The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, September 23, 2013 - SA
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, September 23, 2013 - 5A
BIG HOUSE
From Page 1A
tions across usefulness, originali-
ty, design and technical difficulty
had the chance of winning first,
second and third place for the
grand prize, the 19 other prizes
were more specific, including
ones for application that best
used Facebook in its design, the
best health-care application, and
the "best hack that helps people
recover from the unexpected."
GreenCan, a trashcan that
sorts recyclables and non-recy-
clables based on the sound the
item makes when entering the
receptacle, won first place, for a
prize of $6,000 and two vacation
packages.
"There was a lot more free
stuff; like, I got 15 t-shirts at Pen-
nApps," Lui said.
MHacks, as is the tradition
in student hackathons, was free
for all students to attend and
was funded by sponsors includ-
ing Facebook and Twitter, along
with startups and venture capi-
talists.
While last year's MHacks was
held in February, organizers felt
that greater demand for a hack-
athon existed in the fall. Busi-
ness junior Anuj Abrol, director
of fundraising for MHacks, said
conducting it earlier in the school
year coordinated better with stu-
dents' academic schedules and
allowed "more talent" to be dis-
covered.
Three employees from elec-
tronic-money startup Venmo,
one of the event's many spon-
sors, burnt the midnight oil along
with the hackers to mentor and
answer questions.
While certain sponsors sup-
ported MHacks in monetary
capacity, smaller companies such
as Venmo served to encourage a
culture of software development
among students and recruit for
internships and jobs.
"(The hackathon) is a great
way to give back to the com-
munity," Peter Zakin, a product
engineer atVenmo, said. "We just
graduated, too, and we want peo-
ple to know that Venmo's a great
place to work."
Texas county to
identify perished
border- crossers
WALLENBERG
From Page 1A
The fellowship was estab-
lished in 2012 on the centennial
of University alum Raoul Wal-
lenberg's birth. Wallenberg has
been recognized for his role in
World War II, where he helped
coordinate the rescue of tens of
thousands of Jews in Budapest.
"Having had some time to
reflect and learn more about who
and what Raoul Wallenberg was
- a man who reveled in experi-
encing and understanding the
'other,' and demonstrated that
the capacity for great good lies
within compassion, tenacity,
and a willingness to engage in
outside-of-the-box though and
action - I have come to see the
award as a challenge to live my
life in the service of others, and
an opportunity to pursue experi-
ences that will aid in this effort,
whether now or in the future,"
Petroni said.
Whether he is searching for
illicit logging and hunting activi-
ties in the Arabuko-Sokoke For-
est, interacting with members of
local communities to learn more
about their histories or listen-
ing to local activists tell stories
in public forums, Petroni keeps
busy, often working from 6 a.m.
to 11 p.m.
Recently, the University's
Board of Regents discussed
sending more students to Africa
in various programs. However,
Rackham assistant dean John
Godfrey said the fellowship has
no intentions to focus on the spe-
cifically on Africa.
Godfrey said the fellowship is
unique in that it offers students
unprecedented freedom in using
the large grant.
"This isn't necessarily a
research experience," Godfrey
said. "The intention here is to
inspire and motivate students
to think creatively about where
they would really like to go with
this extraordinary opportu-
nity."
He said the University is inter-
ested in expanding the fellow-
ship to more than one student in
the future, pending additional
funds.
Early October, information
about applying for the fellowship
will be distributed to individual
colleges throughout the Univer-
sity, and the next winner will be
announced at the Honors Convo-
cation in mid-March.
URBAN
From Page 1A
we designed our streets not just
for cars, but for people?"'
Urban Planning prof. Scott
Campbell said the temporary
transformation helped start
CROSSWALK
From Page 1A
wording requires drivers to stop
or slow for any pedestrian on a
crosswalk, while Ann Arbor's
ordinance requires yielding to
any pedestrian at the edge of a
crosswalk or on a curb.
However, both citizens and
elected officials have taken issue
with the poor wording of the cur-
rent ordinance and its variance
from the state standard. The cur-
rent ordinance even contradicts
many instructions on street signs
throughout the city.
Councilmember Jane Lumm
(I-Ward 2) said oftentimes when
a city has a varying ordinance
from the state-standard code,
it's just "asking for trouble." She
added that the current wording
gives too much power to pedes-
trians and often requires abrupt
stops by drivers trying to comply
with the code.
Councilmember Sumi Kai-
lasapathy (D-Ward 1) echoed
discussion about how to best
optimize limited urban space.
He characterized development
of the temporary parklet as a
"peaceful, quietly subversive
and visual activity without
being in-your-face aggressive."
"If some motorists pass-
ing by, searching for a parking
space, get frustrated that an
otherwise good parking space
has somehow been taken out
of circulation for a seemingly
frivolous, 'non-essential use,'
then hopefully that triggers
a discussion about what is an
essential use of urban space,"
Campbell said.
Cooper said the park attract-
ed at least 30 people by lunch-
time, and others continued to
trickle in throughout the day for
a total turnout of at least 70.
