locky'la./sIrAirt
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 22, 1995 - 3
Student
suspended in
nois for
aAssment
Despite writing a letter to his profes-
sors maintaining his innocence, North-
ern Illinois University senior Eric J.
Preuss pleaded no contest to charges of
harassment by phone and was expelled
for four years.
During his NIU judicial hearing,
Preuss's roommate, Jason S. Gussman,
testified against him, DeKalb County
State's Attorney Michael Coughlan
confirmed to The Northern Star, the
school newspaper.
Both of the students were suspects in
the case and were administratively sus-
pended from NIU on Nov. 2 for alleg-
edly leaving a racist and threatening
phone call on a black female's voice
mail.
The 19-year-old female student,
who wishes to remain anonymous,
lives in the residence halls. She
checked her voice mail on Oct. 24 to
hear the message:
"We just want to (expletive) tell
you about the KKK and our rally to-
night. It's going to be at about 10:30
so bring your white sheets you (exple-
tive) bitch. Nazis rule."
r The woman traced the call toPreuss's
room through an automatic callback
feature of the phone system.
L.ong Island psych
grads help runners
At the recent New York City Mara-
thon, adozen graduate students in clin-
cal psychology from Long Island Uni-
versity volunteered to be part of the
marathon's "psyching team." The
"psyching team" is a group of about
100 psychologists, psychiatrists and
social workers who help the runners
deal with performance anxiety before
the race.
Paul Ramirez, an associate professor
of clinical psychology at LIU, told the
Chronicle of Higher Education that the
race gave his students practical experi-
ence.
Runners were given ribbons made
out of the same material as the finish
line so that they could touch it when
they were feeling discouraged in the
middle of the race.
Vitale funds new
scholarship at
Notre Dame
*Dick Vitale, a college basketball ana-
lyst for ABC and ESPN and a Notre
Dame university parent, has estab-
lished a scholarship fund for the Fight-
ing Irish.
The fund assists students with fi-
nancial needs who are members of
spirit boosting organizations such as
the marching band; the cheerleading
and pom-pom squads; and also the
Notre Dame Leprechaun, reports The
Observer, the school newspaper of
: .Notre Dame and Saint Mary's univer-
~sities.
Vitale said he felt these groups de-
served financial assistance as much
,as the recipients of sports scholar-
;ships.
Delta College builds
new planetarium
A new planetarium will open in Bay
City, Mich.,next fall, Peter Boyse, presi-
dent of Delta College, told The Delta
Collegiate.
The foundation is already in place
and the steel structure will be complete
by the end of the week.
The planetarium will be state-of-
the-art, containing an observation
deck equipped with telescopes to in-
teractive classrooms and a 50-foot-
tall tilted dome located in a lecture
theater.
The construction is completely
funded by NASA.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Lisa Poris from staff and wire reports
Newspaper
strikers: No
fun on lines
Los Angeles Times
TAYLOR - The call to the union
hall at 3 a.m. on a recent Sunday sent
200 strikers and supporters scrambling.
Within minutes, they massed in an ugly
mood outside a newspaper distribution
center in this small Detroit suburb.
With no police there yet, the pickets
were confronted by a few guards with
video cameras. Insults were exchanged
and rocks hurled.
The guards retreated and picket signs
became clubs used to smash windshields
and headlights on cars whose drivers
dared to cross the picket line.
"Welcome to Detroit, assholes!"
taunted one picket, his face shrouded
by a ski mask against the biting wind.
The angry scene was part of a de-
structive battle that has been played out
every weekend since July 13, when
2,500 union workers went on strike
against the Detroit Free Press and De-
troit News. There is no end in sight.
Indeed, the stakes climbed sharply
this week with the unions' publication
of their own 300,000-copy Sunday
newspaper to shopping and advertising
season kicks off.
Detroit Newspapers Inc., the joint
operating agency for the Detroit Free
Press and Detroit News, is bracing for
demonstrations tonight at the suburban
Detroit plant, site ofprevious violence,
where the traditionally ad-rich Thanks-
giving Day editions will be printed.
