The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, December 9, 2013 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, December 9, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Regional group
OKs $2.3B plan to
widen I-94, I-75
A consortium of southeast-
ern Michigan governments has
endorsed a $2.3 billion plan to
widen two stretches of Inter-
states 75 and 94 serving Detroit
and its suburbs.
The commission of the South-
east Michigan Council of Gov-
ernments voted 24-7 Friday to
proceed with plans to add lanes
to I-94 north of downtown
Detroit and I-75 in the city's
northern suburbs.
The vote means that plan-
ners can hire a project manager
to proceed with engineering
studies and contact with those
affected by the projects, Michi-
gan Department of Transporta-
tion spokesman Rob Morosi told
MLive.com.
Opponents say the projects
will encourage even more sub-
urban sprawl in metropolitan
Detroit.
PHILADELPHIA
Storm along East
Coast dumps
snow, snarls traffic
A powerful storm that crept
across the country dropped snow,
freezing rain and sleet on the
Mid-Atlantic region and headed
northeast Sunday, turning NFL
playing fields in Pennsylvania
into winter wonderlands, dump-
ing a foot of snow in Delaware
and threatening a messy Monday
commute in the northeast corri-
dor.
The storm forced the cancel-
lation of thousands of flights
across the U.S. and slowed traffic
on roads, leading to a number of
accidents, including a fatal crash
on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
near Morgantown that led to a
series of fender-benders involv-
ing 50 cars that stranded: some:
motorists for up to seven hours.
More than two dozen vehicles
were involved in another series
of crashes on nearby Interstate
78.
SAN FRANCISCO
Transformation
project planned
for Mich. ski hill
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra speaks on Thai TV pool Monday in Bangkok, Thailand. Yingluck said that she
will dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call elections to calm the country's deepening political crisis.
Thai parliament dissolved
as PM calls for elections
Surprise move
comes as protestors
threaten govt.
overthrow
BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand's
prime minister announced
Monday she will dissolve the
lower house of Parliament and
call elections in an attempt to
calm the country's deepening
political crisis. The surprise
move came as 100,000 protest-
ers vowing to overthrow her
government marched through
the streets of Bangkok for a
"final showdown."
Prime Minister Yingluck Shi-
nawatra's appeared emotional
and her voice shook as she spoke
in a nationally televised address
Monday morning.
"After listening to opinions
from all sides, I have decided
to request a royal decree to dis-
solve Parliament," Yingluck
said, breaking into regular pro-
graming. "There will be new
elections according to the demo-
cratic system."
She said the Election Com-
mission would set a date "as
soon as possible."
It was unclear whether the
move would ease the country's.
political standoff, which deep-
ened Sunday after the main
opposition party resigned from
the legislature en masse. Pro-
test leader Suthep Thaugsuban
has repeatedly said that calling
fresh elections would not be
enough to end the conflict, and
he made no immediate comment
on Yingluck's announcement.
Police estimated that about
100,000 protesters were out on
the streets of the Thai capital.
Thailand has been plagued
by political turmoil since the
army toppled Yingluck's broth-
er Thaksin in a 2006 coup. In
broad terms, the conflict pits
the Thai elite and the educated
middle-class against Thaksin's
power base in the countryside,
which benefited from populist
policies designed to win over
the rural poor.
"We will rise up. We will
walk on every street in the coun-
try. We will not be going home
again," Suthep said Sunday. His
supporters have occupied the
Finance Ministry and part of a
vast government complex for
more than a week. "The people
who will be going home empty-
handed are those in the Thaksin
regime."
Many feared the day could
end violently when demon-
strators converge from nine
locations on Yingluck's office
at Government House. More
than 60 Thai and international
schools in Bangkok have closed
as a precaution.
As Yingluck spoke, long col-
umns of protesters paralyzed
traffic on major Bangkok boule-
vards. They filled a major four-
lane road in the city's central
business district, waving flags,
blowing whistles and holding a
huge banner that said, "Get Out
Shinawatra."
Since the latest unrest began
last month, at least five people
have been killed and at least 289
injured. Violence ended sud-
denly last week as both sides
paused to celebrate the birthday
of the nation's revered king, who
turned 86 Thursday.
