The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, April 11, 2014 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, April 11, 2014 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Several hundred
gather at vigil for
beaten driver
Several hundred people are
gathering at a Detroit church to
stand against racism and pray for
a white motorist beaten by a black
mob after he stopped to check on
a child struck by his pickup truck.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan
joined clergy and the motorist's
family Thursday evening at His-
toric Little Rock Baptist Church.
Bishop Charles Ellis III urged
the community not to dwell on
the bad, but to embrace good in
the city, including good Samari-
tans.
Fifty-four-year-old Steve
Utash was attacked April 2 when
he- stopped to help 10-year-old
David Harris.
Utash remains hospitalized
with severe head injuries. Harris
suffered leg and other injuries.
LANSING, Mich.
State bars indicted
energy companies
from lease auctions
The Michigan Department of
NaturalResourceshas barred two
energy companies under criminal
indictment from participating in
oil and gas lease auctions.
DNR Director Keith Creagh
says Chesapeake Energy Corp.
and Encana Corp. can't par-
ticipate in auctions until Michi-
gan charges against them are
resolved. The state also won't
execute Encana's pending lease
and will refund the company's
money.
Attorney General Bill Schuette
last month charged the compa-
nies with violating Michigan
antitrust laws in a 2010 auction.
He says collusion is suspected of
depressing the per-acre cost of
leases from $1,510 in May 2010 to
under $40 in October 2010.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
Judge rules
treatment of
Calif. inmates
unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled that
California's treatment of men-
tally ill inmates violates consti-
tutional safeguards against cruel
and unusual punishment through
excessive use of pepper spray and
isolation.
In the ruling issued Thursday,
U.S. District Court Judge Law-
rence Karlton gave the correc-
tions department time to issue
updated policies on the use of
both methods but did not ban
them.
Karlton gave the department a
range of options on how it could
limit the use of pepper spray and
isolation units.
The ruling came after the
release of what the judge calls
horrific videotapes made by
prison guards showing them
pomping large amounts of pepper
spray into the cells of mentally ill
inmates, some of whom are heard
screaming.
PERTH, Australia
Another possible
signal heard in
Flight 370 search
An air and sea hunt for the
missing Malaysian jet resumed
Friday in the same swath of the
southern Indian Ocean where
an underwater sensor made
the fifth detection of a signal in
recent days, raising hopes that
searchers are closing in on what
could be a flight recorder.
An Australian air force P-3
Orion, which has been dropping
sonar buoys into the water near
where four sounds were heard
earlier,s picked up a "possible
signal" on Thursday that may be
from a man-made source, said
Angus Houston, who is coordi-
nating the search for Flight 370
off Australia's west coast.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
LEADER
From Page 1
community garnered 1,169 sig-
natures.
In response, the University
engaged faculty and staff with
five forums discussing how they
would like business to be car-
COUNCIL
From Page 1
University does not have to pay
taxes to the city of Ann Arbor
and has autonomy from the city.
The city has always had
somewhat of a tense relation-
ship with the University due to
this polarizing reality, and since
the University does not have to
play by the city's rules or pay
taxes as an autonomous unit,
city officials' suggestions to the
University often fall on what
they say are selectively deaf
ears.
Monday's resolution spe-
cifically urges the University to
consider selling small parcels
of the land for "complementary
uses," and asks that the Univer-
sity reflect on the idea of creat-
ing a possible "pedestrian and
vehicular" connection between
South Main and South State in
harmony with the Oakbrook
Drive extension plan.
Jim Kosteva, the Univer-
sity's director for community
relations, said in an e-mail the
University plans to use the
property to expand its athletic
infrastructure.
Kosteva reiterated that the
ried out at the new center.
After replacing former AST
leader Rowan Miranda, who is
departing for a position at the
University of Chicago, Thom
Madden, the University's direc-
tor of sponsored programs, took
the reigns of the initiative. He
said the forums emphasized
that the center should have staff
University would be more than
happy to sit down and talk with
city officials regarding the use
of the land and would consider
their concerns.