Joseph Cohoon, an employee
nearby Amer's Deli, said he was
happy to see State Street turn
green.
"I think it's cool that they're
relcaiming and bringing nature
back into the town."
After struggling to
afford autopsies,
officials collaborate
FALFURRIAS, Texas (AP)
- By the time the woman per-
ished, she had probably slogged
25 miles through dry ranch lands
in her quest to enter the United
States. She was found just feet
from a highway where she might
have been picked up and taken
to Houston with other migrants
making the same journey.
Not long ago, her body would
have been taken to a funeral home
for a cursory attempt at identifica-
tion, then buried in this town an
hour north of the Mexico border
under a sign reading "unknown
female."
Her death, probably from
hyperthermia, is part of a mount-
ing body count that has over-
whelmed sparsely populated
Brooks County, providing further
evidence that immigrants are
shifting their migration routes
away from the well-worn paths
into Arizona and instead cross-
ing into deep southern Texas.
The changing patterns have put
an extra burden on local govern-
ments with limited experience
in such matters and even fewer
financial resources.
"There are some counties that
have the economic wherewithal to
take on these issues, and there are
other counties that just don't have
any money, so that puts them into
a real bad bind," said Raquel Rubio
Goldsmith, coordinator of the
Binational Migration Institute at
the University of Arizona, which
researches immigration issues.
But Brooks County is trying
to step up to the challenge. Now,
all newly recovered bodies and
skeletal remains of suspected
immigrants will travel 90 miles
to nearby Webb County for autop-
sies, DNA sampling and more
intense efforts at identification.
It's a monumental step for
Brooks County, population just
over 7,100, where on arecent morn-
ing the chief deputy mopped the
floors of the sheriff'soffice himself.
He will also be making the weekly
trips to deliver corpses tothe medi-
cal examiner in Laredo.
The county handled 129 bod-
ies last year, which Judge Raul
Ramirez, the county's top admin-
istrator, says blew a hole in the
budget. And even though he and
most other local officials see
illegal immigration as a federal
problem, federal money has not
followed.
Last year, Brooks County
trailed only Pima County, Ariz.,
in the number of immigrant bod-
ies recovered and they already
have 76 this year. Nearly a million
people live in Pima County, and
the 171 bodies found in 2012 were
consistent with annual totals dat-
ing back to 2004, according to a
report by the migration institute.
Brooks County, on the other
hand, averaged 50 to 60 dead
before last year, but Border Patrol
apprehensions in the area have
soared.
The number of immigrants
detained in South Texas' Rio
Grande Valley border sector out-
paced the historic leader, the Tuc-
son sector, by more than 30,000.
Those numbers are an imperfect
measure of the overall flow of
migrants, but most of the growth
has involved Central American
immigrants, who often take the
more direct route to the U.S.
through Texas.
Immigrants typically die in
BrooksCountytryingtocircumvent
a Border Patrol checkpoint. They're
usually dropped off with guides
south of the checkpoint and forced
to hike for two or three days to a
pickup spot north of the checkpoint.
In the past, unidentified immi-
grants were crammed into the
local cemetery without DNA sam-
ples being taken. The cemetery
didnotevenhave accurate records
for the dead. In May, Lori Baker, a
Baylor University anthropologist,
led a team to Falfurrias to exhume
unidentified immigrants' graves.
Baker identified 54 marked
graves but found 63 burials. In
some cases, the team opened a
body bag expecting to find one
person and found four other bags
of remains. Some of the remains
carried tags indicating they came
from a neighboring county.
She plans to return for more
exhumations next year, and she's
encouraged by the county's prog-
ress, noting that the short-staffed
sheriff's office is going to start
taking DNA samples from family
members who come looking for
missingloved ones.
Lumm's remarks, saying the
loosely worded city ordinance
sends the wrong message to
pedestrians, especially children.
"Telling kids, 'You guys rule
on the road,' is really treachery,"
Kailasapathy said.
Both Lumm and Kailasa-
pathy added that limited police
resources and insufficient clar-
ity in the ordinance have made
enforcement difficult.
Some roads, including Plym-
outh, are equipped with pedes-
trian-activated warning lights at
crosswalks to remind drivers to
stop for pedestrians. However,
Lumm said these lights are an
unfamiliar street signal for manyl
drivers and have caused numer-
ous minor incidents as drivers
make sudden stops on a busy road.
Lumm and Kailasapathy both
noted that having a unique cross-
walk law is particularly difficult
in a city like Ann Arbor where the
population has a high turnover
rate.
Rather than citing the word-
ing of the law as the overarching
issue, Eli Cooper, Ann Arbor's
transportation program manag-
er, said the problem lies with the
responsibility of motorists and
pedestrians to be more conscious
of each other.
Cooper said campus pedes-
trians are often "plugged in
and tuned out" - distracted by
phones and other devices - but
doubts many pedestrians actu-
ally step out directly in front
of oncoming traffic since over
the past decade crash numbers
haven't increased significantly.
He'd be surprised if changing
the wording of the law will be as
helpful as increasing education
and awareness.