And holiday shoppers on Friday will
encounter5,000leafleteers urgingboy-
cotts of the papers' retail advertisers.
"We're going to send a message to
those retailers that there is a price to pay
for still remaining in that strike paper,"
said Lou Mleczko, president of the
Newspaper Guild of Detroit, Local 22.
What began as a disagreement over
work rules and job security has degen-
erated into an often violent test ofwills:
The unions say the companies want to
bust them; managers say they must hack
away at inefficiencies to survive.
And over the course ofthe unexpect-
edly long struggle it has taken on broader
significance. The strike has become
Exhibit A in the ongoing economic
trials of the newspaper industry, and a
worrisome challenge to organized la-
bor on turf it has owned since the 1930s.
The newspapers, scrambling to cut
costs in a shrinking industry, have hired
more than 1,300 permanent replace-
ments for striking workers - a rude
echo of President Reagan's action in
the 1981 strike of air traffic controllers
that came to symbolize labor's decline.
The strike pits the nation's two larg-
est newspaper publishers - Knight-
Ridder Inc. and Gannett Corp.-against
some of the nation's biggest trade
unions, including the powerful Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Detroit, home oflabor legends Walter
Reuther and Jimmy Hoffa, is hallowed
union ground. A defeat here could have
lasting repercussions.
"If a paper can keep publishing dur-
ing a strike in a labor intensive city like
Detroit," said John Morton, a media
analyst for Lynch, Jones & Ryan, "they
can do it anywhere."
The walkout is not about economic
issues but rather control of the work-
place. The main stumbling block was
the two papers' desire to restructure an
antiquated distribution system, under-
mining the Teamsters' district manager
jobs and designating 2,800 carriers as
employees - directly responsible to
the papers - rather than independent
contractors. The newspapers also want
to automate many circulation jobs and
substitute newsroom merit pay for au-
tomatic cost-of-living raises,
It is a struggle guaranteed to bare
deep fissures in Detroit, where one in
four workers belongs to a union. The
unions battle for community support
with radio and billboard ads, and have
enlisted the support of religious and
political leaders. The dispute has be-
come a subject of Sunday sermons and
an issue in local elections. It has di-
vided friends and families.
As the strike enters its fifth month,
the newspapers appear to be winning
largely because the unions have been
unable to stop delivery. After publish-
ing a joint edition for the first two
months of the strike, the papers - run
under a joint operating agreement that
lets them share circulation, advertising
and production operations but maintain
separate newsrooms - resumed sepa-
rate publication on Sept. 18.
U.S. files
appeal in
dismissed
Baker case
By Zachary M. Rami
Daily Staff Reporter
The U.S. government yesterday offi-
cially filed an appeal in the case of
former University student Jake Baker.
The brief, submitted to the Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincin-
nati, appeals the case's June dismissal
by a U.S. District Court judge in De-
troit.
Neither Assistant U.S. Attorney
Christopher Yates, who is handling the
case, nor a spokeswoman for the U.S.
Attorney's Office in
Detroit would com-
ment on the brief.
The defense will
have at least a month
to review and re-
spond to the
government's brief,
Baker's attorney,
Douglas Mullkoff,
said yesterday.
Baker was sus-
pended from the Baker
University last Feb-
ruary after posting a story on the
Internet that graphically detailed the
abuse of a specific female University
student. He was jailed for 29 days and
was charged with five counts related
to the interstate transmission of a
threat.
Federal District Court Judge Avem
Cohn dismissed the case against Baker
this summer, saying there was not
enough evidence for trial, and he de-
fended Baker's free-speech rights.
The case gained national attention
both for its bizarre nature and for its
potential to set precedent. As the
Internet has evolved in the last few
years, lawmakers and citizens have
been engaged in a debate over its regu-
lation.
Mullkoff said he does not think the
appeal will be successful. "The govern-
ment is attempting to persuade an ap-
pellate court that a judge made a mis-
take," he said.
"We believe justice has been done,"
he added.
