The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, October 28, 2013 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
AUGUSTA TOWNSHIP, Mich.
Police seek
answers in probe
of missing boy
State police are investigat-
ing a woman's report that a man
stopped to offer her roadside
help, then abducted her 2-year-
old son. The boy was found safe
12 hours later.
State police said Saturday that
Jarren Jackson was found safe
in Washtenaw County's Augusta
Township, not far from where his
mother reported him missing.
SAN FRANSISCO
iPad art gains
recognition in
new exhibit
Happily hunched over his iPad,
Britain's most celebrated living
artist David Hockney is pioneer-
ing in the art world again, turning
his index finger into a paintbrush
that he uses to swipe across a
touch screen to create vibrant
landscapes, colorful forests and
richly layered scenes.
"It's a very new medium," said
Hockney. So new, infact, he wasn't
sure what he was creatinguntil he
began printing his digital images
a few years ago. "I was pretty
amazed by them actually," he said,
laughing. "I'm still amazed."
A new exhibit of Hockney's
work, including about 150 iPad
images, opened Saturday in the
de Young Museum in Golden Gate
Park, just a short trip for Silicon
Valley techies who created both
the hardware and software for
this 21st-century reinvention of
finger-painting.
BLOOMINGTON, ind.
Two arrested
after stabbing at
Indiana U.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -
Two Indiana University students
were charged Sunday morning in
connection with a stabbing that
injured another student at a cam-
pus apartment building, school
officials said.
University police arrested
la-year-old Zesen Shen and
21-year-old Kaiyu Lao, IU spokes-
man Mark Land said in a news
release. Shen has been charged
with intimidation and hattery and
Lao was charged with intimida-
tion, Land said.
Police said Shen, Lao and a
20-year-old IU student were in
the Tulip Tree apartment's park-
ing lot around 3:30 a.m., Land said.
Witnesses told campus police the
three were there "to resolve a
dispute when the suspects began
chasing victim and wounded him
with a knife," Land said.
LONDON

United Kingdom
braces for worst
storm in years
The worst storm in several
years is forecast to hit the U.K.
on Sunday, bringing heavy rain,
hurricane-force gusts and the
expectation of flooding and
transport disruption.
As winds picked up and Britain
prepared for the storm - dubbed
St. Jude and #Stormageddon on
social networks - major sports
events such as a regular NFL
game in London between the San
Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville
Jaguars at Wembley Stadium
kicked off regardless.
Prime Minister David Cam-
eron told government agencies to
ensure that contingency plans are
made for transportation, schools
and power supplies during the
storm, which could have gusts
stronger than 80 mph (128 kph) -
akin to those in hurricanes.
Britain does not get hurricanes
due to its geographic location.
The storm is expected to move
across the country and head out
over the North Sea by Monday
afternoon. Britain's Met Office
said it could cause widespread
and severe disruption from falling
trees, power cuts and flooding.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Mich. to review public
school grading scale

AP PHOTO/ Manuel BaIce CENETA
President Barack Obama, second from left, with first lady Michelle Obama, right, and their daughters Malia, left, and
Sasha, walk from the White House in Washington to attend a church service Sunday.
Obama faces GOP criticism
over health-reform issues

HHS Secretary
target of tough
questioning on
health law
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Republicans said Sunday they
intend to press Health and
Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebeliusonthe Obama
administration's troubled
launch of healthcare.gov, the
online portal to buy insurance;
and concerns about the privacy
of information that applicants
submit under the new system.
The Obama administration
will face intense pressure next
week to be more forthcoming
about how many people have
actually succeeded in enrolling
for coverage in the new insur-
ance markets. Medicare chief
Marilyn Tavenner is to testify
during a House hearing Tues-
day, followed Wednesday by
Sebelius before the House Ener-
gy and Commerce Committee.
The officials will also be grilled
on how such crippling technical
problems could have gone unde-
tected priorto the website's Oct.
1 launch.
"The incompetence in build-
ing this website is staggering,"
said Rep. Marsha Blackburn,
R-Tenn., the second ranking
Republican on the panel and an

opponent of the law.
Democrats said the new sys-
tem needed time to get up and
running, and it could be fixed to
provide millions of people with
affordable insurance. Kentucky
Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat,
said the system was "working in
Kentucky," a state that has dealt
with "some of the worst health
statistics in the country. ... The
only way we're going to get our-
selves out of the ditch is some
transformational tool," like the
new health insurance system.
Blackburn said she wanted
to know much has been spent
on the website, how much more
it will cost to fix the problems,
when everything will be ready
and what people should expect
to see on the site. Blackburn
and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.,
raised questions of whether the
website could guard the privacy
of applicants.
"The way the system is
designed it is not secure," said
Rogers, who is chairman of the
House Intelligence Committee.
The administration sought
to reassure applicants about
their personal information.
HHS spokeswoman Joanne
Peters said when consumers
fill out their applications, "they
can trust that the information
they're providing is protected
by stringent security standards
and that the technology under-
lying the application process

