The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, November 1,2013 - 3 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, November 1, 2013 - 3 APOLOGY From Page 1 ment President Michael Proppe - amongothers. Quang appeared to contradict himself in his apology, claim- ing multiple "individuals (were) responsible" for the "insensitive, hurtful, and offensive" content, while earlier claiming a single member was responsible for the incident. Also on Thursday, LSA junior Allen Wu, a member of the frater- nity, apologized in a viewpoint in the Daily for playing a role in the creation of the event. His apol- ogy was in response to a view- point by LSA senior Erin Fischer, BATTLE From Page 1 contact with another male since 1977 from donating. BDU is pro- posing changing the discriminat- ing question on the health and history questionnaire that donors fill out as a prerequisite to: "Have you had unprotected sexual con- tact with a new sexual partner in the past 12 weeks?" The sponsor drives invite MSM to still attend and bring a friend who is legally able to donate in ACA From Page 1 pickup their subsidized prescrip- tion drugs, pharmacists reported coverage verification glitches in the national computer system and could not issue any drugs. Since the glitch prevented vulnerable seniors from getting their critical medications, the crisis was much more acute. "Not that the glitches on the current website aren't a pain, and it's certainly inconvenient for people and doesn't inspire a lot of confidence," Levy said. "But on the other hand, it's not the same as not being able to get your anti- psychotic medication when you need it." It took about five months to resolve the Medicare website issue in 2006, but today, the ini- tial system hiccups are not well remembered. In her testimony to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Secretary 0 of Health and Human Services CANDIDATE From Page 1 election, his family has a history in local politics. His grandfather ran for mayor as a Republican, his father ran for City Council as a Democrat and his uncle ran as a Libertarian for City Council. DeVarti said part of his inspiration stems from a desire for "beating that slew of bad luck" that led to his family members' defeats. DeVarti also got a taste of the local campaign trail in 2009 when he went door-to-door for incum- bent City Council member, and now opponent, Stephen Kunselman. The Mixed Use Party platform centers on rezoning the city into which criticized the fraternity and its "incredibly offensive party theme." In his statement, Quang high- lighted the diverse backgrounds of his chapter and apologized to "all of the members of our stu- dent body, including those of all ethnicities, and to all women." He accepted responsibility for the "harmful consequences of our inaction to promptly stifle the event's communication." The University's chapter of Theta Xi is working with the fraternity's national headquar- ters and the University's admin- istration to reeducate chapter members and the student body to prevent similar incidents from occurring. In an e-mail to University stu- dents Thursday morning, Harper, Blake Jones and Mary Beth Seiler, director of Greek Life, wrote that the party invitation "denigrated all women and African Ameri- can/black identified people." Although the e-mail did not identify the fraternity by name, Harper, Jones and Seiler wrote that their behavior will not be tolerated as it contradicts the University's core values and expectations. The three also wrote that the University is working with the fraternity's national headquar- ters, which has put restrictions on the fraternity until it completes a full investigation of the incident. Collier, the speaker of the Black Student Union, said in an inter- view late Thursday that he was pleased with the University's ini- tial response to the incident, but that more action was needed in the future. "I think that it was an appro- priate response and it's a first step," Collier said. "There needs, to be things to follow that. I appreciated it for the fact that it shows campus that they are han- dling the situation and they're not (overlooking) it, but it's a first step and it's definitely not enough." Kinesiology senior Michael Freedman, president of the Interfraternity Council, was unavailable for comment late Thursday. - Daily News Editor K.C. Wassman contributed reporting. order to visually show how many possible donors are left out due to this policy. LSA senior Kevin Weiss, Blood Battle co-chair, said he hopes that those who do not donate will at . least encourage others to share. "We would love for everyone to donate, but if they can't, they can tell someone to donate; they can get -someone to donate," Weiss said. Other than the push for changed MSM policies, there is a stronger emphasis placed on donations this year because of the Red Cross's recent shortage Kathleen Sebelius defended andt apologized for the problems with the website rollout. Many conservatives have called fort her resignation in the face of the botched launch.1 Not all professors think the problems represent a temporary blip, though.N "I don't think the magnituder of the problem is being exagger-t ated," said Public Health Prof. f Charles Friedman. "The website was created, as I understand it,N to enable an end-to-end process, 1 and people are having problems completing that end-to-end pro-f cess."t From 2007 to 2011, FriedmanN worked at Health and Human Services, which manages thet contractors designing the web- site. He said there is a criticalc lack of "highly placed, techni- I cally sophisticated" government( employees working on the proj- 1 ect. Such experts are necessary to ask the right questions, writeE appropriately articulated con-i tracts and guarantee specificr services from private contrac-' three segments: heavy industrial zones, a mixed-use downtown area and a restricted mixed-use residential zone. "Mixed-use" development entails the combina- tion of residential and commercial' real estate. "We would allow businesses to expand into residential neighbor- hoods while