The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, December 10, 2D13 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.
Grand Rapids parks
recieve donation
A Grand Rapids parks group
has received an $189,000 grant to
help make the western Michigan
city a leafier place.
The Grand Rapids Community
Foundation is trying to help the
city reach the goal of having a 40
percent tree canopy, MLive.com
reported Monday.
The grant goes to Friends of
Grand Rapids Parks to help the
nonprofit's Urban Forest Project
promote tree planting on private
property.
Two years ago, the community
foundation gave Friends of Grand
Rapids Parks a $254,000 to'help
launch the Urban Forest Project.
The new grant will help the project
recruit more citizen foresters and
provide more community educa-
tion and training, said foundation
Vice President Marcia Rapp.
DETROIT
Government sells
remaining shares
of GM stock
The U.S. government ended up
losing $10.5 billion on the General
Motors bailout, but it says the alter-
native would have been far worse.
The Treasury Department sold
its final shares of the Detroit auto
giant on Monday, recovering $39
billion of the $49.5 billion it spent
to save the dying automaker at the
height of the financial crisis five
years ago.
Without the bailout, the coun-
try would have lost more than
a million jobs, and the economy
could have slipped from recession
into a depression, Treasury Secre-
tary Jacob Lew said on a confer-
ence call with reporters.
ORLANDO, Fla.
Zimmerman asks
judge to drop
charges
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - George
Zimmerman asked a judge on
Monday to change the terms of
his bond so he can have contact
with the girlfriend he's accused of
assaulting.
Zimmerman filed an affidavit
from his girlfriend that says she
doesn't want him charged with
aggravated assault, battery and
criminal mischief.
In the signed affidavit, Samqn-
tha Scheibe - referring to Zim-
merman as "my boyfriend" - said
that detectives misinterpreted
what she said and that she hasn't
been coerced into the request.
Zimmerman was arrested last
month after Scheibe accused him
in a call to 911 of pointing a gun at
her, smashing a coffee table and
pushing her outside. Zimmerman
also called dispatchers, denied
pointing a gun at her and blamed
her for the broken table.
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
Obama urges
peace in Central
African Republic
President Barack Obama is urg-
ing the people of the Central Afri-
can Republic to remain calm amid
mountingsectarianviolence.
The White House says Obama
taped the audio message Monday
inDakar, Senegal, as Air Force One
was refueling on its way to Johan-
nesburg for a memorial service
honoring former South African
President Nelson Mandela. Man-
dela died last week.
Obama addressed his remarks to
the "proud citizens of the Central
African Republic" and said they
have the power "to choose a dif-
ferent path" than the violence that
led to more than 400 deaths in two
days of violence last week between
Christians and Muslims.
Obama says he joins Muslim
and Christian leaders in calling for
calm and peace and says those who
are committing crimes should be
arrested.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Looting, violence
spread as police
strike continues
THAI SPOKtSMAN OFFICt/AP
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca takes questions from the media after the FBI released results of a federal probe,
Monday at a news conference in Los Angeles.
Sheriffs formally charged
and accused of corruption
Eighteen deputies
found engaging
in civil abuse and
beating inmates
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Feder-
al officials say 18 current and for-
mer Los Angeles County sheriff's
deputies saw themselves as being
"above the law," engaging in cor-
ruption and civil rights abuses
that included beating inmates
and visitors, falsifying reports,
and trying to block an FBI probe
of the nation's largest jail system.
The charges were announced
at a news conference Monday
after 16 of the 18 defendants were
arrested earlier in the day. At
least two are no longer working
for the department and some of
those charged were scheduled to
appear in U.S. District Court on
Monday.
"These incidents did not take
place in a vacuum - in fact, they
demonstrated behavior that had
become institutionalized. The
pattern of activity alleged in the
obstruction of justice case shows
how some members of the Sher-
iff's Department considered
themselves to be above the law,"
U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.
said.
