Dingell said. “I think people 
look at Michigan and they go: 
‘labor state,’ and sometimes don’t 
realize what a competitive state it 
is to do business in.”

She said she was elated when 

General Electric decided to 
open a Michigan manufacturing 
technology facility in 2009, and 
was hopeful more companies 
would come, while preserving 
those currently in the state.

Dingell also expressed an 

enthusiasm for providing higher 
education funding. Prior to her 
election to the House, she served 
on the Board of Governors at 
Wayne State University for over 
eight years.

“I’m passionate about ensur-

ing that our young people have 
access to quality, affordable 
education,” Dingell said.

She noted that her experience 

working on the Board of Gover-
nors at Wayne State allowed her 
to speak with students and gain 
their perspectives on issues such 
as the cost of tuition.

To improve higher educa-

tion, Dingell said she thought 
the federal government should 

put more money into education 
and remove some of the burdens 
of funding universities from the 
states.

Additionally, Dingell expressed 

interest in decreasing the interest 
rates on federal student loans and 
praised President Barack Obama’s 
plan for two years of free commu-
nity college, highlighted during 
his State of the Union Address. 
She pointed out that many high-
earning jobs, such as pipe fitters, 
only need two years of higher 
education.

Along with Obama’s com-

munity college proposal, Ding-
ell also highlighted two other 
White House initiatives fea-
tured in the State of the Union 
— improved pay equity between 
men and women and the presi-
dent’s plan to increase the mini-
mum wage — as important for 
Michigan.

“The numbers say the econo-

my’s better, but in Michigan too 
many people I know, their wages 
have stayed stagnant as consumer 
prices have gone up,” Dingell said. 
“So I think everybody does better 
when people who are working 
hard are paid a good minimum 
wage, because that money comes 
back into the economy.”

prostatic 
hyperplasia, 
fistula, 

genitourinary injuries, hematu-
ria, neurogenic bladder, urinary 
incontinence, overactive bladder, 
urinary retention and urinary 
stones.

According to Wei, patients in 

the area with urological condi-
tions previously were forced to 
look elsewhere for treatment 
options. He added that many 
patients in Flint also do not have 
easy access to transportation.

“Because of the outright dis-

interest or refusal of the private 
urologists in town to help out 
with their patients, essentially 
telling them they can go to (the 
University) to get seen, the clinic 

had to find another way,” he said.

Most of the patients who will 

be seen at first will be current 
HCHN, which already has prima-
ry care providers and physicians.

Wei said the clinic could face 

several challenges, including less 
up-to-date equipment as com-
pared to University facilities.

“We are a little hampered, 

I confess, because the clinic 
doesn’t have all the equipment we 
are used to,” Wei said. “They are 
quite expensive, so we can’t offer 
a full range of service right now. 
However, if things takes off and 
we get busy, maybe there will be 
more funds from the government 
at some point.”

He added that the clinic’s 

schedule for the first day next 
Wednesday is already full.

organizations involved to take 
similar 
action,” 
Fitzgerald 

wrote.

Fitzgerald said the University 

will sort out additional details 
before considering sanctions on 
the organizations or individuals 
involved.

“The executive boards of the 

Interfraternity 
Council 
and 

Panhellenic Association on the 
Ann Arbor campus have initiat-
ed their own reviews of this situ-
ation that could lead to sanctions 
against the fraternity and soror-
ity chapters,” he wrote.

There is a pending Michigan 

State Police investigation that 
could lead to criminal charges.

At Treetops, damage included 

felled ceiling tiles, broken walls 
and destroyed furniture. Similar 
damage occurred at Boyne High-
lands.

In a statement Wednesday, 

Sigma Alpha Mu president Josh-

ua Kaplan, a Business sopho-
more, apologized for the damage 
done by the fraternity. He said 
those responsible would be held 
accountable, and that the frater-
nity would work with Treetops to 
pay for the damages.

“We are embarrassed and 

ashamed of the behavior of a few 
of our chapter members at Tree-
tops Resort over the weekend of 
January 17-18,” Kaplan wrote. 
“This behavior is inconsistent 
with the values, policies, and 
practices of this organization.”

E. Royster Harper, vice presi-

dent for student life, wrote in a 
statement that the incidents don’t 
reflect the University’s values.

