The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, February 27, 2014 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT General Motors under investigation after vehicle recalls The U.S. government's auto safety watchdog is investigating whether General Motors acted quickly enough to recall 1.6 mil- lion older-model small cars in a case linked to 13 deaths. The National Highway Traf- fic Safety Administration said Wednesday night that it opened the probe "to determine whether GM properly followed the legal processes and requirements for reporting recalls." The agency has the authority to fine GM as much as $35 mil- lion under legislation that went into effect late last year. The pre- vious maximum fine automak- ers faced per incident was $17.35 million. Automakers must report evidence of safety defects within five days of discovering them. CHICAGO Chicagoan wears Breaking Bad shirt after meth lab bust A suburban Chicago man accused of operating a mth- amphetamine lab appears in his booking photo wearing a T-shirt from the television show "Break- ing Bad." Daniel Kowalski's mug shot shows him wearing a T-shirt for the fictional Los Polos Herma- nos chicken restaurant depicted in the AMC show about a mth- amphetamine manufacturer. The Cook County Sheriff's Office saysdeputies actingon atip checked Kowalski's home Mon- day. They found beakers, burn- ers, chemicals and instructions for making meth in the house in unincorporated La Grange High- lands. Psychedelic mushrooms were also recovered. WASHINGTON With new findings, NASA boosts the total planet count Our galaxy is looking far more crowded and hospitable. NASAon Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside our solar system. Scientists using the planet- hunting Kepler telescope pushed the number of planets discov- ered in the galaxy to about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets cir- cling stars other than the ones revolving around our sun. "We almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity," NASA planetary scientist Jack Lissauer said in a Wednesday teleconference, call- ing it "the big mother lode." Astronomers used a new con- firmation technique to come up with the largest single announce- ment of a batch of exoplanets - what planets outside our solar system are called. KIEV, Ukraine Putin responds to Ukrainian election, assembles soldiers Russia ordered 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness Wednesday in a show of force that prompted a blunt warning from the United States that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a "grave mistake." Vladimir Putin's announce- ment of huge new war games came as Ukraine's protest lead- ers named a millionaire former banker to head a new government after the pro-Russian president went into hiding. The new government, which is expected to be formally approved by parliament Thursday, will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse. Its fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the capital last week. -Compiled from Daily wire reports PIERPONT Students have played an active role in the cam- pus improvement initiatives through Building a Better Rackham student Isaiah Michigan, a student campaign Bailey, who is vice chair of the that prompted the regents' Pierpont Commons Board of decision to approve renova- Representatives and an execu- tions. LSA senior Jacob Light, tive board member for Building co-chair of BBM, wrote a view- a Better Michigan, said the reno- point for The Michigan Daily vations seek to provide a variety urging students to take respon- of new food options while also sibility and advocate for their making the new caf6 a comfort- own needs on campus. able study space for students. "We want to give students "Teaching-learning environ- a venue to work with the Uni- ments are not just about the versity to guarantee that our physical spaces," Bailey said. tuition dollars are spent to sat- "(They) revolve around com- isfy our needs," Light wrote. munities of scholars." Engineering sophomore The Pierpont renovation Maurico Guzman said he represents one stage of a series spends the majority of his time of campus-wide improvement on North Campus, but rarely projects, which also includes visits the Commons Caf6. After major upgrades and repairs to viewing plans for the Fireside the Michigan Union, Central Caf6, he said he felt it would pro- Campus Recreation Building, vide abetter optionfor students. Intramural Sports Building "I think having a different and other campus locations. variety of food will be a nice The University's Board of new option compared to the Regents approved a $65-per- usual U-Go's," Guzman said. term student fee in April 2013 Guzman added that it was to fund the projects. Of the important that the new space $173 million budgeted for these serve its dual purpose as both enhancements, $5.3 million a dining and study location for will go toward the renovation students. of approximately 10,500 square "If you can incorporate both, feet of Pierpont Commons. it's really ideal for students." John's business partner, BARBER Thomas White, is a resident of From Page 1A Birmingham, Mich. and a Uni- versity alum. removal, teeth whitening, Sandy Notten, one of the manicures, pedicures and nail owners of Campus Barber and fixes. Beauty Salon on East William The company also offers to Street, said the company will its customers complimentary give male students an alterna- newspapers, iPads, flat screen tive option for spa treatment TVs, Wi-Fi and a coffee and other