Sheriff Lee Baca said at a sepa-
rate news conference that he
was troubled by the charges and
called it a sad day for his depart-
ment.
"Please know that I respect the
criminal justice system and no
one is above the law," Baca said.
He said the department will
continue to cooperate with the
FBI and that the arrested depu-
ties who are still employed by
the department will be relieved
of duty and their pay suspended.
He also defended the depart-
ment, pointing to reforms since
allegations surfaced in 2011, and
said the problem wasn't an insti-
tutional one.
Four grand jury indictments
and a criminal complaint include
accusations that deputies plot-
ted to impede the FBI by mov-
ing an informant in the jails and
attempting to intimidate a lead
FBI agent outside her house; that
deputies unlawfully detained
and used force on visitors to
Men's Central Jail, included
detaining and handcuffing the
Austrian consul general in one
example, and in another, grab-
bing a man by the neck, forcing
his head into a refrigerator, then
throwing him to the floor and
pepper spraying his eyes; and
that deputies falsified reports to
make arrests seem lawful or in.
another case, struck, kicked and
pepper sprayed an inmate and
made false reports to have the
inmate charged with and pros-
ecuted for assaulting deputies.
The FBI has been investigat-
ing allegations of excessive force
and other misconduct at the
county's jails since at least 2011.
Among those charged with
conspiracy and obstruction of
justice are two lieutenants, one
of whom oversaw the depart-
ment's safe jails program and
another who investigated alle-
gations of local crimes commit-
ted by sheriff's personnel, two
sergeants and three deputies.
All seven are accused of trying
to prevent the FBI from contact-
ing or interviewing an inmate
who was helping federal agents
in a corruption and civil rights
probe. One of the investigations
involved trying to see if a deputy
would accept a bribe to provide
the inmate with a cellphone,
court documents show.
The indictment alleges the
inmate was moved to hide him
and false entries were made in
the sheriff's databases to make it
appear as if he had been released.
In an attempt to find out more
information about the investiga-
tion, one lieutenant and the two
sergeants sought a court order to
compel the FBI to provide docu-
ments, prosecutors said. When a
state judge denied the proposed
order, the two.sergeants alleg-
edly attempted to intimidate
one of the lead FBI agents out-
side her house and falsely told
her they were going to seek
a warrant for her arrest, the
indictment said.
Argentina in
chaos, five dead
across nation
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
(AP) - Outbreaks of looting
have spread across Argentina as
mobs take advantage of strikes
by police demanding pay raises
to match inflation.
Videos show people shatter-
ing glass doors and hauling out
everything from mattresses and
cellphones to baby carriages and
beer.
By Monday night, the death
toll from the chaotic outbursts
climbed to five as officers rallied
outside negotiatingsessions, citi-
zens huddled inside their homes
and businesses, and federal
troops deployed to trouble spots.
The trouble spread to at least
19 of Argentina's 23 provinces,
and most commerce shut down
in many cities just ahead of the
Decemberholidays,whenArgen-.
tina's simmering social conflicts
have a history of exploding in the
summer heat.
President Cristina Fernan-
dez's Cabinet chief, Jorge Capi-
tanich, described the crimes as
premeditated actsby groups that
wanted to generate chaos and
anxiety on the eve of Tuesday's
30th anniversary of Argentina's
return to democracy.
"In some ways, this amounts
to the crime of treason," Capi-
tanich told reporters. He said
that the national government
was in continual contact with
Argentina's provincial leaders
and that any salary dispute must
be resolved through negotiation,
not extortion:
The government has sent fed-
eral police, border patrol officers
and other security forces to hot
spots where people have armed
themselves in fear of mobs. Pros-
ecutors were put on alertto build
criminal cases against looters,
and Justice Minister Julio Alak
warned that people coordinat-
ing violence through social net-
works would be charged.
Looting first broke out in Cor-
doba province last week, dam-
aging hundreds of businesses
and leaving two dead and more
than 100 people injured before
the governor and police reached
a deal that effectively doubled
police salaries to 12,000 pesos a
month. That's about $1,915 at the
official exchange rate.
