I
2A - Wednesday, December 4, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
I i
EPArdlian Daily
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327
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ANDREW WEINER KIRBY VOIGTMAN
Editor in Chief Business Manager
734-418-4118 eat. 1202 734-418-4115eat. 1241
atweiter@michigatdaily.com kvoigman@michigandailycom
U of Maryland Senate to examine marijuana policy
A subcommittee of the Univer-
sity of Maryland Student Senate
will examine the policy of medi-
cal marijuana on campus, The
Diamondback reported Tuesday.
The use of marijuana for
medicinalor recreational purpos-
es is banned on campus. Mikayla
Hellwich, a senior horticulture
and crop production major, pro-
posed new legislation to the sen-
ate that would allow the use of
the drug on campus for medicinal
purposes only.
"I think that it's necessary to
be compassionate for people who
are sick. I know that this is con-
sidered a taboo issue, but really
it shouldn't be," Hellwich said.
"It should be common sense that
people who are sick should have
access to the medicinetheyneed."
Senate Chairman Vincent
Novara noted that the examina-
tion would go no further than
using marijuana as a medicine.
He said the senate has no inter-
est in entertaining the idea of the
drug for recreational purposes.
University of Arkansas
receives $3-million gift for
Dept. of Chemical Engineering
The Department of Chemical
Engineering at the University of
Arkansas received a $3 million
donation from alum Kevin Brown
and his wife, Marie, The Arkan-
sas Traveler reported Tuesday.
The gift will be used to create
an endowed department head
chair within the College of Engi-
neering. The donation allows the
university to hire other profes-
sors out of the budget, since the
endowment head is not being
paid from that source. This will
result in a lower student-to-fac-
ulty ratio.
"This is a critical need, since
endowed positions help us
remain competitive with our
peers," Chancellor G. David Gear-
hart said in a press conference.
"Kevin and Marie's giftwill make
a tremendous impact within the
College of Engineering."
- RACHEL WADDELL
Newsroom
734-418-4115 opt.3
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VIRGINIA LLANU/Uaily
LIA senior Fernando Coello speaks ata student
panel on the divisions in the LGBTQ+ community at
the Michigan Union Tuesday.
CRIME NOTES
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Not so stolen MCard fraud Percussion Discussion for
WHERE: Fletcher Carport WHERE: Central Campus performance perfectionists
WH EN: Monday at about
5:30 p.m.
WHAT: A subject reported
a bike theft in progress,
University Police reported.
When officers made contact
with the alleged bike thief,
they determined he was the
owner of the bike.
Recreation Building
WHEN: Monday at about
5 p.m.
WHAT: A subject tried to
enter the facility using his
father's MCard, University
Police reported. The subject
was warned and the card
was confiscated.
WHAT: The University of
Michigan Percussion Studio
end the semester with a juzz
and world fusion concert.
WHO: School of Music,
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: Today at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Moore Building,
McIntosh Theatre
WHAT: Discuss strategies
to manage perfectionist ten-
dencies in school and work.
WHO: Counseling and Psy-
chological Services
WHEN: Today from 4:15
p.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: Michigan Union,
CAPS Office
Taken tickets Where's my
WHERE: University Golf
Course
WHEN: Monday at about
9:15 a.m.
WHAT: Four football
tickets were stolen aboard
a charter bus traveling
between Lansing and Ann
Arbor Nov. 2, University
Police reported. There is a
possible person of interest.
wallet:
WHERE: Michigan Sta-
dium
WHEN: Monday at about
4 p.m.
WHAT: At wallet was
reported stolen during
Saturday's football game,
University Police reported.
Several charges were made
nn+the -o-Amcredi; enrck
Fracking policy Spanish
discussion lunch break
Students in Shanghai
led the rankings in a
global education sur-
vey released Tuesday, CNN
reported. The United States
ranked 36th out of 65 coun-
tries represented in the
Organization for Economic
Cooperation survey.