The crisis boiled over after
Yingluck's ruling party tried to
ram a controversial amnesty bill
through the legislature. Critics
say it was designed mainly to
bring back Thaksin, who lives
in self-imposed exile in Dubai to
avoid jail time for a corruption
conviction he says was politi-
cally motivated.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, the leader
of the Democrat party and a
former premier, said Yingluck's
government had become "ille-
gitimate" since then, and his
party had no choice but to pull
out of the lower house. The
Democrats held 153 of the 500
seats in the legislative body,
according to the latest figures
on their website. Abhisit said
the resignations were effective
immediately.
"The solution to our current
problems needs to start with
the showing of responsibil-
ity," Abhisit said. "The prime
minister has never showed any
responsibility or conscience."
The minority Democrats -
who are closely allied with the
Copper Peak jump
looks for comeback
to world stage
IRONWOOD, Mich. (AP) -
It's been nearly 20 years since
athletes soared into the sky off
the Copper Peak ski jump near
Ironwood, Mich. But change is
in the air.
The board that operates the
western Upper Peninsula land-
mark is backing a new plan they
hope will put Copper Peak back
on the international stage and
attract athletes from around
the world for ski jumping - and
not just in the winter, accord-
ing to the Duluth (Minn.) News
Tribune.
"This is really big news
for ski jumping in the United
States," said Bryan Sanders, a
1992 U.S. ski jumping Olympian
and member of the Copper Peak
board. "This makes us relevant
again on the world scene."
Two key components of the
plan are transforming Copper
Peak from its present status as
a ski-flying hill to a ski-jumping
hill, and bringing summer ski
jumping to the venue by 2016.
Copper Peak, which opened
in 1970, features a 267-foot
steel jump structure - that's
about 26 stories high - built
atop a 365-foot rock outcrop-
ping about 10 miles northeast of
Ironwood.
Ski flying is similar to ski
jumping but takes place on
larger hills that allow for longer
jumps.
Copper Peak had been the
only ski flying hill in the West-
ern Hemisphere - and one of
just six in the world - but it was
small for that circuit.
So the Copper Peak board,
backing from the Federation
of International Skiing (FIS),
wants to make the transition to
the largest ski-jumping hill in
the world.
"We haven't flown at Copper
Peak in a number of years. Our
hill has not progressed in size
(as other slopes) have length-
ened their landing slopes," said
Charlie Supercynski, president
of the Copper Peak board. "So
the question is, what kind of
a hill are we? Are we a small
flying hill, or do we want to
become a large jumping hill?"
And the answer, backed by a
unanimous vote of the Copper
Peak board last month, is to fol-
low the FIS plan and switch to
ski jumping. That will require,
among other renovations,
reshaping the hill to meet FIS
ski jumping specifications.
In conjunction with the
switch from ski flying to ski
jumping, the plan envisioned by
FIS and the Copper Peak board
includes the addition of sum-
mer ski jumping.
How does summer ski jump-
ing work?
The landing zone "is essen-
tially skiing on plastic - a spe-
cially designed surface that
looks like spaghetti that you
stack up like shingles on a roof,"
Supercynski said. It approxi-
mates snow, allowing skiers to
glide along as they land.
The jump itself would be
outfitted with ceramic tile or a
refrigerated ice surface - that's
still to be determined - that
athletes would glide down to
make their runs.
The sport has grown in pop-
ularity in Europe because the
warmer weather conditions are
more favorable for fans, and
there are fewer variables for
skiers to contend with. Events
Food-tech startups Senators cail for eameras
aim to replace eggs
and chicken
The startup is housed in a
garage-like space in San Fran-
cisco's tech-heavy South of Mar-
ket neighborhood, but it isn't like
most of its neighbors that develop
software, websites and mobile-
phone apps. Its mission is to find
plant replacements for eggs.
Inside, research chefs bake
cookies and cakes, whip up
batches of flavored mayonnaise
and pan-fry omelets and French
toast - all without eggs.
Funded by prominent Silicon
Valley investors and Microsoft
founder Bill Gates, Hampton
Creek Foods seeks to disrupt a
global egg industry that backers
say wastes energy, pollutes the
environment, causes disease out-
breaks and confines chickens to
tiny spaces.