The national government imi-
tially blamed the phenomenon
on Cordoba's governor, a politi-
cal rival of Fernandez. But by
Monday, it was clear that even
close presidential allies were
struggling as police earning base
salaries of less than 6,000 pesos
a month staged copy-cat strikes
across Argentina.
A third victim died when his
supermarket was set afire as he
defended it from a mob in Almi-
rante Brown, in Buenos Aires
province, where Fernandez loy-
alist Gov. Daniel Scioli appealed
for calm. The fourth and fifth
victims were young men who
were inside stores being looted
in Entre Rios and Jujuy prov-
inces.
Scioli's leadership was tested
again Monday after a dozen
more stores were looted in Mar
del Plata and hundreds of police
gathered in a central square,
rejecting his offer to raise entry-
level salaries to what he called a
"fair and reasonable" 8,570 pesos
a month. Those officers were
holding out for 12,500 as a base
salary. Most others returned to
work, the provincial govern-
ment said.
Canada wants to
claim resource
rich Arctic land
Coalition wants Obama
to l imit NSA surveillance
.Eight companies
publish open letter
asking the president
to limit programs
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sili-
con Valley is escalating pres-
sure on President Barack
Obama to curb the U.S. govern-
ment surveillance programs
that vacuum personal informa-
tion off the Internet and threat-
en the technology industry's
financial livelihood.
A coalition that includes
Google, Apple, Yahoo, Face-
book and Microsoft lashed out
in an open letter printed Mon-
day in major newspapers and a
new website, http://reformgov-
ernmentsurveillance.com.
The crusade united eight
companies that often compete
fiercely against each other, but
now find themselves banding
together to limit the potential
damage from revelations about
the National Security Agency's
snooping on Web surfers.
Twitter Inc., LinkedIn Corp.
and AOL Inc. joined Google
Inc., Apple Inc., Yahoo Inc.,
Facebook Inc. and Microsoft
Corp. in the push for tighter
controls over electronic espio-
nage. The group is immersed in
the lives of just about everyone
who uses the Internet or a com-
puting device.
As the companies' services
and products have become
more deeply ingrained in soci-
ety, they have become integral
cogs in the economy.
Their prosperity also pro-
vides them with the cash to
pay for lobbyists and fund cam-
paign contributions that sway
public policy.
Monday's public relations
offensive is a by-product of
documents leaked over the past
six months by former NSA con-
tractor Edward Snowden. The
records reveal that the NSA
has been obtaining emails and
other personal data from major
tech companies under secret
court orders for the past five
years and scooping up other
data through unauthorized
hacking into data centers.
Silicon Valley has been fight-
ing back in the courts and in
Congress as they seek reforms
that would allow them to dis-
close more information about
secret court orders.
Several of the companies are
also introducing more encryp-
tion technology to shield their
users' data from government
spies and other prying eyes.
Monday's letter and the new
anti-snooping website repre-
sent the technology industry's
latest salvo in an attempt to
counter any perception that
they voluntarily give the gov-
ernment access to users' email
and other sensitive informa-
tion.
Although the campaign is
ostensibly directed at govern-
ments around the world, the
U.S. is clearly the main target.
"The balance in many coun-'
tries has tipped too far in favor
of the state and away from the
rights of the individual - rights
that are enshrined in our Con-
stitution," the letter said. "This
undermines the freedoms
we all cherish. It's time for a
change."
Civil liberties aren't the only
thing at stake. One of the rea-
sons the technology compa-
nies have become a rich vein
for crime-fighting authorities
is that they routinely store vast
amounts of personal data as
part of their efforts to tailor
services and target advertising.
By analyzingsearch requests,
Web-surfing habits, social net-
working posts and even the
content of emails, the compa-
nies are able to determine, for
instance, the type of digital ads
to show individual users.
The NSA revelations have
raised fears that people might
shy away from some Internet
services or share less informa-
tion about themselves.