has been tested and is secure."
The botched rollout has led to
calls on Capitol Hill for a delay
of penalties for those remaining
uninsured. The Obama admin-
istration has said it's willing to
extend the grace period until
Mar. 31, the end of open enroll-
ment. That's an extra six weeks.
The insurance industry says
going beyond that risks under-
mining the new system by giv-
ing younger, healthier people a
pass.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.
Va., who is seeking a yearlong
delay to the penalty for non-
compliance, said his approach
would "still induce people to get
involved, but it will also give us
the time to transition in. And I
think we need that transition
period to work out the things."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.;
who has urged the Obama
administration to postpone the
March 31 deadline, said she was
concerned applicants would not
have a full six months to enroll.
The administration was
under no legal requirement to
launch the website Oct. 1. Sebel-
ius, who designated her depart-
ment's Medicare agency to
implement the health care law,
had the discretion to set open
enrollment dates. Officials
could have postponed open
enrollment by a month, or they
could have phased in access to
the website.

New system under
consideration to
increase clarity,
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -
Green is a great school. Red is bad
one. Lime, yellow and orange are
in-between.
Michigan's new color-coded
school accountability system
already could be up for an over-
haul just two months after its
debut. Some lawmakers say.
schools should get A-F grades
just like students do, so parents
and others can easily understand
performance.
"tt's not clear, it's not concise
and it's not transparent. Nobody
knows what a lime green means,
but everybody knows what an
A means," said House Educa-
tion Committee Chairwoman
Lisa Posthumus Lyons, an Alto
Republican who is expected to
start hearings this week on her
soon-to-be introduced legislation
to switch to letter grades.
Letter grades - implemented
in roughly 15 states - seem intui-
tive on their face since schools
are used to evaluating students
with letter grades of their own.
The tricky part is determining
how the rankings are calculated
and making sure they are cred-
ible.
Indeed, Lyons' bills would do
more than change the perfor-
mance scorecard from colors
to letters. She said she wants
to change the formula so that
grades "accurately reflect"
schools' quality.
In the 2012-13 scores released
in August, some schools were
rated red despite being seen as
traditionally high-performing,
while other schools got green
scores despite having no perfor-
mance data because they were
new, according to critics.
Another complaint is that
Michigan's separate top-to-bot-
tom percentile ranking ofschools,
which is part of its accountabil-
ity system under a waiver from
federal no Child Left Behind.
requirements, closely correlates
with student poverty rates. And
others complain that the top-to-

bottom list and separate color
grades are not aligned, confusing
educators and the public.
One goal of the House bills is
to eliminate the top-to-bottom
ranking and replace it with A-F
grades so there is a single system.
That does not mean that designa-
tions such as "reward,""priority"
and "focus" schools would neces-
sarily go away because they are
in the state's waiver to the U.S.
government. But priority schools
in the bottom 5 percent and sub-
ject to state intervention could
be "F" schools. Reward schools
in the top 5 percent could be "A"
schools.
The letter grades would be
based on students'. proficiency
and growth measured through
standardized test scores.
"We're not saying it's letters
are better than colors. We're say-
ing that the thinking that goes
into the creation of the letters
is what has to be replaced," said
Gary Naeyaert, executive direc-
tor of the Great Lakes Education
Project, a school-choice advocacy
group founded by former Repub-
lican gubernatorial candidate
Dick Devos and his wife Betsy
that has given input on the leg-
islation. "There's a lack of buy-
in among the school community
because of the convoluted, ultra
complex, impossible methodolo-
gy of the top-to-bottom ranking,
which now has consequences for
schools."
Naeyaert criticized the state
Education Department's deci-
sion to hold schools accountable
for the achievement gap between
the top- and bottom-scoring stu-
dents instead of measuring the
gap between specific racial or
demographic groups. Education
Department officials declined to
be interviewed for this story.
Education Trust-Midwest, an
education policy and research
organization in Royal Oak, also
supports an A-F system but
says legislators should be care-
ful when revising the "nuts and
bolts" of the accountability sys-
tem. They may be tempted to let
schools off the hook if there is
blowback aboutbeing given a "D"
or "F," said Amber Arellano, the
group's executive director.