"The crux of the issue is not
the words on the page, it's the
behavior in the street," Cooper
said. "I'm going to respectfully
agree to disagree that merely
reverting to some earlier formu-
lation in an ordinance is going to
automatically make everything
better."
Kathy Griswold, a former Ann
Arbor school board member,
spoke last week at the City Coun-
cil meeting in favor of eliminat-
ing Ann Arbor's ordinance and
simply complying with MUTC
code. Griswold said in an inter-
view that the current law is not
based on engineering analysis
but simply prioritizing pedestri-
ans' rights.
"Unfortunately, I think that in
Ann Arbor we're an intellectual
community and that this is just
a symptom of how Ann Arbor
frequently operates," Griswold
said. "We try to intellectualize a
problem that really is a concrete
physical problem."
Councilmember Kailasapa-
thy said she is a firm supporter
of dropping the Ann Arbor ordi-
nance in favor of the MUTC code
and Lumm said she, along with
many others on the council, is
likely leaning that way as well.
Council members will meet with
city administrators on Sept. 27 to
discuss options. Lumm said the
earliest date to expect a vote on
the issue would be about a month
from now.
Mining heiress reaches court settlement
Deal on copper
magnate's estate
reached during
jury selection
NEW YORK (AP) - A ten-
tative deal has been reached
in a New York court fight over
the will of a reclusive Montana
copper mining heiress that
would give more than $30 mil-
lion of her $300 million estate
to her distant relatives, a per-
son familiar with the case said
Saturday.
The breakthrough in the
fight over Huguette Clark's
estate comes after jury selection
started in a trial pitting nearly
two dozen of her half-siblings'
descendants against a god-
daughter, a hospital where she
spent her last 20 years, a nurse,
doctors, a lawyer and others.
An April 2005 will cut out her
distant relatives. Another will,
six weeks earlier, left them most
of her money.
The tentative settlement will
give the relatives about $34.5
million after taxes under the
deal, while her nurse would
have to turn over $5 million and
a doll collection valued at about
$1.6 million, the person told The
Associated Press. Her lawyer
would get nothing.
The person spoke to the AP
on condition of anonymity to
discuss the settlement because
it hasn't yet been made public.
News of the tentative settlement
was first reported by The New
York Times and NBCNews.com.
Several of the many lawyers
involved with the case declined
to comment or didn't immedi-
ately return calls.
Clark owned lavish prop-
erties from New York's Fifth
Avenue to the California coast
but opted to spend her final two
decades ensconced in a Manhat-
tan hospital. The childless Clark
died in 2011, at age 104.
Her father, U.S. Sen. William
A. Clark, was one of the rich-
est Americans of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. He
served as a senator from Mon-
tana, where he initially made his
fortune from copper mines. His
business empire later grew to
include building a Western rail
line and establishing a Nevada
railroad town called Las Vegas.
The surrounding Clark County
is named for him.
Jury selection started Thurs-
day in the trial over the validity
of the April 2005 will.
"The persons and institution
named herein as beneficiaries of
my estate are the true objects of
my bounty," that will said, not-
ing that she'd had only "minimal
contacts" with her relatives over
the years.
Under terms of the deal,
Clark's chief nurse, Hadassah
Peri, would get nothing and
would have to return $5 million
and the doll collection. Clark's
lawyer Wallace Bock also would
get nothing.
Clark's mansion in California,
Bellosguardo, would become a
foundation, and the Corcoran
Gallery of Art in Washington
would get $10 million.
Clark was briefly married
in her 20s. Her assistant has
said she didn't leave her apart-
ment for decades before she was
taken, emaciated and beset by
advanced skin cancer, to Beth
Israel Medical Center in 1991.
Doctors said she was medi-
cally ready to leave months
later. But she chose to stay, at a
cost of about $400,000 a year.
And during her years there, she
rewarded the hospital, and her
caregivers, with significant gifts
on top of their fees.
Gifts to Peri included multi-
ple Manhattan apartments and
a $1.2 million Stradivarius vio-
lin, and the nurse stood to get
$30 million in the disputed will.
Clark's primary doctor received
cash Christmas presents total-
ing $500,000, among other gifts,
plus a $100,000, bequest that
he was preparing to relinquish
before testifying at the trial,
according to court documents.
The hospital got hundreds
of thousands of dollars in
cash, a $3.5 million painting
by French pre-Impressionist
Edouard Manet and a $1 mil-
lion bequest.
Clark's accountant and her
lawyer also received sizable
cash gifts, and they stood to reap
substantial fees as executors of
her estate under the challenged
will.
Clark's relatives had said hos-
pital executives, medical pro-
fessionals and Clark's lawyer
and accountant took advantage
of their access to the heiress to
manipulate their way into her
millions of dollars.
The beneficiaries have said
Clark was simply a generous
woman who wanted to help
those who helped her.
The case drew in institutions
and officials from Santa Bar-
bara Mayor Helene Schneider,
who pressed for Bellosguardo to
become a museum, to New York
state Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman, whose office
was involved in the court fight
to protect charities' interests.
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