“The university is investigat-

ing this fully and those respon-
sible will be held accountable. 
It is especially disappointing 
since this behavior does not 
reflect the broad majority of 
U-M students who participate 
in Greek Life and compromises 
the many valuable contribu-
tions these student organiza-
tions provide.”

cuts because details haven’t 
been announced yet. However, 
Boulus added that while the 
deficit could have an impact on 
higher education funding, he’s 
hopeful it will not.

John Austin, president of 

the State Board of Education, 
said he thinks the budget defi-
cit will make it difficult for the 
state to get back on a favorable 
track for education funding.

In 2011, the Snyder admin-

istration cut higher education 
funding by 15 percent. After 
the initial cut in higher edu-
cation funding, the Snyder 
administration has increased 
higher education funding by 
3.1 percent in 2012, 2.2 percent 
in 2013 and 6.1 percent in 2014.

Education also saw sev-

eral incremental decreases in 
funding during the previous 
administration under former 
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Gra-
nholm.

Austin said at one point, 4.1 

percent of the state’s income 
went to education, including 
higher education. However, he 
emphasized that the 4.1 per-
cent has now dropped to 3.4 
percent.

The 
state 
of 
Michigan 

recently ranked one of the 
worst in the country in terms 
of higher education funding.

Though 
Snyder’s 
recent 

budgets have started to reverse 
the trend, Austin said plans to 
increase investment might be 
complicated by the deficit.

“With the budget situation 

and little temperature from the 
governor or legislature to raise 
new money, raise taxes in some 
way to put it into higher educa-
tion and financial aid, it’s very 
tough to keep making positive 
headway,” Austin said.

Don 
Grimes, 
a 
senior 

research associate at the Insti-
tute for Research on Labor, 
Employment and the Economy, 
said the deficit means the Uni-
versity will probably receive 
less money next year.

For the 2015 fiscal year, 71.2 

percent of the University’s 
budget comes from tuition and 
fees, according to the Univer-
sity’s Funding Snapshot. The 
state of Michigan currently 
contributes 16.4 percent of the 
University’s budget.

“Higher education has tradi-

tionally been one of the budget 
items that the state govern-
ment, under both Republicans 
and Democrats, have used the 
most to balance shortfalls,” 
Grimes said. “In other words, 
they cut higher education tra-
ditionally when (we) think 
we’re out of money. It tends to 
be one of those flexible budget 
items that they address.”

Grimes added that universi-

ties have other means of gen-
erating revenue to perform 
university operations, which is 
a reason why higher education 
funding is often cut.

“Traditionally, the assump-

tion is that the universi-
ties can get the money from 
other sources if they lose it,” 
Grimes said. “Essentially they 
can either take it out of their 
endowments, they can raise 
tuition or they could make bud-

get cuts.”

Austin said the state govern-

ment had several other options 
to support higher education 
despite the projected deficit, 
including rearranging the bud-
get to invest more in student 
financial aid, raising taxes or 
reforming the tax code. He 
pointed to cutting corporate 
and business taxes and the 
lowering of the flat income tax 
from 7 percent to about 4 per-
cent as other possible reasons 
for the state’s decrease in high-
er education funding.

Austin added that if the state 

of Michigan kept the same 
tax rate implemented under 
former Republican Gov. John 
Engler, higher education fund-
ing wouldn’t be a major issue.

“We would have eight bil-

lion dollars more to spend on 
education, higher education 
and roads — eight billion dol-
lars — if we just had the same 
tax rates that we had 12 years 
ago,” he said.

Austin said a common per-

ception is that universities 
receive the blame for raising 
tuition, but people should also 
recognize the impact of state 
funding declines.

“The rise in tuitions are not 

the universities’ fault at all,” he 
said. “They’ve had no choice 
but to raise tuitions to pay for 
the cost of educating (students) 
because the state has basically 
defunded universities.”

Snyder will propose plans 

to address the budget deficit 
when he releases his executive 
budget summary Feb. 11.

KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich.
Saginaw Valley 
player dismissed 
for assault charges

A 
Saginaw 
Valley 
State 

University football player has been 
dismissed from the team after 
being charged with assaulting 
three former players at an off-
campus apartment complex.

Joshua Nolen, 21, faces three 

charges, including assault with 
intent to commit murder, after 
the three students were injured 
at Campus Village at Cardinal 
Center early Sunday across from 
the school’s Kochville Township 
campus, 
The 
Saginaw 
News 

reported.

A not guilty plea was entered on 

his behalf during an arraignment 
on Wednesday. He was ordered 
held on $500,000 bond and a Feb. 
10 preliminary hearing has been 
scheduled.