The appeals court is comprised of
three judges. The government and
Baker's defense will present oral ar-
guments before the court, and the
judges will decide if the case will go
to trial.
If it does, the case will then shift back
to U.S. District Court in Detroit. The
appellate court's decision, however,
could take months to reach.
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
Charge it!
A University student takes advantage of the MCard system at the Michigan Union yesterday.
Michigangponders raising speed limits
LANSING (AP)-Legislation scrap-
ping the federal speed limit is on a fast
track in Washington. In Michigan, state
officials have yet to agree on where
motorists may drive faster than they
already do.
President Clinton is expected to sign
legislation repealing the nationwide
speed limit --55 mph on most roads,
65 mph on rural interstates.
State police and state highway engi-
neers already are studying which portions
of Michigan's 433 miles of urban free-
ways, now limited to 55 mph, could oper-
ate at 65 mph, Lt. Col. James Bolger said.
Older roads that carry heavy volumes
of traffic within city limits, such as the
Ford and Lodge freeways in Detroit, are
among the estimated 175 miles of urban
freeways where the 55-mph limit is likely
to stay in place, he said.
"On most urban roads that were built
for 65, we don't have a problem letting
them drive 65," Bolger said.
Neither does Gov. John Engler, ac-
cording to press secretary John Truscott,
TA, 45, dies
of natural
causes
From Staff Reports
Susanne Evelina Baker, a University
teaching assistant, died ofnatural causes
Nov. 13 at Blanchard Valley Regional
Health Center in Findlay, Ohio. She
was 45 years old.
Baker was pursuing a doctoral de-
gree in reading literacy at the Univer-
sity. Previously, Baker had taught in
the education department at the Univer-
sity of Findlay, in addition to other
public and private schools.
A graduate of George Mason Uni-
versity, in Fairfax, Va., she earned a
master's degree from the University of
South Carolina. She has been a swim-
ming coach and was a swimmer at the
Junior Olympics.
Baker was born May 7, 1950, at Fort
Bragg, N.C.
She is survived by her husband, C.
Daniel Baker, whom she married on
June 5, 1970, and by her two sons,
Marshall and Jonathan, both of Findlay.
She also is survived by her three broth-
ers.
Memorials can be sent to the Mazza
Collection in the Virginia B. Gardner
Fine Arts Center at the University of
Findlay, or to a memorial fund estab-
lished in her name by the School of
Education, in care of Eric Warden,
director of development, Room 1001
School of Education Building, Uni-
versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI,
48109.
"onf...roads
that were built for
65, we don't have
a problem letting
them drive 65."
- James Bolger
Michigan State Police
who said, "It could probably go to 65 in
some urban areas where traffic patterns
suggest it would still be safe."
But state Rep. Carl Gnodtke (R-Saw-
yer) has introduced legislation lifting
the 55-mph limit on all urban freeways.
Since the federal government imposed
that ceiling in 1974 in response to gaso-
line shortages, Gnodtke argues, fuel
has become abundant.
"I would just as soon get the 65-mph
speed limit off the ground for all urban
areas and get it over with," he said.
The most recent Michigan Depart-
ment of Transportation studies have
found that drivers average 58 mph on
urban interstates and 62 mph on other
urban freeways including the Southfield
in and around Detroit, U.S. 131 around
Grand Rapids and U.S. 31 at Muskegon.
As for Michigan's 1,420 miles of rural
freeways, Engler would "take a very
serious look" at raising the speed limit
above the current 65 mph, Truscott said.
But that drew opposition from Secre-
tary of State Candice Miller, who said:
"A wholesale increase in speed limits
would not be prudent. The higher the
travel speed, the greater the risk of
serious injury or death in a crash."
Speeding drivers already account for
about one-third of all traffic fatalities,
according to U.S. Department ofTrans-
portation estimates. A University study
performed in 1990 - three years after
the speed limit was restored to 65 mph
on rural freeways - found that deaths
increased 28 percent and that serious
injuries were up 39 percent.
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