Israeli tunnel, road network
hit by advanced cyber attack
High profile target cated hackers, similar to the RSA's anti-fraud unit, said that
Anonymous hacking group although he didn't have infor-
reveals potential that led attacks on Israeli web- mation about the tunnel inci-
sites in April. He said investi- dent, this kind of attack "is the
weakness in gators determined it was'not hallmark of a new era."
sophisticated enough to be the "Most of these systems are
defense systems work of an enemy government automated, especially as far
like Iran. as security is concerned. .
HADERA, Israel (AP) - The expert said Israel's They're automated and they're
When Israel's military chief National Cyber Bureau, a two- remotely controlled, either
delivered a high-profile speech year-old classified body that over the Internet or other-
this month outlining the great- reports to the prime minister, wise, so they're vulnerable to
est threats his country might was aware of the incident. The cyberattack," he said. Israel,
face in the future, he listed bureau declined comment, he added, is "among the top-
computer sabotage as a top while Carmelton, the compa- targeted countries."
concern, warning a sophisti- ny that oversees the toll road, In June, Prime Minister
cated cyberattack could one blamed a "communication Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran
day bring the nation to a stand- glitch" for the mishap. and its proxies Hezbollah and
still. While Israel is a frequent Hamas have targeted Israel's
Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was target of hackers, the tunnel is "essential systems," including
not speaking empty words. the mosthigh-profile landmark its water system, electric grid,
Exactly one month before his known to have been attacked. trains and banks.
address, a major artery in Isra- It is a major thoroughfare for "Every sphere of civilian
el's national road network in Israel's third-largest city, and economic life, let's not even
the northern city of Haifa was the city is looking to turn the talk about our security, is a
shut down because of a cyber- tunnel into a public shelter in potential or actual cyberattack
attack, cybersecurity experts case of emergency, highlight- target," Netanyahu said at the
tell The Associated Press, ing its importance. time.
knocking key operations out of The incident is exactly the Israeli government websites
commission two days in a row type of scenario that Gantz receive hundreds and some-
and causing hundreds of thou- described in his recent address. times thousands of cyberat-
sands of dollars in damage. He said Israel's future battles tacks each day, said Ofir Ben
One expert, speaking might begin with "a cyberat- Avi, head of the government's
on condition of anonymity tack on websites which provide website division.
because the breach of security daily services to the citizens of
was a classified matter, said a Israel. Traffic lights could stop f - - ~
Trojan horse attack targeted working, the banks could be
the security camera system in shut down," he said. I Buy one
the Carmel Tunnels toll road There have been cases of
on Sept. 8. A Trojan horse is a traffic tampering before. In
malicious computer program 2005, the United States out-
that users unknowingly install lawed the unauthorized use
that can give hackers complete of traffic override devices Limit
control over their systems. installed in many police cars Cann
The attack caused an imme- and ambulances after unscru- Valid ai
diate 20-minute lockdown of pulous drivers started using
the roadway. The next day, the them to turn lights from red to
expert said, it shut down the green. In 2008, two Los Ange- BAGELS
roadway again during morning les traffic engineers pleaded
rush hour. It remained shut for guilty to breaking into the
eight hours, causing massive city's signal system and delib-
congestion. erately snarling traffic as part
The expert said investiga- of a labor dispute.
tors believe the attack was the Oren David, a manager at L
work of unknown, sophisti- international security firm ~~

Abyei residents vote
on boarder resolution

Voting continues
despite risks, lack of
official support
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) -
Hundreds of people in the disput-
ed border region of Abyei voted
Sunday in a referendum that
they hope will decide whether
they join Sudan or South Sudan,
a local leader said, but the exer-
cise lacked the official backing of
either of the governments.
The exercise was proceed-
ing peacefully Sunday, said Luka
Biong, spokesman for the Abyei
Referendum High Committee, a
civic group that is organizing the
vote. He said the results of the
three-day vote will be announced
on Oct. 31.
"This reminds me of what
happened in January 2011 when
the people of South Sudan voted
for their independence," he said.
"This was a special moment, a
historic moment. This was like
crowningthe history of the strug-
gle of the people of Abyei. I saw
my people so determined."
Both Sudan and South Sudan
claim ownership of the oil-rich

Abyei area, whose status was
unresolved after South Sudan
became independent from its
northern neighbor in 2011.
The region's majority Ngok
Dinka people are believed to be in
favor of joining South Sudan. The
Sudan-allied Misseriya nomads,
who come to Abyei to find pasture
for their cattle, are not participat-
ing in the referendum.
The voting was "going on very
smoothly" across Abyei, con-
firmed Zacharia Deng Majok, a
member of the Abyei Referendum
High Committee.
"People are in a jovial mood
here," he said. "The morale of the
people is very high because they
knowthey are making a choice for
their future."
Up to. 100,000 people are.
expected to participate in the
vote despite warnings that the
event might trigger violence in
the border region. The African-
Union had warned against hold-
ing a referendum, saying such
action could increase the risk of
violence between the Ngok Dinka
and the Misseriya. The Misseriya
have warned that a referendum in
which they are not participants
should not take place.


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