Then came the talent por-
tion, in which LSA senior
Yianni Ellenikiotis, who
represented the Pre-Dental
Association, performed a
Chippendale dance routine -
and much to some onlookers'
appreciation - took a pie to
the abs later on.
LSA senior Graam Liu, Mot-
ley Crew's representative,
serenaded co-president Kelly
Ketchum. LSA senior Jihad
Komis, Mock Trial's represen-
tative, mastered the saltine
challenge.
Before the votes were cast,
LSA senior Joanna Connelly, a
friend of both Komis and John-
son, said, "Everyone was so
good. I want to vote for all of
them!"
Engineering senior Nicholas
Clift came in first place, receiv-
ing a Cottage Inn gift card as
well as the title of Mr. Michi-
gan, complete with a crown and
flower bouquet.

Group gives
iPads to sick
ComfortApp was pretty incredible to see
how these devices were able
loans tablets to to captivate and calm a boy
who was scared and anx-
keep patients ious."
ComfortApp has received a
grant from the Barger Lead-
ership Institute in .LSA and
ByASHWINI NATARAJAN has received several volunteer
Daily StaffReporter awards.
LSA senior Ajit Ramadugu,
Atleastthat'sthe hope ofstu- the director of recruiting for
dentgroup ComfortApp, which ComfortApp, said the group
aims to improve the quality of chose to use iPads because
patients' visits to the Univer- of their utility and abil-
sity hospital by providing them ity to upgrade software as it
with tablet computers. evolves.
The student-run organiza- "The reason we chose the
tion started donating iPads iPad is that it's a very ver-
to the University of Michigan satile and dynamic tool for
Health System's Comprehen- all types of use. It's sustain-
sive Cancer Center in 2011, able in the sense that we can
but earlier in the semester donate them now and they'll
branched out to include C.S. be useful for many years," he
Mott Children's Hospital. said.
So far, the club has donated Ramadugu said the tangible
23 iPads and is raising more results of ComfortApp's work
money for future donations. make it unique.
LSA senior Aley Zheutlin, "I'm giving a more personal
president of ComfortApp, said touch to the community more
it seemed practical to provide than I would be able to do
a distraction for patients who with a different type of club
endure hospital visits that are that's like more broad based or
often long and tedious. He said working on a bigger mission,"
the harsh treatments for pedi- Ramadugu said. "Our mission
atric cancer patients are made is very, very focused."
more tolerable with distrac- ComfortApp adviser
tion. Doreen McGuire, who works
"This young boy was receiv- in development at UMHS, said
ing treatment for his cancer, she admires the group for their
and whenever he had any- dedication to their mission and
thing, any sort of needle, any their aid in improving patient
sort of poke or prod, he was care.
screaming, crying," Zheutlin Amy Schroer, . a UMHS
said. "It was a very stressful patient education librarian,
and disturbing time for him, said the iPads serve as a great
so they took one of these iPads distraction and way to pass
and just put it in front of his the time for patients. She said
face." that patients almost felt privi-
After the chid remained leged to have access to the
calm for the procedure, "It iPads.

Mayoral group targets senate
in gun control ad campaign

Advertisements in
key states advocate
strong background
checks, bans
NEW YORK (AP) - A new
$12 million television ad cam-
paign from Mayors Against
Illegal Guns will push senators
in key states to back gun control
efforts, including comprehen-
sive background checks.
New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg announced
the ad buy Saturday - just days

after Senate Democrats touted
stronger background checks
while acknowledging insuffi-
cient support to restore a ban on
assault-style weapons to federal
gun control legislation.
"These ads bringthe voices of
Americans - who overwhelm-
ingly support comprehensive
and enforceable background
checks - into the discussion
to move senators to immedi-
ately take action to prevent gun
violence," Bloomberg said in a
statement issued by the group
he co-founded in 2006.
The two ads posted on
the group's website, called

"Responsible" and "Family,"
show a gun owner holding a
rifle while sitting on the back of
a pickup truck.
In one ad, the man says he'll
defend the Second Amendment
but adds "with rights come
responsibilities." The ad then
urges viewers to tell Congress to
support background checks.
In the other ad, the man,
a hunter, says "background
checks have nothing to do with
takingguns away from anyone."
The man then says closing loop-
holes will stop criminals and
the mentally ill from obtaining
weapons.


Tuesday, March 26, 2013
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Poster session with refreshments.
Free and open to the public.

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Weill Hall, 1st and 2nd floors
735 S. State Street
Info: 734-615-3893
fordschool.umich.edu

Gerald R Ford
School of PublIc Policy

Edward Gramfich
1939-2007