The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Government
sells another
$811 million in
GM stock
The government is getting
closer to selling all of its General
Motors Co. stock.
The Treasury Department said
in its August report to Congress
that it sold $811 million worth of
GM common stock last month.
The report dated Tuesday says
the government has recovered
about $35.4 billion of the $49.5 bil-
lion bailout it gave the Detroit auto-
maker. That means taxpayers are
still $14.1billion in the hole.
The Treasury says the price
per share of stock sold in July and
August will be revealed at a later
date.
WASHINGTON
Report finds rape
culture in Asia
Susan Walsh/AP
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), left, accompanied by the committee's ranking
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, R-lowa, asks a question, on Capitol Hill in WashingtonTuesday.
Feds seek legitimacy for
marjiuana financial sector
Richest 1 percent B
earn biggest share
since 1920
The gulf between the richest 1
percent and the rest of America is
the widest it's been since the Roar-
ing'20s.
The very wealthiest Americans
earned more than 19 percent of the
country's household income last
year - their biggest share since
1928, the year before the stock mar-
ket crash. And the top 10 percent
captured a record 48.2 percent of
total earnings last year.
U.S. income inequality has been
growing for almost three decades.
And it grew again last year, accord-
ing to an analysis of Internal Rev-
enue Service figures dating to 1913
by economists at the University
of California, Berkeley, the Paris
School of Economics and Oxford
University.
Oneofthem,Berkeley'sEmman-
uel Saez, said the incomes of the
richest Americans surged last
year in part because they cashed
in stock holdings to avoid higher
capital gains taxes that took effect
in January.
WASHINGTON
U.S. says eight
more countries join
statement on Syria
The White House says eight
more countries have signed a
statement blaming Syrian Presi-
dent Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR'
AH'-sahd) for a chemical weap-
ons attack and calling for a strong
international response.
The additions announced Tues-
day bring the total number of sup-
portive countries to 33, up from 25
on Monday.
The statement was released last
week at the close of an economic
summit in Russia. It had 11 origi-
nal signers, including the United
States. The latest countries to sign
are Georgia, Guatemala, Kuwait,
Malta, Montenegro, Panama,
Poland and Portugal.
KINSHASA, Congo
'Significant
progress' in
* Congo, M23 talks
The Congolese government and
a rebel group that is ensconced in
the hills above one of the country's
largest cities have made progress
in talks organized by neighboring
nations, according to a statement
issued Tuesday.
"Significant progress has been
made in the dialogue," said the
statement from the office of the
Facilitator of the International
Conference of the Great Lakes,
which is hosting the mediation
effort in the capital of neighboring
Uganda.
Late last month, Congolese
troops exchanged heavy fire with
the M23 rebels, who occupy posi-
tions just outside the strategic east-
ern city of Goma. Aided by U.N.
forceswhopoundedrebelpositions
with combat helicopters the Con-
golese were able to reclaim several
areas that had been occupied by
0 the M23,until the rebels unexpect-
edly declared a cease-fire, saying
they wanted to resume talks.
-Compiledfrom
Daily wire reports
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need t
inks currently "we're working on it."
The congressional hearing
y to serve lawful was the first since the adminis-
tration announced a new, more
rijuana-related permissive enforcement policy.
businesses On Aug. 29, the Justice Depart-
ment said it won't try to stop
Colorado and Washington state
HINGTON (AP) - The from legalizing recreational
Department and fed- marijuana use as long as they
anking regulators will implement strong enforcement
ear the way for financial systems. Marijuana is an illegal
tions to transact busi- drug under federal law.
ith the legitimate mari- At the hearing that high-
ndustry without fear of lighted the conflict between
ution, Deputy Attorney state and federal law on mari-
. James Cole told Con- juana, Cole told the committee
n Tuesday. that "there are no perfect solu-
issue has taken on great- tions here. ... We're at the point
ency now that Colorado we're trying to find the best of
ashington have become the imperfect solutions before
t states to legalize recre- us."
use of marijuana. Committee Chairman Pat-
ently, processing money rick Leahy, D-Vt., said that as
iarijuana sales puts fed- a result of the banking con-
nsured banks at risk of straints, legitimate marijuana
icketeering charges. businesses are operating on a
use of the threat of cash-only basis and "that's a
al prosecution, financial prescription for problems, tax
ions often refuse to let evasion" and other criminal
ana-related businesses activity. Cole agreed and said
accounts. The problem there is a public safety compo-
in states that have laws nent to the problem because the
ting medical use of mar- cash-only business can result in
In 1996, California vot-, the presence of guns.,
de their state the first In 2011, American Express
w medical use, and 19 announced it would no longer
tates and the District of handle medical marijuana-
bia have enacted similar related transactions because
of fear of federal prosecution.
n appearance before the A month later, Cole gave banks
Judiciary Committee, an explicit directive on medical
id the absence of bank- marijuana that stated: "Those
rvices is one that "we who engage in transactions
o deal with" and that involving the proceeds of such
activity may also be in viola-
tion of federal money launder-
ing statutes and other federal
financing laws."
