The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS LANSING, Mich. Snyder postpones cigarette tax vote A state board delayed voting on Michigan's new cigarette tax collection contract Tuesday at the request of Gov. Rick Snyder's administration, which is review- ing complaints about the selection process and a competitor's offer to do the work for less. 4 The five-year $9.6 million con- tract was expected to be awarded to Xerox State & Local Solutions, since it won preliminary approval from a committee last week and is the Treasury Department's rec- ommended winner of the bid. It was not clear exactly why. Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the Department of Technology, Man- agement & Budget, said the gov- ernor's legal office advised the agency to remove the item and that he was still checking into the reasons late Tuesday. AUSTIN, Tex. Texas abortion battles continue A federal appeals court weighed whether to grant an emergency motion Tuesday that would allow some new Texas abortion restric- tions to take effect, the latest step in a lengthy battle activists on both sides predicted would end up before the U.S. Supreme Court Texas leaders urged the panel to quickly hear their appealof ajudge's ruling Monday striking down a requirement that doctors perform- ing abortions must have admitting privileges at A hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. He agreed with abortion-rights activists that the restriction, which was to be enforced starting Tues- day, placed an unconstitutional bur- den on women seeking an abortion and didn't make the process safer, as state officials had argued. WASHINGTON, D.C. Obama apologizes for website woes Lawmakers confronted the Obama administration Tuesday with a difficult new health care problem - a wave of cancellation notices hitting individuals and small business who buy their own insurance. At the same time, the federal official closest to the website apolo- gized for its dysfunction in new sign-ups and asserted things are getting better by the day. MOUNT VERNON, Wash. Adoptive parents guilty of murder A Washington couple accused of starving, beating and forcing their adopted daughter outside as pun- ishment were sentenced Tuesday to decades in prison for her death. Larry and Carri Williams were convicted Sept. 9 of manslaughter in the death of a teenage girl they adopted from Ethiopia. Hana Williams was found dead May 12, 2011, in the backyard .of the family home in Sedro-Woolley, about 60 miles north of Seattle. The autopsy said she died of hypo- thermia, with malnutrition and a stomach condition as contributing factors. DAMASCUS, Syria Polio outbreak in Syria confirmed The U.N. confirmed an out- break of polio in Syria for the first time in over a decade on Tuesday, warning the disease threatens to spread among an estimated half- million children who have never been immunized because of the civil war. Meanwhile, hopes for a negoti- ated settlement to the three-year conflict appeared ever more dis- tant as Syria's President Bashar Assad sacked a deputy prime min- ister for meeting Western officials to discuss the possibility of hold- ing a peace conference. -Compiled from Daily wire reports HORIZON From Page 1A the MiWorkspace project - a collection of desktop services for University employees '- will also be retired. Whenever possible, Project Horizon will transition other ITS services to their NextGen alternatives. Both the database hosting and custom server ser- vices transition to the next gen- eration products, MiDatabase, and MiServer. According to the Project Horizon website, programs placed under "containment" will have limited new users, and will eventually be replaced with an ITS or third-party alterna- tive. They will continue to be supported, and security patches and version upgrades will still be applied. Notable programs being placed under contain- ment include AFS Group Stor- age, Web Application Hosting, Drupal and Oracle Hosting and faculty HTML Web Pages. A reference table on the ITS website provides information on all plans for ITS services. Houser said students may not feel the effects of these changes because most of the services assessed by Project Horizon aren't used by stu- dents, with the exception of faculty HTML web pages. Houser said professors who want to keep their personal websites will have to explore alternatives, such as maintain their own sites. He added that analysis by University IT pro- fessionals found that it was not cost-effective for the Univer- sity to provide such a service. Rex Holland, vice chair of the Senate Advisory Commit- tee on University Affairs, said he doesn't foresee the discon- tinuation of HTML Pages as being a problem for most fac- ulty. 3D From Page 1A Six weeks after his birth, his parents discovered he had trou- ble eating. Two months later, a tube was inserted in his trachea to prevent chest contractions and other cardiopulmonary reactions. The Youngstown, Ohio resident was born with tra- cheobronchomalacia, a rare condition where the windpipe's tissue is so soft it can collapse over time. Kaiba's case was especially severe; a tracheos- tomy - a tube that's inserted into a patient's windpipe and exits outside of the neck - and other common treatments were not helping. Green and Hollister had already formed a partnership in experimenting with new solu- tions .to tracheobronchomala- cia. A call from a surgeon from Akron Children's Hospital to University Hospital provided the chance to use the experi- mental device. The splint that saved Kaiba's life is about the size of a thimble. It's made from a biodegradable material that will dissolve in his trachea in two years according to Hassan Nasser, a medical stu- dent who researches in Green's lab. The splint gives Kaiba's tra- cheal tissue additional time to strengthen; his windpipe will be strong enough in two yeats to function when the