strengthening the pro- tections on those neighborhoods - odor controls, noise controls and height limits," DeVarti said. Although the Mixed Use Party is a proponent of increased commercial-residential blend- ing, DeVarti emphasized that this approach is not meant to com- mercialize neighborhoods, but to inject them with local business that allows them to thrive. "We're not talking about Wal- of blood and platelet donations. The organization issued an emer- gency request in July because it received 50,000 fewer donations than expected. All blood types are currently in need, particularly types O nega- tive, A negative and B negative. One blood donation can save up to three lives. Additionally, hav- ing lost to OSU last year, BDU is more determined to win back the title this year. BDU holds a similar competi- tion every winter, historically against either Michigan State or a group of Big Ten schools, called tors. b "This is a system problem, not g a problem of individual inepti- p tude," Friedman said. r He added that many critics lack an appreciation for the size e and complexity of the project - t getting millions of Americans b who need coverage to sign up byr next year. He said it is crucial to s think about systems in a very dif- p ferent way when they reach such I a large scale, and it would not h work to simply scale up a job to build a bigger back-end system. 1 Julia Milstein, assistant pro- i fessor at the School of Informa- c tion and School of Public Health, a was less worried. C "I'm not that worried about l the system because I think it will t get figured out, it's just a matter c of time," she said. "So the issue I'm much more concerned about r (is whether) people feel like they t have affordable options." I Coverage under healthcare exchange policies does not start i until January, and penalties for i not having insurance do not begin t until March, although there has s Mart, we're talking about Washt- enaw Dairy or Sergeant Pepper's," he said: "These are places that make our neighborhoods more walkable. It makes it more appeal- ing towalk to the store to buy some groceries rather than driving all the way out to Meijer -I think our zoning changes are a good way to really take cars off the roads." DeVarti added that part of his personal platform will be to address student housing in local neighborhoods. He said he hears complaints about student high- rises downtown, but is concerned that Ann Arbor policies prevent students from living elsewhere. Additionally, he said, he wants to make sure that housing is more affordable in an increasingly expensive Ann Arbor. the Face-Off Blood Challenge. This past January, the University won with 1,011 pints compared to MSU's 943 pints, making this the fourth win in five years. Although the competition between the University and Ohio State is fun, Weiss said it is good to work toward a common goal with another school. "I may not have the greatest love or I may not feel very positive about OSU, but the fact that there are people there that care about the same thing that I do really speaks to what we're doing." een discussion as to whether the overnment will push back those enalties if the faulty website is not running smoothly soon. Future affordable health cov- rage relies heavily on whether he younger demographic will uy into the system. A large number of young, healthy people igned up will drive insurance rices down by covering the igher costs incurred by a less ealthy elderly demographic. Most students will be able to atch onto their parent's health nsurance until they're 26 years ld. Milstein is more concerned bout people between the ages if 26 and 35 because they are ess easy to educate, compared o students clustered on college ampuses. Milstein said despite the cur- ent difficulties, proponents of he law should be in for the long aul. "Yes, we should talk about mplementation and how to get it right, but let's not lose sight of he bigger picture here," Milstein aid. "We've spent so much money making the city look beautiful," he said. "That being said, if we really want to maintain a diverse community, I think we need to redouble our efforts and make a commitment to bringing up the lower segments of our community so they can continue to live here." DeVarti is confident in both his ideas and his party's, and he hopes that this confidence - combined with his freshness to the politics scene - may give him an edge. "In one way, yes, I have less experience. I've dealt with fewer people. I haven't dealt with as many issues," he said. "The fact that I haven't been around for so long gives me perspective. That's the flipside to youth and inexperi- ence." TEENS From Page 1 Whiteside showed that one in 10 teens in the University of Michigan Hospital's emergency department had used prescrip- tions for nonmedical reasons. Prescription painkillers were the focus of the study. Most of the admitted emer- gency-room patients were seek- ing help for a sprained ankle, a fever or another routine, non- drug-related ailment. Notably, only 15 percent of the patients misused drugs that a doctor prescribed; Whiteside said this may indicate they used their parents' or friends' left- over medications. A negligible amount of teens purchased the pills online. Data on prescription drug abuse is typically gathered in schools, and most often reflects that about eight percent of teens have misused prescrip- tion drugs. This recent survey shows a slight increase to 10 percent. A study from the University's Institute for Social Research demonstrated that prescrip- tion drug abuse starting in adolescence can lead to long- term abuse. About a third of the opioid-abusing 18-year-olds studied continued misuse into their early- to mid-20s. Twelve percent of those aged 18 to 24 reported non-medical use of opi- oids. Both Whiteside and Sean McCabe, a research associate professor in the University's Substance Abuse Research Cen- ter who led the latter study, found that teens mostly used these drugs to experiment or get high. However, young adults who continually use prescription drugs non-medically often engage in