Leahy, who spent eight years
as a prosecutor early in his
career, said the Justice Depart-
ment should focus on prosecut-
ing violent crime and should
respect the votes in Colorado
and Washington to legalize
small amounts of marijuana for
personal and medical use.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley,
the committee's top Republican
and co-chairman of the Senate
Caucus on International Nar-
cotics Control, said the Jus-
tice Department is "giving the
green light" to an industry bent
on breaking federal law.
Grassley said that Colora-
do has seen a sharp uptick in
diversion of marijuana from
Colorado to other states and
increased use among minors.
"I understand the skepti-
cism that you come to it with,"
Cole told Grassley. "We have
reserved, quite explicitly, the
right to go in" and challenge the
regulatory programs of Colora-
do and Washington.
Grassley asked what the
Justice Department plans to
do to protect states like Iowa
from marijuana being diverted
from states like Colorado. Cole
responded, "If it's being export-
ed from Colorado to Iowa and
we find out about it, we will
prosecute."
With the door to legalization
open in two states, others could
follow.
In some parts of
region, offenders felt
'sexual entitlement'
LONDON (AP) - About one
in four men in some parts of Asia
admittedrapingawoman, accord-
ingto the firstlarge studies ofrape
and sexual violence. About one in
10 admitted raping a woman who
was not their partner.
International researchers said
their startling finding should
change perceptions about how
common violence against women
is and prompt major campaigns
to prevent it. Still, the results
were based on a surveyof only six
Asian countries and the authors
said it was uncertain what rates
were like elsewhere in the region
and beyond. They said engrained
sexist attitudes contributed, but
that other factors like poverty or
being emotionally and physically
abused as children were major
risk factors for men's violent
behavior.
A previous report from the
World Health Organization
found one-third of women world-
wide say they have been victims
of domestic or sexual violence.
"It's clear violence against
women is far more widespread in
the general population than we
thought," said Rachel Jewkes of
South Africa's Medical Research
Council, who led the two stud-
ies. The research was paid for by
several United Nations agencies
and Australia, Britain, Norway
and Sweden. The papers were
published online Tuesday in the
journal, Lancet Global Health.
In the new research, male
interviewers surveyed more
than 10,000 men in Bangladesh,
China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri
Lanka and Papua New Guinea.
The word "rape" was not used in
the questions, but the men were
asked if they had ever forced a
woman to have sex when she
wasn't willing or if they had ever
forced sex on someone who was
too drunk or drugged to consent.
In most places, scientists con-
cluded between 6 to 8 percent of
men raped a woman who wasn't
their partner. When they includ-
ed wives and girlfriends, the
figures were mostly between 30
to 57 percent. The lowest rates
were in Bangladesh and Indone-
sia and the highest were in Papa
New Guinea. Previous studies
of rape have been done in South
Africa, where nearly 40 percent
of men are believed to have raped
a woman.
Of those who acknowledged
forcing a woman to have sex,
more than 70 percent of men said
it was because of "sexual entitle-
ment." Nearly 60 percent said
they were bored or wanted to
have fun while about 40 percent
said it was because they were
angry or wanted to punish the
woman. Only about half of the
men said they felt guilty and 23
percent had been imprisoned for
a rape.
"The problem is shocking but
anyplace we have looked, we
see partner violence, victimiza-
tion and sexual violence," said
Michele Decker, an assistant pro-
fessor at Johns Hopkins Bloom-
berg School of Public Health,
who co-wrote an accompanying
commentary. "Rape doesn't just
involve someone with a gun to a
woman's head," she said. "People
tend to think of rape as some-
thing someone else would do."
"It's not enough to focus on
services for women," said Char-
lotte Watts, head of the Gender,
Violence and Health Centre at
the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, who was
not part of the study. She said
some programs in Africa based
on challenging traditional ideas
of masculinity are proving suc-
cessful.
"It may be that the culture
where they grew up condones
violence, but it's not impossible to
change that," she said.
New MSU drone
to boost crop yield
Google loses federal appeals
case for invading online privacy
Data collected
through unprotected
networks ruled
as 'Wi-Spy'
SAN JOSE, Calif (AP) - A
federal appeals court said Google
wrongly collected people's per-
sonal correspondence and online
activities through their Wi-Fi
systems as it drove down their
streets with car cameras shoot-
ing photos for its Street View
mapping project.
The ruling that the practice
violates wiretap laws sends a
warning to other- companies
seeking to suck up vast amounts
of data from unencrypted Wi-Fi
signals.
"The payload data transmit-
ted over unencrypted Wi-Fi
networks that was captured by
Google included emails, user-
names, passwords, images, and
documents," wrote the U.S.
Court of Appeals in San Francis-
co in a report released Tuesday
Google had argued that their
activities were exempt from the
wiretap law because data trans-
mitted over a Wi-Fi network is
a "radio communication" and is
"readily accessible to the public."