SEOUL, South Korea
N. Korea purges
Kim Jong Un's
powerful uncle
North Korea announced Mon-
day that it has purged leader Kim
Jong Un's uncle, considered the
country's second most powerful
official, accusing him of corrup-
tion, drug use, gambling, wom-
anizing and generally leading a
"dissolute and depraved life."
The young North Korean lead-
er will now rule without the rela-
tive long seen as his mentor as
he consolidated power after the
death of his father, Kim Jong Il,
two years ago. Jang Song Thaek's
fall, detailed in a lengthy dis-
patch by state media, is the latest
and most significant in a series
of personnel reshuffles that Kim
has conducted in an apparent
effort to bolster his power.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
on train tracks, engineers
After NY train
derailing, pair of
lawmakers demand
new safety measures
NEW YORK (AP) - A week
after four people died in a New
York commuter train derailment,
two federal lawmakers proposed
Sunday that trains nationwide
be outfitted with cameras point-
ed at engineers and at the tracks.
"I know you're going to hear
from Metro-North that there are
costs, but the costs of these audio
and visual recorders is minus-
cule, in fact negligible, compared
to the hundreds of millions of
dollars that this tragic incident
will cost Metro-North in the
end," said Sen. Richard Blumen-
thal of Connecticut who joined
New York Sen. Charles Schumer
for a news conference at Man-
hattan's Grand Central Termi-
nal.
Last Sunday, a Metro-North
Railroad train approached a
curve on the tracks just north
of Manhattan going 82 mph -
nearly three times 30 mph speed
limit. Rail cars careened off the
tracks, with the front car ending
up inches from the water where
the Hudson River meets the
Harlem River.
A lawyer and union leader
for the derailed train's engineer,
William Rockefeller, have said
the train's hypnotic motion may
have caused him to experience a
"nod" or a "daze" at the controls.
The Democratic lawmakers
are urging the Federal Railroad
Administration to demand the
implementation of a measure
they say might prevent the kind
of deadly Metro-North derail-
ment that also left dozens of
people injured.
The National Transportation
Safety Board first recommend-
ed installation of the audio and
video recording cameras in loco-
motives and operating railway
cabs five years ago.
The railroad administration
issued a statement saying that
safety was its "highest priority"
and 2012 was the safest year in
railroading history.
"We support the use of cam-
eras in cabs to further improve
safety," the agency said, adding
that it continues to work with
the NTSB on the investigation
into the New York accident.
The NTSB said it has a
"long history of advocating for
improvements stemming from
fatal accidents."
"In an era where the average
citizen has a device in their pock-
et capable of recording audio
and video, installing cameras in
locomotives for accident investi-
gation and prevention purposes
simply moves the railroad indus-
try into the 21st century," NTSB
Chairman Deborah A.F. Hers-
man said in a statement.
Schumer said fatigue was
suspected in two other colli-
sions - one in Iowa, in 2011
and another in Newton, Mass.,
in 2008 - and might have been
proven if cameras were present.
He said such images might have
caught behavior patterns that
could have been prevented in the
future.
"Get on board and implement
these recommendations now,"
Schumer said, directing his com-
ments to the Federal Railroad
Administration, which has the
power to demand the changes.
The railroad administration has
yet totake any regulatory action
putting these recommendations
in place.
"Shame on Metro-North for
failing to adopt this system,"
Blumenthal said. "Shame on the
operators of this railroad for
failing to move forward with a
recommendation that is so cost
effective. Keep people alive."
The Metropolitan Transpor-
tation Authority, which runs
Metro-North, released a state-
ment late Sunday detailing
immediate changes to improve
safety on curves and bridges.
Those improvements include
the installation of new sig-
nal safety protections at the
crash site that - starting Mon-
day - will warn engineers of
approaching speed reductions
and automatically apply the
train's emergency brakes if
speed is not lowered to the 30
mph maximum in the curve.
The Online
Revolution:
Learning.
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FEATU RI NG
courseraco-founder & co-CEO
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We are at the cusp of a major transformation in higher education.
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this far-reaching experiment in education, including examples &
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Register today engin.umich.edu/form/mellorlecture2Ol3
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