"We are always prepared to
welcome any formal conversa-
tions on topics of interest to
the City government," Kosteva
wrote. "We have already com-
municated our willingness to
meet with city officials regard-
ing their specific interests
expressed in the resolution."
Councilmember Sabra Briere,
while noting that she does not
harbor any bitterness towards
the University, also said while
University officials do engage in
talks with city officials, the Uni-
versity almost always does what
is best for itself and not neces-
sarily for the city.
"They always sit down, but
it's notto negotiate," Briere said.
Still, Briere said she does not
expect the University to fully
comply with the city's resolu-
tion. Briere has been in conver-
sation with Kosteva, who told
her though the University would
not satisfy all suggestions, they
would make some concessions.
"He said of course they aren't
going to do any retail develop-
ment close to the sidewalk or
with specific unit expertise.
"Faculty members in par-
ticular have told us they don't
want to lose the nuanced knowl-
edge of unit staff, and this is an
important part of our planning
process going forward," Mad-
den said ina release.
Gabel was unavailable for
comment Thursday afternoon.
things that would make the
pedestrian experience for walk-
ing along there better," Briere
said. "Although they might
improve the sidewalk, what they
really promised to do is keep the
commuter lot open."
However, Briere also said she
was told the University might
consider the Oakbrook con-
nector between North Main
Street and South State Street for
pedestrian and bicycle passage,
which she said would be a great
thing for the city's residents.
She added that she hopes one
day the University sees that also
considering the city's interests
is mutually beneficial.
"It's unfortunate that the
tension exists between the city
and the University," Briere said.
"Designing to help Ann Arbor to
be abetter community is to their
benefit."
Over the past year, the city
and the University have had
similar encounters. On Nov. 7,
the City Council formally asked
the University to take down
the new marquee board that
was erected in front of the Big
House. Some city councilmem-
bers had fears that the board
was distracting to drivers, but
the University did not budge.
ROBOTICS
From Page 1
The National Center for Manu-
facturing Sciences, a non-profit
organization that fosters collab-
orations between businesses,
government and researchers, co-
hosted the event with the College
of Engineering.
NCMS director Phil Callihan
said the role government plays
in partnering with businesses is
not solely to advance innovation,
but to ensure industry continues
to produce innovative products
within the country. He said fed-
eral and,, state governments are
looking closely at robotics innova-
tion in Michigan - a budding hub
for the field - to create local jobs
and restore the weak economy.
Callihan added that govern-
ment and business involvement in
the University's robotics program
will increase in the coming years
thanks to the "fertile" environ-
ment for innovation in the area.
"When we're talking aboutthis
kind of robotic innovation and
autonomous vehicle innovation,
they're not waiting for us," he
said. "Innovation will march for-
ward. We need to make sure we're
doing everything we can to drive
industry and to allow the work to
happen that will help that grow."
INEQUALITY
From Page 1
the people that are not at the Uni-
versity, then the people who are
in power won't do a whole lot to
make the world more equal."
Public Policy graduate student
Gillean Kitchen said inequality is
an issue that all people face but
not everyone is willing to talk
about.
"I think inequality has an
impact on the overall economy,
on the opportunities that we have
available tous and the.opportuni-
ties that will be available to our
future kids, and if we don't care
about it nobody else is going to,"
Kitchen said. "We're potentially
future leaders, so if we truly take
that to heart this is one of the big-
gest challenges facing our nation
today."
The inequality discussion will
continue this week at the Public
Policy School and the National
Poverty Center Friday with an
academic conference in honor
of The Research and Training
Program on Poverty and Public
Policy.
Sebelius resigns
after healthcare
rollout issues
SPRINGFEST
From Page 1
SpringFest. It's unbelievable."
Schermer said the festi-
val's new layout, which aimed
to both inspire and showcase
student accomplishment, set
a strong precedent for future
improvement. He said he hopes
that MUSIC Matters will
recruit more student organiza-
tions to present next year, in
addition to bringing in more
fooddoptions and more live out-
door concerts.
One of Thursday's live per-
formers was LSA sophomore
Sylvia Yacoub, who was for-
merly a top 10 contestant on
the third season of NBC's "The
Voice." She said the venue gave
her a chance to cater to a local
audience, which she appreci-
ated.