Eco-friendly practices
have flourished since
University President
Mary Sue Coleman launched
an integrative assessment on
sustainability in 2009.
FOR MORE, SEE STATEMENT,
INSIDE
The most popular
Black Friday purchase
at Walmart were tow-
els, NBC News reported.
Between 6 p.m. on Thanks-
giving evening through the
following day, almost three
million towels were sold in
Walmart stores.
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BUSINESS STAFF
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e Mich gan aly S No5-967)isp uloei onday throughFriday ring the fall ard
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0
WHAT: Join three profes-
sors in a discussion on the
Toxics Release Inventory
and how disclosure of infor-
mation can inform policy
decisions.
WHO: Center for Local,
State and Urban Policy
WHEN: Today from 10 a.m.
to 11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Weill Hall,
Annenberg Auditorium
WHAT: Practice Spanish
language skills during a
brown bag lunch held each
Wednesday.
WHO: School of Nursing
WHEN: Today from 12 p.m.
to 1 p.m.
WHERE: 300 N. Ingalls
Building, Nick's Cafe
Union official: New York train
engineer 'nodded' at controls
Updated healthcare.gov gets
mixed reviews in first week
Questions about
employee mount after
speed determined
factor in crash
YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) - An
engineer whose speeding com-
muter train ran off the rails along
a curve, killing four people, nod-
ded at the controls just before the
wreck, and by the time he caught
himself it was too late, a union
official said Tuesday.
William Rockefeller "basically
nodded," said Anthony Bottali-
co, leader of the rail employees
union, relating what he said the
engineer told him.
"He had the equivalent of what
we all have when we drive a car,"
Bottalico said. "That is, you some-
times have a momentary nod or
whatever that might be. How long
that lasts, I can't answer that."
Rockefeller's lawyer did not
return calls. During a late-after-
noon news conference, federal
investigators said they were still
talking to Rockefeller, and they
wouldn't comment on his level
of alertness around the time of
the Sunday morning wreck in the
Bronx.
Separately, however, two law
enforcement officials said the
engineer told police at the scene
that his mind was wandering
before he realized the train was
in trouble and by then it was too
late to do anything about it. One
of the officials said Rockefeller
described himself as being "in a
daze" before the wreck.
The officials, who were briefed
on the engineer's comments,
weren't authorized to discuss the
investigation publicly and spoke
on the condition of anonymity.
Questions about Rockefeller's
role mounted rapidly after inves-
tigators disclosed on Monday that
the Metro-North Railroad train
jumped the tracks after going into
-H-, 0
a curve at 82 mph, or nearly three
times the 30 mph speed limit.
Dozens of people were hurt.
"He caught himself, but he
caught himself too late. ... He
powered down, he put the train
in emergency, but that was six
seconds prior to derailment," Bot-
talico said.
Rockefeller, who was operating
the train from the front car, was
treated at a hospital for minor
injuries and was released.
National Transportation Safe-
ty Board member Earl Weener
repeated that it was too soon to
say whether the accident was
caused by human error. But he
said investigators have found no
problems with the brakes or sig-
nals.
Alcohol tests on the train's
crew members were negative, and
investigators were awaiting the
results of drug tests, the NTSB
official said.
On the day of the crash, Rock-
efeller was on the second day of a
five-day work week, reporting at
5:04 a.m. after atypical nine-hour
shift the day before, Weener said.
"There's every indication that
he would have had time to get
full restorative sleep," Weener
said.
Weener didn't address spe-
cifically what the engineer was
doing in the hours before his shift
started but said part of the inves-
tigation will be creating a 72-hour
timeline of his activities.
Bottalico said Rockefeller
"never said anything about not
getting enough sleep." But he said
the engineer had switched just
weeks earlier from the night shift
to the day shift, "so he did have a
change in his hours and his cir-
cadian rhythms with regard to
sleep."
The New York Police Depart-
ment is conducting its own
investigation, with help from the
Bronx district attorney's office, in
the event the derailment becomes
a criminal case.