other destructive behaviors. Compared to those who never reported nonmedical use of opi- oids, those surveyed were four times as likely to engage in binge drinking in the two-week period prior to their engagement in the survey and 17 times more likely to report marijuana usage in the year prior to the survey, McCabe wrote in an email. There's a slightly higher likelihood for those on public assistance to use these drugs non-medically, Whiteside said. Suburban and rural teens are also more likely than inner-city teens to misuse prescription drugs. The longitudinal study McCabe led included responses over a four-year period from 27,268 young adults from the national Monitoring the Future study, which has been conducted annually by the University since 1975 to survey trends in illicit drug use. It will be published in an upcoming issue of Addiction. More than 475,000 emer- gency department visits in 2009 concerned misuse of prescrip- tion opioids. That's double the 2004 rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The explosion in use - and misuse - of prescription pain- killers is often publicized and Whiteside cited a move by the Institute of Health in 2003 as a major contributor to the surge in use. In 2003, the Institute of Health began to emphasize more aggressive treatment of pain. One result of this was left- over medication, which allows, for instance, teens to scavenge through their family medicine cabinets for unused pills. Since 2007, the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics has reported that hydrocodone - more commonly known as Vico- din - is the most-prescribed drug in the United States. Since then, however, Whi- teside said both the medical and political , communities are regulating prescriptions. Every state now has automated prescribing systems, which ensures that patients receive potentially addicting prescrip- tions only when needed. Doc- tors, she added, are becoming increasingly aware of the prob- lem. Whiteside expressed the importance of screening inter- ventions, especially for teen- age boys, who are particularly unlikely to get annual check-ups. "I think that primary care is a good place to talk about sub- stance use, but I don't think that regular primary care alone would solve the problem," Whi- teside said. McCabe added that prescrib- ers play a key role in limiting painkiller abuse. He stressed the need for careful prescription of medication, monitoring of patients' usage and, when need- ed, referral for substance-abuse treatment. "Indeed, an evidence-based protocol for assessment and education among prescribers is needed: one aimed at preventing non-medical use, ensuring safe/ secure storage and dictating safe disposal." #BEATSTATEN EWS Before you watch Michigan beat MSU on Saturday, support the Daily in its annual football game Friday. " ICC postpones trial of Kenyan president African Union claims it needs even more time to prepare for case THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The International Crimi- nalCourtonThursdaypostponed the trial of Kenya's president on crimes againsthumanity charges until February, but the African Union said that's not enough time and stepped up pressure for a one-year deferral. The judges made the announcement while an AU min- isterial delegation was meeting behind closed doors with mem- bers of the U.N. Security Council in New York to press the case for the yearlong deferral of the trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto on the ground that the stability of Kenya, is at stake. An AU letter on Oct. 12 requesting a deferral said the delay would give Kenya time to beef up counterterrorism efforts in the country and East Africa. Ethiopia's foreign minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who led the AU delegation, told reporters afterward that African council members would intro- duce a resolution in the Security Council "very soon" that would authorize a one-year delay. He acknowledged divisions in the council, saying: "There are those who support, those who have some difficulties with it." But the AU hopes members will recognize the "grave" and "extraordinary situation" in Kenya, which has been the target of terrorists and is involved in Somalia, where al-Qaida-linked terrorist groups are active, he said. Agshin Mehdiyev, Azerbai- jan's U.N. ambassador and the current Security Council presi- dent, called the meeting "very interesting and very useful," but said there was no outcome yet because it was just an informal discussion. International Criminal Court judges said Kenyatta's trial, which had been scheduled to start Nov. 12, will now begin Feb. 5. They expressed deep regret at the latest delay in the long-run- ning preparations of the case. Hours earlier, prosecutors said they would not oppose a delay because they needed time to investigate undisclosed issues raised by Kenyatta's defense attorneys. The ICC charged Kenyatta and Ruto with crimes against humanity, including murder, forcible population transfer and persecution, for their alleged roles in postelection violence that left more than 1,000 peo- ple dead in late 2007 and early 2008. Kenyatta also is accused of responsibility for rape and other inhumane acts carried out by a criminal gang knownr as the Mungiki, which were allegedly under his control. Kenyatta - who was elected president earlier this year, even though he had been indicted by the ICC - insists he is inno- cent, as does Ruto, whose trial is already underway. Kenyatta's lawyers have called for the case against him to be delayed or dropped, saying the evidence is tainted by false testimony from prosecution witnesses. Pressure for a deferral has intensified followinglast month's deadly terror attack by militants on a Nairobi mall, which under- scored the country's strategic importance in eastern Africa. Under the Rome statute that created the world's first perma- nent war crimes tribunal, the U.N. Security Council can defer a case for a year. It has never used that power. Ethiopia's Ghebreyesus stressed to reporters that a three-month delay in Kenyatta's trial "doesn't help."