Not so, wrote the judges,
agreeing with an earlier federal
judge's ruling.
"Even if it is commonplace for
members of the general public
to connect to a neighbor's unen-
crypted Wi-Fi network, mem-
bers of the general public do not
typically mistakenly intercept,
store, and decode data transmit-
ted by other devices on the net-
work," they said.
Google's Street View cars can
be spotted with pole mounted
cameras on their roofs, photo-
graphing along roadways the
world over.The photosthenshow
up on Google's popular Street
View map option, where viewers
can virtually scroll along a street
past homes, cars and shops, all
captured in photographs.
But unbeknownst to passers-
by, those cameras weren't just
making photos. They were also
collecting detailed information
transmittedover Wi-Finetworks
they passed through.
- Privacy experts and industry
watchers said this was the first
time an appeals court has ruled
that it's illegal for a company
to sniff out and collect private
information from the Wi-Fi net-
works that provide Internet ser-
vice to people at home. Google
is also the first publically known
company to try.
"This appeals court decision
is a tremendous victory for pri-
vacy rights. It means Google
can't suck up private commu-
nications from people's Wi-Fi
networks and claim their Wi-
Spying was exempt from fed-
eral wiretap laws," said John
M. Simpson, Consumer Watch-
dog's privacy project director.
"Because Google's Wi-Spy activ-
ity was so extensive, the poten-
tial damages could amount to
billions of dollars."
Marc Rotenberg, executive
director of Electronic Privacy
Information Center, called it "a
landmark decision for Internet
privacy."
"The court made clear that
the federal privacy law applies to
residential Wi-Fi networks," he
said. "Users should be protected
when a company tries to capture
data that travels between their
laptop and their printer in their
home."
A Google spokesperson said
Tuesday that attorneys for the
Internet giant are "disappointed
in the 9th Circuit's decision and
are considering our next steps."
Attorney Elizabeth Cabraser,
representing a class action of
plaintiffs who say their privacy
was invaded by Google said
Tuesday they look forward to
resuming their case now that a
federal appeals court has ruled
in their favor.
Google has apologized for
the snooping, which it says took
place between 2008 and March
2010. It promised to stop collect-
ing the data and said the practice,
conducted in more than 30 coun-
tries, was inadvertent but not
illegal.
Earlier this year Google set-
tled a 37-state lawsuit for $7
million after attorney generals
sued over what they said was an
invasion of privacy for the data
collection.
The practice was discovered
by a German data protection
commissioner in 2010. A few
months later, Google co-found-
er Sergey Brin told conference
goers the firm had made a mis-
take.
"In short, let me just say that
we screwed up," he said at the
time.
Google says it has disabled
the equipment that was col-
lecting the data, and agreed
to destroy the information as
soon as possible. The company
is currently obliged to hold it,
unused, because of ongoingliti-
gation.
Drone to act as
diagnostic tool
on fields
EAST LANSING (AP) - A
drone has joined the vehicle
fleet at Michigan State Univer-
sity, which is using the pilotless
airplane to find ways to help
farmers increase their yields
through better use of fertilizer
and water.
The National Science
Foundation is financing the
research.
The East Lansing school says
the information that the drone
gathers also will help reduce the
environmental effect of nitrate
leaching and nitrous oxide emis-
sions.
The university says the drone
"measures how crops react to
stress, such as drought, nutri-
ents deficiency or pests." It says
the plane can document a field's
status "down to centimeters."
With the detailed knowledge,
farmers can quickly spot prob-
lem areas and address them
with a precise response, Bruno
Basso, an ecosystem scientist at
Michigan State, said in a state-
ment.
"When you have a cut and
need disinfectant, you don't dive
it only where you need it and in
the quantity that is strictly neces-
sary," said Basso, who also works
at Michigan State's Kellogg Bio-
logical Station. "Rather than
covering the entire field with fer-
tilizer, it can be applied exactly
where it's needed. We basically
try to do the right thing, at right
place, at the right time."
The drone has three censors
- a high-resolution radiometer,
a thermal camera to monitor
plant temperature and hydra-
tion, and a laser scanner.
Basso said the drone "is like
an X-ray. Before we can diagnose
the problem, we need to collect
as many details as possible."
The sensor data can be
plugged into the System
Approach for Land-Use Sus-
tainability model. Known as
SALUS, the crop tool forecasts
crop, soil, water, and nutrient
conditions in the climate of the
present and the future, the uni-
versity said.
It also can be used to evaluate
crop rotations, planting dates,
irrigation and fertilizer use and
project crop yields and their
effect on the land.
"It's based on actual need, not
on tradition, not on history or
a plan recommended by some-
one else," Basso said. "It's what
plants need now and is the ulti-
Applicants wanted
Seniors & Grad Students...
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Campus Office: 734.647.2182 or peacecorps@umich.edu
4