than the Douglas J Aveda juice bar. Institute on Maynard Street. In addition to more unique "I think it's a great idea," offerings, the barber-spa will Notten said, "They might do offer many of the traditional just fine." hair-styling options students LSA senior Cody Carey said would desire. White said a he is apathetic toward the standard "wash, cut and dry" opening of the shop. He also treatment would likely cost said he is not pleased with the about $35. price for the standard "wash, "The premise is that it's cut and dry" treatment. going to have a very upscale "That's pretty expensive. I look to it," John White, co- wouldn't pay more than $15 for manager ofthe Ann Arbor loca- a haircut," Carey said. tion and resident of Windsor, However, Art & Design Canada, said. "It's an upscale freshman JJ del Rosario said look without the upscale pric- the price for the standard hair- ing." cut is reasonable. He said he White said he feels the shop would definitely visit the shop will appeal to Ann Arbor's in the future. dynamic population. He said "I think it's a good thing, the mixture of students, staff since Ann Arbor doesn't really and community members cre- have anything like this," del ates a unique environment that Rosario said. suits their business plans. White said Taylor & Colt is "We love Ann Arbor and we looking to spread to other loca- know it well," John White said. tions around the United States "We think it's a perfect mar- in the near future, so the Ann ket for what we're doing ... it's Arbor location is an important a niche in the market that has stepping-stone for the com- never been filled." pany. engaged in delinquent adoles- VIOLENCE cent activity or enjoyed imper- From Page 1A sonal sex were more likely to commit sexual assault. The women who faced sexual likelihood of these men to aggression knew the perpetra- be sexually aggressive grew tors, and were in a dating or greater when these factors sexual relationship. were combined with alcohol. While it is clear from past Abbey said these correlations studies that alcohol is implicat- could be beneficial in reducing ed in many instances of aggres- the prevalence of male sexual sion, Abbey said it is difficult to aggression. prove whether or not alcohol "We may or may not think is a driving force behind the we can change someone's views action. about women now, but we can "You do find a lot of links reduce their drinking," Abbey between heavy drinking or said. "We can't go back and drinking problems and sexual change someone's childhood aggression," Abbey said. "But experiences, but maybe we can most of those studies have that change their attitudes about missing link in the logic." women ... if they ultimately Unlike past studies, Abbey's lead to sexual aggression, if we study focused on the perpetra- change some of those pieces we tors rather than the victims may be reducing rates of sexual of sexual aggression. With aggression." a survey of only males ages 18-34, she found 43 percent of The University offers many responders had engaged in sex- resources for counseling and ual aggression. In 47 percent reportingfor survivors ofSexual of these cases, the perpetrator Assault. A listing of available had consumed alcohol prior to services can be found here. In the aggression. addition, the University's Sexual The study found men who Assault Prevention and Aware- were hostilely masculine, had ness Center staffs a 24/7 crisis misperceptions of women, line at (734) 936-3333. FOLLOW THE DAILY ON TWITTER @michigandaily AND LIKE US ON FACEBOOK ROOTS From Page 1A The professor's dedication to his studies allowed him entry to the Exchange Student Program Fellowship at the University of Sheffield in England in 1987. There, he met exchange students from all over the world, including the United States. In England, he began to consider coming to the United States and pursuing a career in higher education. Although he left for the United States at 22, Herrero-Olaizola's childhood memories from Spain followed him throughout his career. Herrero-Olaizola was a child during the regime of Francisco Franco, a dictator who ruled from 1939 until his death in 1975. His rule was characterized by military rigidity and an authoritarian concentration of power. Franco built concentration camps to imprison and do away with enemies and suppressed dissenting views through censorship and coercion. Herrero-Olaizola said he always felt a "presence of authority" growing up under Franco's regime in the Basque region close to France. He remembers seeing upheaval on the streets and constantly hearing about bombings, terrorist attacks, kidnapping and other violence through the media. "In a way you sort of feel a bit, I don't want to say numbed, but you get used to it because that's what you've always seen," he said. The lingering memories of Herrero-Olaizola's childhood under the Franco regime are evident in the topics he chooses to research. In 2007, he published the book "The Censorship Files: Latin American Writers and Franco's Spain." The book investigates censorship during Franco's authoritative rule and its effect on the Latin American Boom, a movement in the 1960s and 1970s that involved the proliferation of Spanish- language literature. One book he is currently writing, called "The Colombian Condition: Global Violence as Cultural Commodity," explores Colombian cultural production and the implications literature manifests about drug cartels DETROIT From Page 1A The studies included moni- toring air quality on a daily basis for three years to