Rockefeller, meanwhile, stayed
out of sight. But his union and for-
mer co-workers spoke up in his
defense.
FOR
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ds acknowledge times had dropped to 1 second
and error rates were under 1
e is still a work percent, according to figures
from the Centers for Medicare
in progress and Medicaid Services.
"The system has been stable
tT LAUDERDALE, Fla. all day," CMS communications
- Counselors helping director Julie Bataille said
use the federal govern- Tuesday, stressing they were
online health exchange still continually updating the
ving mixed reviews to site.
pdated site, with some But Compuware Corp.,
g through the applica- which has been monitoring the
rocess while others are site on thousands of personal
the same old sputters computers around the coun-
-en crashes. try, said several states still had
Obama administra- response times of more than
sad promised a vastly 8 seconds Tuesday morning.
ved shopping experience Wisconsin's average response
althcare.gov by the end time is over 18 seconds, accord-
vember, and this is the ing to the company.
-eek for users to test the Still, Michael Smith, a vice
rd site. president for Compuware
kers and online assisters Corp., says the site's opera-
h said Monday that three tions have improved sig-
ry four people success- nificantly. Their data shows
igned up for health cov- 26 states had unacceptable
on the online within an response times in late Octo-
f logging in. A state offi- ber. He said the government
-erseeing North Dakota's is likely measuring response
tors said he had noticed times from a data center with
vements in the site, as ultra-fast Internet speeds
ganizations helping peo- that are not reflective of real-
n up in parts of Alabama world conditions on user's
isconsin. regular computers.
staffers at an organi- Roberta Vann, a certified
in South Florida and a application counselor at the
al group with locations Hamilton Health Center, in
'a and Illinois said they Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
o major improvements said the site worked well for
the federal website, her Monday morning but she
36 states are relying became frustrated later when
the site went down.
anda Crowell, director "You can get to a point, but
nue cycle for UnityPoint it does not allow you to select
h-Trinity, which has four any plans, you can't get eligi-
als in Iowa and Illinois, bility (information). It stops
onday that the organiza- there," she said. "The thought
15 enrollment counselors of it working as well as it was
t see a marked improve- didn't last long."
an the site. In South Florida, John
e had very high hopes Foley and his team of navi-
day, but those hopes gators were only able to
-ery much quashed," said successfully enroll one of
Al. a handful of return appli-
re than 1 million people cants who came to their
I the site Monday and office before glitches start-
10 browsed the site by ed, including wonky esti-
Tuesday. Thanks to the mates for subsidy eligibility.
ology fixes, response He worried about how they
would fare with the rough-
ly 50 other appointments
scheduled later in the week. 0
Although frustrated, most
were not deterred, he said.
"These are people that have
policies going away, who have
health problems. These are
people that are going to be
very persistent," said Foley, an
attorney and certified coun-
selor for Legal Aid Society of
Palm Beach County.
Despite the Obama admin-
istration's team of technicians
working around the clock, it's
not clear if the site will be able
to handle the surge of appli-
cants expected by the Dec. 23
deadline to enroll for cover-
age starting at the beginning
of the year. Many navigators
also say they're concerned
the bad publicity plaguing the
troubled website will prevent
people from giving the system
another try.
Federal health officials
acknowledged the website
is still a work in progress.
They've also acknowledged
the importance of fixing back-
end problems as insurers
struggle to process applica-
tions because of incomplete
or inaccurate data. Even when
consumers think they've gone
through the whole process,
their information may not get
to the insurer without prob-
lems.
In less than an hour Mon-
day, Starla Redmon, 58, of
Paris, Ill., was able to success-
fully get into a health plan
with help from an enrollment
counselor. Redmon, who jug-
gles two part-time jobs and
has been uninsured for four
years, said she was surprised
the website worked so well
after hearing reports about its
problems.
"Everything she typed in,
it went through," said Red-
mon, who chose a bronze
plan and will pay about $75 a
month after a tax credit. "It
was the cheapest plan I could
go with."
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