The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Crew working to
contain oil spill on
Grand River
Cleanup crews were work-
ing Tuesday to contain about
300 to 500 gallons of hydraulic
fluid that spilled from a Lansing
power plant and left a sheen on
the Grand River.
The Board of Water and Light
installed booms - inflated buoys
with pads to absorb the fluid
- across the river, said Brad
Wurfel, a spokesman for the
Michigan Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality.
It was too soon to assess the
spill's effects on the environ-
ment, Wurfel told The Asso-
ciated Press early Tuesday
afternoon.
The spill started Sunday night
and was blamed on a gasket fail-
ure at the utility's Eckert Power
Plant near downtown.
SOUTH BEND, Indiana
GOP Sen. Kirk
endorses gay
marriage
GOP Sen. Mark Kirk of Illi-
nois on Tuesday became the sec-
ond sitting Republican senator to
endorse gay marriage - a move
that also could shift the political
debate over legalizing gay mar-
riage in Kirk's home state.
Kirk, who has opposed a consti-
* tutional amendment banning gay
marriage, said in a post on his blog
that "same-sex couples should
have the right to civil marriage."
"Our time on this Earth is limit-
ed, I know that better than most,"
said Kirk, who suffered a stroke in
January 2012. "Life comes down
to who you love and who loves you
back- governmenthasno place in
the middle."
Kirk went through months of
rehabilitation before returning to
work in Washington this Janu-
ary. He said in his blog post that he
promised himself he would return
"with an open mind and greater
respect for others."
SULPHER SPRINGS, Texas
Two inmates
escape from East
* Texas jail
Two inmates with long crimi-
nal histories - including one
awaiting trial for capital mur-
der - escaped an East Texas jail,
dumped their black-and-white
scrubs and were fleeing a man-
hunt Tuesday, authorities said.
Brian Allen Tucker of Sulphur
Springs and John Marlin King of
Cumbyslippedpastafence around
a recreation yard at the Hopkins
County Jail around 8 a.m. Tues-
day, officials with the Hopkins
County Sheriff's Office said.
The two men dumped their jail
uniforms on rail tracks near the

jail, Deputy Alvin Jordan said.
They had white T-shirts and boxer
shorts on underneath, and Sheriff
Butch Adams said it was possible
they had clothes stashed on the
outside.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip

OIL
From Page 1A
spill in the Kalamazoo River.
Shannon argued that Michigan
has a unique responsibility to
invest in fuel efficiencies and
clean energy because it's sur-
rounded by 20 percent of the
world's fresh water.
LSA senior Lydia Geschiere,
an event organizer, hoped it
would be a "comprehensive
educational experience" that
would help people realize that
oil dependence does not have to
continue.
Students passing by the event
were encouraged to sign a peti-
tion supporting a transition
HEARING
From Page 1A
tion. That decision is not being
appealed.
The UEC held the three
hearings against forUM late
Friday, stretching into the
early morning before the UEC
released decisions at 5:30 a.m.
Saturday.
LSA senior Lukas Garske, the

to clean energy in the United
States. The group collected
almost 200 signatures by the
end of the event.
David Smith, a parent of a
prospective student on a tour,
said the event made the Univer-
sity stick out to him more than
other schools.
Engineering senior Mardan
Niyaz said the event allowed
him to gain a new understand-
ing about drilling for oil.
"I am a chemical engineer,
and this is what we do," Niyz
said. "It is good to know what
political scientists think
about this because we have
totally different views and
a different perspective than
they do."
CSG student general counsel,
said it's quite possible that CSJ
could remand the cases back to
the UEC to hear with a differ-
ent interpretation of the elec-
tion code. Elected candidates
don't take their seats until 10
days after the election has been
ratified and postponement of
the ratification could extend the
terms of current CSG leaders by
several weeks, as was the case
last year.

ABUSE
From Page 1A
the country, so we have this
public display and, hopefully,
people will come by," Ortega
added. "We start at the ground
level - working with children
and families - and also in com-
munities."
Social Work student Joyce
Reese-Bey said she helped initi-
ate and plan this event and other
events throughout the month to
achieve better student aware-
ness.
"I feellikeeverychild deserves
to have a childhood that's free
from harm," Reese-Bey said.
"Children don't have anyone to

speak up for them because they
rely on the adults in their lives.
We have to be that voice for those
kids who don't have parents to
stick up for them."
Social Work student Lidi
Armenta saw the event as a way
to reach all students by extenu-
ating the concern for these
children in a visual and easily
accessible way.
"I'm a Child Welfare Scholar,
and there's a cohort of about ten
of us every year," Armenta said.
"We really felt like we wanted
to commit to taking it beyond
our academic endeavors by rais-
ing awareness of child abuse and
neglect."
Ortega said many students in
the Social Work School decide to

come to the University because it
affords them more opportunities
to help children.
"Students who come here have
experienced working with chil-
dren and come back to school to
work on their master's degree so
they can go out and do a lot more
in terms of advocacy and social
change," Ortega said.
Social Work student Dominic
Ortega said there will be other
events later this month that aim
to highlight Child Abuse Preven-
tion.
"We're doing the pinwheels
today, and then we have some
signs that kids came up with
about why kids matter," he said.
"There's been a lot of involve-
ment in this program."