mea- sure particulate matter lev- els - harmful elements in air that result from pollution. The data showed that average blood pressure increased when air pollution increased. Other studies examined asthma outcomes and infant mortality outcomes in relation to air pollution levels. Batter- man said observational meth- ods are used to identify which people face more exposure and and violence's influence on Colombian culture. Herrero-Olaizola's fascination of the violence in Colombia is tied to the memories he has of his childhood in a time of civil unrest. "When people tell me, 'Oh, you're going to Colombia, it's so dangerous,' I'm like, well I had the experience of living in that kind of environment," Herrero- Olaizola said. "So, when I go to Colombia, I can see a difference between what is the day-to-day experience and what you see in the media. They're just two completely different images." Away from the challenges of growing up in a Fascist regime, Herrero-Olaizola found solace through reading. As a child, he read the popular Spanish comic-book series, "Mortadelo y Filem6n", a story following two detectives and their humorous adventures. For him, reading these comics "took him elsewhere." When he was 16, he read what he considers the most influential book of his life, "One Hundred Years of Solitude." The story depicts multiple generations of a Latin-American family in a fictional Colombian town. The narrative, underlying humor and magical realism genre - where magic elements are mundane and natural, and otherwise normal events are portrayed as supernatural - struck Herrero- Olaizola as unique. "To me, that was very strange, it was a bit strange to read that and accept that reality that the book proposes, which is a kind of magical reality, you just go along with that like the characters in the book," Herrero-Olaizolasaid. His love of storytelling is reflected in the types of courses he chooses to teach, as he tends to focus on cultural production in Spanish-speaking countries and what the books, films and letters reveal about the nation's culture. His previous course subjects include Latin American Boom literature, violence depicted in Latin American art, and Spanish film and its themes of displacement or drug culture. Herrero-Olaizola said he tries to emphasize the effectiveness that narrative can convey the sense of culture. "I always tell my students how that relates to negative health effects. The researcher's study is attempting to synthesize information about the adverse effects of air pollution to create a plan to lower pollution levels. Batterman said some specific policy changes might include putting controls on factories in an effort to decrease emis- sions and considering land use changes to create buffers to shield neighborhoods from air pollution. Trees and shrubs can also act as vegetative buffers by absorbing pollutants. However, sound evidence regarding their effectiveness is minimal. Part of the current effort will involve looking into what kinds that literary training really helps you and provides you with a lot of skills in terms of writing and critical thinking and understanding how texts work and all that," Herrero-Olaizola said. "That is somethingthat I do emphasize in my classes as well." In teaching, Herrero-Olaizola does not believe in using an unchanging pedagogy, but the need to adjust to the dynamic aura each classroom possesses. He listens to student responses to course work and assignments, which vary from class to class, and adjusts his teaching to suit each setting. "I try to position myself in the body of the student when thinking about the class," Herrero-Olaizola said. "How it is that a student can be able to understand this film, or how it is that a student is going to be able to read 150 pages of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude?'" LSA senior Amy Yu took two Spanish film classes with Herrero-Olaizola. "He has so much positive energy and passion for the material, that he was able to get everybody excited about it as well," Yu said. "The class structure was extremely collaborative and interactive and everybody, no matter how well you spoke Spanish, felt comfortable sharing ideas and talking." Herrero-Olaizola's enthusi- asm for teaching transcends the classroom. Spanish Prof. Juli Highfill worked with Herrero- Olaizola extensively on curricu- lum reform for the Department of Romance Languages and Lit- erature. She lauded the profes- sor's creativity and receptive teaching style, adding that she would hear students "clamor" to get into his classes. "It's the whole package: being a creative teacher, being so engaging and enthusiastic, at the same time extremely efficient and dedicated and knowledgeable in all areas," Highfill said. Herrero-Olaizola plans to remain in academia for the rest of his life and to continue researching new themes in Latin American cultural production and create new courses, including a study abroad course in Colombia. of buffers are most effective, and in what kinds of conditions are most conduvtive to imple- menting those strategies. On a household level, air fil- ters can help improve indoor air quality by reducing the concentration of particulate matter. They have been used in homes as part of intervention studies, which involve chang- ing an aspect of a person's environment to test for health improvements. "We have to get policy people up to speed in terms of think- ing that these are good options to consider to reduce air pollu- tion," Batterman said. (We're really fun we promise.)