Such a shift would make it
more difficult for companies to
increase their ad revenue and;
ultimately, boost their stock
prices.In a statement, Yahoo
CEO Marissa Mayer said the
NSA disclosures had "shaken
the trust of our users."
Google CEO Larry Page and
Facebook CEO Mark Zucker-
berg, two of the richest people
in the world, also chimed with
statements urging the U.S. to
adopt reforms to protect per-
sonal information.
U.S. intelligence officials
have staunchly defended the
electronic espionage, con-
tending the NSA's tactics have
helped disrupt terror attacks.
Officials also insist that the
agency takes care not to look at
the content of conversations or
messages by U.S. citizens. -
Obama has asked a panel of
hand-picked advisers to report
on the spying issue this month
and recently said he'll pro-
pose the NSA use "some self-
restraint" in handling data.
White House spokeswom-
an Caitlin Hayden indicated
the administration expects to
address many of the concerns
raised in Monday's letter after
Obama's advisers complete
their review.
Plans made to
'assert sovereignty'
and extend seabed
into North Pole
TORONTO (AP) - Canada
plans tomake a claim to the
North Pole in an effort to assert
its sovereignty in the resource-
rich Arctic, the country's
foreign affairs minister said
Monday.
John Baird said the govern-
ment has asked scientists to
work on a future submission
to the United Nations claiming
that the outer limits of the coun-
try's continental shelf include
the pole, which so far has been
claimed by no one.
Canada last week applied to
extend its seabed claims in the
Atlantic Ocean, including some
preliminary Arctic claims, but
it wants more time to prepare
a claim that would include the
pole.
Asserting Canada's rights in
the Arctic has been a popular
domestic issue for Prime Min-
ister Stephen Harper, though
at least one expert on the issue
described the planned claim as
a long shot.
"We are determined to ensure
that all Canadians benefit from
the tremendous resources that
are to be found in Canada's far
north," Baird said.
Countries including the U.S.
and Russia are increasingly
looking to the Arctic as a source
of natural resources and ship-
ping lanes.
The U.S. Geological Survey
says the region contains 30 per-
cent of the world's undiscovered
natural gas and 15 percent of oil.
If Canada's claim is accepted by
the U.N. commission, it would
dramatically grow its share.
Countries must submit pro-
posals to the U.N. Commission
on the Limits of the Continental
Shelf to request an extension of
their nautical borders. Current-
ly, under international law, Can-
ada, Denmark, Norway, Russia
and the U.S. -the five countries
with territories near the Arctic
Circle are allotted 200 nauti-
cal miles from their northern
coasts.
Under the U.N. Convention
on the Law of the Sea, exclusive
claims can be vastly expanded
for Arctic nations that prove
that their part of the continental
shelf extends beyond that zone.
Baird said Canada's submis-
sion last week set out the poten-
tial outer limits of the country's
continental shelf in the Atlan-
tic - a claim of about 1.2 mil-
lion square kilometers. He said
that's roughly the size of Alber-
ta and Saskatchewan combined.
Canada's follow-up submis-
sion will include a claim to the
Lomonosov Ridge, an undersea
mountain range between Elles-
mere Island, Canada's most
northern land mass, and Rus-
sia's east Siberian coast. That
claim would extend Canada's
claim 200 nautical miles beyond
the North Pole.
The submission that Canada
filed with the U.N. is essentially
a series of undersea co-ordi-
nates that map what the gov-
ernment claims is the country's
extended continental shelf.
Baird said it's a mammoth
task, and the government needs
more time to complete the map-
ping in the Arctic and get its
U.N. submission right.
"That's why we have asked
our officials and scientists to do
additional and necessary work
to ensure that a submission for
the full extent of the Continen-
tal Shelf in the Arctic includes
Canada's claim to the North
Pole," he said.
The U.N. submission is also
political, said Michael Byers, an
expert on Arctic and interna-
tional law at the University of
British Columbia.
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