UN approves treaty to
regulate global arms trade


PLASTICS
From Page 1A
nanoparticles, revealing the
metallic copper core. This core
allows the catalysis of propyl-
ene oxide.
"As you shine light, the
electrons from . copper start
hopping into an anti-bonding
state," Linic said. "The oxygen
just starts breaking bonds with
copper."
While Linic and his team
have discovered a way to halt
oxidation, he said it's unreason-
able that this technique could
be used to reverse the effects of
rusting on an old nail.
"I would never use this to
prevent rusting," Linic said.
"This happens at 200 degrees
Celsius; it happens in presence
of propylene. It's not just as
ROTC
From Page 1A
He said the University's aca-
demic rigor and the ROTC pro-
gram's focus on leadership and
communication help to build a
well-rounded individual.
In his speech, Shun said even
as the world and armed forces
change, it is important to be
an active, invested leader. He
stressed that a good leader is a
good learner, working together
with those in his or her com-
mand.
"You can't be an e-mail lead-
er," Shun said. "They want the
real thing."
Nursing senior Courtney
Pierce, a member of the Army
Nurse Corps, received the
Daughters of the American Rev-
olution Award, which honors
those with lineage to the Revo-
lutionary War. She has received
two awards for academics in
previous years but said this
award was special.
"I kind of like this award a
little better," Pierce said. "It
doesn't focus that much on aca-
demics and I like it because it
represents the whole half-rea-
son why I joined ROTC, for the

simple as shining light."
Additionally, the compound's
commercial possibilities
remain uncertain. Fifty percent
of the propylene and oxygen in
the reaction using light com-
bined to form propylene oxide.
Though this is an improvement
from the 20-percent yield rate
of a light-free reaction, Linic
said the commercial sector
would likely prefer a rate above
80 percent.
Commercialization of the
compound would also entail
designing a special reactor to
ensure the light reaches each
particle of copper. However,
Linic said the research's bot-
tom line was its development of
a theory.
"The most important thing
here is that you can shine light
and change the outcome of a
reaction fundamentally."
patriotism ... it kind of embel-
lishes like my idea of why I
joined the military."
LSA senior Kyle Ayers, a Cadet
Sergeant Major in Army ROTC,
received recognition as a gradu-
ating member of the Scabbard
and Blade Society and was given
the Lt. Norman Carl Anschuetz
II Memorial Award. This award
included a sword, signifying
Aires's substantial success in
leadership and advancing the
battalion.
Ayers said even though he
joined the ROTC only last year;
the battalion has improved leaps
and bounds since he's been there.
"They make sure that they
can complete the Michigan
course load and still have time
to do the ROTC prep that they
need," he said.
Ayers said he was happy to
see the increased interaction
between the older students
and the underclassmen. He
said members have a sense that
ROTC is not just a hobby, but
also a career.
"I'm proud of the ability that I
had to really mentor underclass-
men and bring them up and try
to instill a sense of respect for
the uniform and respect for the
Army in general."

U.S. votes to
approve the arms
regulation treaty
UNITED NATIONS (AP)
- The U.N. General Assembly
overwhelmingly approved the
first international treaty regu-
lating the multibillion-dollar
global arms trade Tuesday, after
a more than decade-long cam-
paign to keep weapons from
falling into the hands of terror-
ists, warlords, organized crime
figures and human rights viola-
tors.
Loud cheers erupted in the
assembly chamber as the elec-
tronic board flashed the final
vote: 154 in favor, 3 against and
23 abstentions.
"This is a victory for the
world's people," U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon said. "The
Arms Trade Treaty will make it
more difficult for deadly weap-
ons to be diverted into the illicit
market. ... It will be a powerful
new tool in our efforts to pre-
vent grave human rights abuses
or violations of international

humanitarian law."
The United States, the world's
biggest arms exporter, voted
yes.
Iran, North Korea and Syria
- all facing arms embargoes
- cast the only no votes. They
argued, among other things,
that the agreement favors major
arms suppliers like the U.S. over
importers that need weapons for
self-defense.
Russia and China, which
are also major arms export-
ers, abstained along with India
and Indonesia, while nuclear-
armed Pakistan voted in favor.
Many Arab countries, including
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and
Qatar, abstained, while Lebanon
voted yes.
Never before has there been
a treaty regulating the global
arms trade, which is estimated
to be worth $60 billion today and
which Amnesty International
predicts will exceed $100 billion
in the next four years.
"Today's victory shows
that ordinary people who care
about protecting human rights
can fight back to stop the gun
lobby dead in its tracks, help-


ing to save countless lives," said
Frank Jannuzi, deputy execu-
tive director of Amnesty Inter-
national USA.
"The voices of reason tri-
umphed over skeptics, treaty
opponents and dealers in death
to establish a revolutionary
treaty that constitutes a major
step toward keeping assault
rifles, rocket-propelled gre-
nades and other weapons out of
the hands of despots and war-
lords who use them to kill and
maim civilians, recruit child
soldiers and commit other seri-
ous abuses."
What impact the treaty will
actually have remains to be
seen. It will take effect 90 days
after 50 countries ratify it, and
a lot will depend on which ones
ratify and which ones don't, and
how stringently it is implement-
ed.
As for its chances of being
ratified by the U.S., the power-
ful National Rifle Association
has vehemently opposed it, and
it is likely to face stiff resistance
from conservatives inthe Senate,
where it needs two-thirds to win
ratification.


-- 7

Hamas will begin Summer Session 2013
segregating Gaza U 0 U
ssegegatin GazaSession I: May 28 -June 27 Session 11: July 2 -August 6
schools by gender

Starting with the new school
year in September, Gaza boys and
girls in middle and high school
will be breaking the law if they
studysideby side.
Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas
rulers argue that the new legis-
lation, mandating gender sepa-
ration in schools from age nine,
enshrines common practice. But
women's activists warned Tues-
day that it's another step in the
Hamas agendaofimposingits fun-
damentalist world view on Gaza's
1.7 million people.
The Gaza rules appear harsh
compared to Western practice
but are not unusual in parts of the
Arab and Muslim world. In Iraq,
for example, boys and girls are
required by law to study separate-
ly after age 12.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports.

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