"I thought it was a lot of fun,"
she said. "The crowd was awe-
some. I loved the energy ... It
was really cool to just perform
with students. It's the demo-
graphic, essentially, that I want
to jump to when I release my
album sometime this year."
Yacoub performed a roughly
10-song set that included covers
of Jessie J., Christina Aguilera
and Rihanna. She also sang a
slow, acoustic version of Tay-
lor Swift's "I Knew You Were
Trouble."
Musical acts like Yacoub's
were intertwined with entre-
preneurial-themed talks
throughout the day. University
alum Mike Muse, one of the
nation's top political fundrais-
ers and the co-founder of record
label Muse Recordings, deliv-
ered one of these presentations.
In his speech to students,
Muse emphasized the close ties
between music and politics -
both mechanisms of enacting
change.
"We're here about SpringFest
and we're here about 2 Chainz
are we're here for MUSIC Mat-
ters, but really, what is the
purpose for us being here?" he
asked during his talk. "The pur-
pose is engagement. The pur-
pose is activism. The purpose
is to build community. The pur-
pose is to bust down the segre-
gated walls that we have here on
this campus."
Muse has also been named
the first director of MUSIC Mat-
ters' future board, which he said
will ultimately consist of profes-
sionals who "have ties to both
the intersection of pop culture
and change agents." This group
will work with outside sources
to help fund and build MUSIC
Matters in the coming years.
Muse said he became
involved with MUSIC Matters
after Schermer reached out to
him earlier inthe year, as he was
impressed with the similarities
between his work and that of
the student organization.
"I was using music to make
fundraising fun, and to make it
cool, and to make it inviting, and
to break the ice and say, 'This is
what politics looks like now,"'"he
said, adding that his career and
MUSIC Matters "share a very
unique symbiotic relationship
that runs parallel."
On a similar tangent of devel-
opment, MPowered hosted an
event called MTank - mod-
eled after ABC's "Shark Tank,"
where start-up entrepreneurs
pitch their potential products
to world-renowned business
moguls.
Five groups pitched their
products to a board of local ven-
ture capitalists, and ultimately a
product called "S-Pack"won the
contest.
According to a handout dis-
tributed by MPowered prior
to the MTank, S-Pack works
to "solve the problem every
woman faces by combining sev-
eral essential toiletries into one
product small enough to fit in
any woman's purse."
Business sophomore Mariel
Reiss presented the product,
which she said targeted college-
aged women who might need
to freshen up following a night
on the town or even a drunken
hookup.
Engineering junior Chris
O'Neil, MPowered president,
credited SpringFest for provid-
ing entrepreneurship with a
wider audience.
"I'm kind of stuck in the
entrepreneurship end of this
university, and I think that
SpringFest was a really unique
opportunity to have an event
that had a little higher enter-
tainment value - so you have
these people who maybe aren't
as familiar with entrepreneur-
ship get to see what is going on
and see all the cool startups and
ideas that are actually happen-
ing on campus," he said.
Tom Frank, executive direc-
tor of the University's Center for
Entrepreneurship, said there is
no longer a "normal" entrepre-
neurship crowd.
"I think that it's more about
people who have innovative
ideas; that they're becoming
less and less shy about sharing
with an audience, as opposed to
something thinking of an entre-
preneur as somebody locked in
a room who's going to build and
invent something that suddenly
gets released on the world," he
said. "They make it more collab-
orative, more open and a safer
environment to let those ideas
cross-pollinate."
This "cross-pollination"
of thought Thursday was not
restricted to entrepreneur-
ship. Schermer said the Identity
tent, located directly outside of
Hatcher Graduate Library, was
also a large factor in the trading
new ideas.
The Black Student Union pre-
sented a photography exhibit in
the tent as a culmination of the
#BBUM movement. LSA senior
Tyrell Collier, outgoing BSU
speaker, said the pictures were
meant to explore the experience
of Black students at the Uni-
versity in a new medium. The
photo-shoot largely took place
primarily in an alleyway off of
E. Liberty Street.
"We just wanted to show -
because the environment that
we shot in was a rough environ-
ment; there was trash, dump-
sters, some bricks - we really
just wanted to get across the
beauty in blackness, even in the
roughest environments," Collier
said.