splint dis- solves. "Kids still have the abil- ity to grow and develop their own cartilage," Nasser said. "The splint buys him a couple years for his own cartilage to grow." This support for Kaiba's tra- chea was lentby the customized nature of the splint. David Zopf, a fifth-year otolaryngology resi- dent in Green's lab, said the use of 3D printers allows doctors to custom fit and design a device like Kaiba's with precision. "The whole process really provides a tool that provides a customized microdevice in a matter of time that wasn't seen before," Zopf said. The production of an indi- vidual splint itself takes about a minute, and designing an individual- tube is similar- ly straightforward. Nasser ,described how doctors took a CT scan of Kaiba which allowed a comprehensive, 3D view of his chest. Examining CT scans, which combine a series of X-rays from multiple angles, is like analyz- ing a loaf of bread by looking at individual slices of bread. This CT scan revealed the worst case of tracheobronchomalacia Green had ever seen. From a scan, the already cre- ated blueprint for the splint design can be customized for the patient's body on a com- puter. Ward said 3D printers are following the same trajectory as personal. computers, which were once only found in indus- trial and research institutions, but now can be found in over 75 percent of American house- holds, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the next 50 years, he said, these machines will likely be ubiquitous in American households. "I think 3D printing has arrived. It's way more than a fad," Ward said. "In the not- so-distant future, people will download CAD drawings and print products at home. They will design their own stuff and sell it. And more and more peo- ple like Glenn (Green) and Scott (Hollister) will use it to do good." The treatment has not been disseminated to other tracheo- bronchomalacia patients. But, when the time comes for mass production, a printer can pro- duce 200 splints in four hours - approximately 1.2 minutes for one splint. "I'm always impressed when you look at the splint and you look at what it does," Nasser said. "It's a fairly simple solu- tion that's really had a dramatic impact and could potentially have more." FORUM From Page 1A ture hall, students would more frequently be out in the field - helping the community, working in labs and even partnering with artists. "If 10 years from now we have students that characterize their first year as sitting in class, that just feels like this wasted oppor- tunity to me," Hilton said. At the conclusion of the meet- ing, Hilton announced plans to implement a task team to further explore all of the ideas and dis- cuss how they might be imple- mented on a University-wide scale. The team will be composed of faculty and students selected from Tuesday's event. Many students are already stepping out of the classroom and into massive open online cours- es, or MOOCs. From the com- fort of home, students can enroll in courses and interact with a global community learning the same material. Late last year, the University partnered with major MOOC provider Coursera and currently offers 10 courses. Cur- rently, students can't take cours- es for credit, and Hilton said the University has no plans to offer a for-credit option any time soon. Nonetheless, many students find MOOCs helpful. Steve How- land, a first-year Engineering BUDGET From Page lA a will to make a difference in the city. "I'd be on jobs at people's houses and talks would turn to politics and people would always say, 'Hey, you know more about this than anybody; you should run for city council,' " he said. Hayner's top priority is the city's revenue and budget - he hopes to enhance funding for areas such as the fire department and pension fund while examin- ing areas that may be overfund- ed. Overall, Hayner wants to improve efficiency of all city services, eliminating areas of overlap with other providers. He said finding ways to increase community involvement in city efforts and planning is also important. Another relevant issue for Hayner is "sensible develop- ment" in the city - namely, providing sufficient housing throughout Ann Arbor at reason- able prices. He said the larger apartment complexes primar- ily used by students have in fact done more harm than good as prices have yet to decline as promised. Similar to mayoral candidate Stephen Kunselman, currently graduate student, has already taken five online classes, two through the University. Howland liked that he could rewind and review complex material that otherwise would have remained confusing. "I'm excited that Michigan is involved in educating more people than just the ones taking degrees through the University," tIowland said. Online media was another point of emphasis during the event. Students saw the poten- tial integration of resources sch as Khan Academy and YouTube into curriculum as beneficial for both struggling and high-achiev- ing students. Such tools would bring in alternative perspectives students are for the most part unaccustomed to in a formal classroom. Websites with large amounts of traffic, like Facebook, were proposed as an untapped gold mine that could be adapted for educational purposes. Hanona said professors could easily cre- ate a group for each of their classes and post provocative questions, links and related class material that would pop up on students' Facebook News Feeds. "You're learning even when you don't want to learn," Hanona said. "But it's a nice thing because you're always exposed to things you're eventually going to need to know." the Democratic council mem- ber for Ward 3, Hayner supports imposing a strict ethics policy for elected officials to eliminate con- flicts of interest and avoid ques- tionable appointments. "We're just starting to get a mix of interests, I guess you could say, between the public and the people on city council that they're actually starting to debate these appointments say- ing, 'Is this the best person for the job?' he said. With regards to Ann Arbor's relations with the Univer- sity, Hayner would like to: see improved communication between the two institutions, especially concerning new con- struction. Council members have expressed concern that the University's persistent pur- chasing of land is robbing the city's tax roles. Hayner said he wants to explore implementing the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, where the city would collect payment from lands that are otherwise tax exempt such as federal lands or nonprofit organizations like the Univer- sity. "We're all living here togeth- er," Hayner said. "Students are here; we're all here together, so you don't have to enter into it and it's not something we're saying, 'We demand this or that.' It's just a conversation." SPOON From Page 1A simplicity," Henson said. "Peo- ple are really excited to talk about food, read about food and most importantly eat food. We aren't expecting chefs to come to the site." LSA senior Jordan Korn, Spoon's business director, said they have resorted to social media platforms and events to draw attention to the Ann Arbor site. "We are still establishing ourselves editorially," Hen- son said. "A classic startup - with minimal money involved because we are not in print. Writers contribute as volunteer fondles-for the love of fond. and to gain experience in a digi- tal space." World of Beer co-owner Chad Wilson, said the event gave him a good opportunity to connect with students. "It's not so important for me to have a great sales night," he said. "It's more important for me to connect with our cus- tomer base and give back to the community because that's what we like to do." For a $5 cover fee, students tasted food - from Frita Bati- dos, Ali Baba's, Mrs. Fields, the Wafel Shop, Firehouse Subs and Tios Mexican Cafe. Live music at the event featured student performers Hannah Elizabeth, Aaron Dombey, a cappella group Kol Hakavod and DJ Dan Hoffmann. Other entertain- ment included a photo booth and a guessing-game contest to win gift cards to Mani and Isalita. Students expressed their excitement about how they plan to utilize Spoon UM's website and the resources it has to offer. LSA senior Kyle Jonna said she's looking forward to exploring Spoon University's website for the first time. "What I think is really inter- esting is that I can go on there, look at any restaurant, and real- ly get a full view of the restau- rant before I go so I don't spend any extra money on something I don'twant," Jonna said. "Ithink in the long run, it will help me and the entire student body by making the restaurant selection Man arrested for Texas killing spree after hiding from police FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @MICHIGANDAILY Criminal's attacks leave five dead including mother TERRELL, Texas (AP) - Fear and confusion gripped a rural North Texas community for several hours until an ear- ly-morning arrest Tuesday, as investigators sought desperate- ly to stop a series of attacks that left five people dead, including the suspect's mother. Charles Everett Brownlow Jr. was arrested at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday after running into the woods following a high-speed chase, authorities said. Terrell police Chief Jody Lay said he thinks Brownlow might have attacked others if an off-duty officer hadn't spotted his car. Brownlow, 36, was being held on one preliminary count each of capital mur- der and evading arrest, although additional charges were expected. Prosecutors referred calls to the police in Terrell, which is about 30 miles east of Dallas. "We're all in astateofshock," Lay said at a news conference hours after Brownlow's arrest. "You have a tendency to think, 'How can that happen here?' This is a country community, a rural community, people are real close. This is going to be, it's going to have a really big impact on us." Lay declined to discuss a possible motive. He identi- fied the victims as Brownlow's mother, Mary Brownlow, 61; his aunt, Belinda Walker, 55; Jason Michael Wooden, 33; Kelleye Lynnette Sluder, 30; and Luis Gerardo Leal-Carril- lo, 22. Lay~said that Brownlow "hung out occasionally" with Wooden and Sluder. It wasn't immediately clear whether he knew Leal-Carrillo. Brownlow's brother, Ter- rence Walker, said Brownlow struggled with drug addiction and "always wanted to take something that wasn't his." He said Brownlow had been living at their mother's home and that she continued to look after him. "I was hoping my mom would open her eyes and real- ize that she needed to let him grow up, put him out," said Walker. He said his own fam- ily spent the night at a hotel instead of their home in For- ney, and that he was armed with a pistol in case his brother came after him. Brownlow's criminal record dates back to 1995 and includes convictions for drug posses- sion, burglary and assault- ing a family member in 2011. Records indicate Brownlow was accused of striking a woman he had a relationship with. In 2009, he was sen- tenced to three years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was paroled after seven months. The attacks began around 5 p.m. at the home of Belinda and Robert Walker. He said he arrived home to find his wife lying on the floor of his 15-year-old son's room. "I just went in calling my wife's name and she never did answer," Robert Walker said. About 30 minutes later, fire units responded to a blaze at Mary Brownlow's house a few blocks away. When the fire was extinguished, crews found her body in the smoldering wreck- age. Lay said it was clearly arson. At about 10:30 p.m., police responded to a report of a shooting at another home and found Wooden and Sluder dead. A 3-year-old boy in the home was unharmed and was released to relatives. 1