Despite 20 mph winds, Col-
lier said the extreme weather
did not impede the project's
success.
"We were placed right on the
Diag proper," he said. "So there
was a lot of traffic. Even just stu-
dents going to class - there was
a lot of traffic flowing through
our tent. I don't think it's every
day that you see a tent with
about 24 different pictures of
Black people."
University alum Jeff
Sorensen, a co-founder of social
innovation group optiMize,
also commented on the event's
success in showcasing student
accomplishment.
Though optiMize had been
planning to host a dunk tank
featuring "well-known" stu-
dents on campus - including
CSG representatives and stu-
dent athletes - these efforts
were halted early in the day by
the University's Risk Manage-
ment Services, Sorensen said.
However, he added, opti-
Mize was most successful with
its whiteboards, on which buzz
words like "diversity," "health"
and "education" were writ-
ten and students were asked to
write down what those terms
meant to them. Sorensen said
optiMize received several hun-
dred responses, all of which are
now displayed in the Center for
Entrepreneurship.
Sorensen also lauded the
work of optiMize finalists, who
presented their innovative proj-
ects throughout the day.
As for the future of Spring-
Fest, Schermer said the best is
yet to come.
"I think it's going to be so
much bigger and better than it
was this year," he said.
Sylvia Mathews
Burwell to fill Health
and Human Services
Secretary role
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Embattled Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius is resigning as the
White House seeks to move past
the election-year political dam-
age inflicted by the rocky rollout
of President Barack Obama's sig-
nature health care law.
Sebelius' resignation comes
just over a week after sign-ups
closed for the first year of insur-
ance coverage under the so-called
Obamacare law. The opening
weeks of the enrollment period
were marred by widespread web-
site woes, though the adminis-
tration rebounded strongly by
enrolling 7.1 million people by the
March 31 deadline, exceeding ini-
tial expectations. Enrollment has
since risen to 7.5 million as people
were given extra time tocomplete
applications.
Even with the late surge
in sign-ups, the law remains
unpopular with many Ameri-
cans and Republicans have made
it a centerpiece of their efforts to
retake the Senate in the fall.
Sebelius' resignation could
also set the stage for a conten-
tious confirmation hearing to
replace her. In a sign that the
White House is seeking to avoid
a nomination fight, the president
was tapping Sylvia Mathews
Burwell, the director of the
Office of Management and Bud-
get, to replace Sebelius. Burwell
was unanimously confirmed by
the Senate for her current post.
A White House official
requested anonymity to confirm
Sebelius' resignation and Bur-
well's nomination ahead of the
formal announcement. Obama
has not nominated anyone to
replace Burwell as budget direc-
tor.
Obama remained publicly
supportive of Sebelius through-
ott the rough rollout, deflecting
Republican calls for her resigna-
tion. But she was conspicuously
not standing by his side last week
when he heralded the sign-up
surge during an event in the
White House Rose Garden.
The official said the 65-year-
old Sebelius approached Obama
last month about stepping down,
telling him that the sign-up
deadline was a good opportunity
for a transition and suggesting he
would be better served by some-
one who was less of a political
target.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Pat
Roberts, a Republican from
Sebelius' home state of Kansas,
called the resignation "a prudent
decision" given what she called
the total failure of Obamacare
implementation.
Sebelius dropped no hints
about her resignation Thursday
when she testified at a budget
hearing. Instead, she received
congratulations from Demo-
cratic senators on the sign-up
surge.
INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
RESEARCH CENTER FOR GROUP DYNAMICS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Winter 2014 Seminar Series:
New Science on Race, Discrimination
and the Social Lives of Black Americans
Racism and Resilience:
Ongoing Applications
of Psychophysiological
Methods
April 14, 2014 Institute for Social Research
3:30-5:00 p.m. 426 Thompson Street
Room 6050
Free and open to the public
Follow us: @umisr, @rcgdisr
Join the conversation: #RCGDseminar
More information: http://bit.ly/RCGD-seminar
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