BILLINGS, Montana
Yellowstone begins 
transferring bison 
for slaughter 

Yellowstone 
National 
Park 

has begun shipping wild bison 
for slaughter as part of a plan 
to reduce the park’s population 
by as many as 900 animals this 
winter.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 

more than 150 bison captured 
near the park’s northern border 
with Montana were removed 
from holding, loaded onto trail-
ers and shipped off, according 
to the Buffalo Field Campaign, a 
wildlife advocacy group.

There were 4,900 bison in 

the park last summer. For more 
than two decades, officials have 
tried to curb the animals’ winter 
migration into Montana to guard 
against potential disease trans-
mission to livestock.

Park 
spokesman 
Al 
Nash 

confirmed 
the 
shipments 
of 

recently-captured animals for 
slaughter. But he said the park 
no longer plans to offer timely 
updates on how many bison are 
captured and shipped.

SAN DIEGO
Magnets used to 
plant drugs under 
cars from Mexico 

Drug smugglers are turning 

“trusted travelers” into unwit-
ting mules by placing containers 
with powerful magnets under 
their cars in Mexico and then 
recovering the illegal cargo far 
from the view of border authori-
ties in the United States.

One motorist spotted the con-

tainers while pumping gas after 
crossing into Southern Cali-
fornia on Jan. 12 and thought it 
might be a bomb.

His call to police prompted an 

emergency response at the Chev-
ron station, and then a shocker: 
13.2 pounds of heroin were 
pulled from under the vehicle, 
according to a U.S. law enforce-
ment official. San Diego police 
said the drugs were packed 
inside six magnetized cylinders.

SOKILNYKY, Ukraine
Ukraine bus attack 
kills 13, dashes 
peace hopes 

Hours after a new peace ini-

tiative for Ukraine began taking 
shape, mortar shells rained down 
Thursday on the center of the 
main rebel-held city in the east, 
killing at least 13 people at a bus 
stop.

The deaths in Donetsk sparked 

wrath and grief that was swiftly 
exploited by pro-Russian rebel 
leaders, who paraded captive 
Ukrainian troops through the city 
to be punched, kicked and insult-
ed by enraged residents.

Diplomats 
from 
Russia, 

Ukraine, France and Germany 
had met in Berlin a day ago to 
thrash out a tentative dividing 
line from which the warring sides 
would pull back their heavy weap-
ons. That solution already looks 
doomed.

—Compiled from 
 Daily wire reports

NEWS BRIEFS

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, January 23, 2015 — 3

UROLOGY
From Page 1

BUDGET
From Page 1

DINGELL
From Page 1

FRATERNITY
From Page 1

and muscle control. According 
to the ALD Foundation, the 
disease is found in one out of 
every 17,900 boys. It is more 
prevalent among males than 
females. Aside from loss of 
muscle control, the disease can 
lead to loss of sight, hearing 
and is potentially fatal.

Kendrick is a seventh-grade 

schoolteacher in New Jersey 
who graduated from the Uni-
versity’s School of Education in 
2005. Kendrick discovered she 
was a carrier of ALD ten years 
ago. When she found out, she 
decided the safest choice for 
her and her husband to con-
ceive would be through in vitro 
fertilization.

“It wasn’t really a decision, 

it was just the responsible 
thing to do,” Kendrick said. “I 
didn’t know ten years ago that 
this would even be an option 
and that we could do in vitro 
and genetic graining. But once 
we learned that was available, 
again it wasn’t really a choice. 
It was the right decision.”

The in vitro fertilization 

was successful in preventing 
the proliferation of ALD from 
mother to son. The Kendricks’ 
son Gus is a healthy, disease-
free child.

Using 
the 
embryos, 

researchers at MStem were 
able to develop stem cell lines 
to observe the development 
and progression of the disease 
to see how to best treat symp-
toms and potentially cure the 
disease.

Gary Smith, director of the 

MStem Cell Laboratories, said 

the lab focuses a lot on neuro-
degenerative diseases.

The lab opened in 2009 after 

the Michigan voters passed 
of the Michigan Stem Cell 
Amendment in 2008. The con-
stitutional amendment made 
it legal to conduct research on 
human embryos and produce 
human embryonic stem cells. 
For this reason, researchers 
like Smith can now work with 
diseased embryos to create 
stem cells.

“The unique aspect with 

regards to the embryonic stem 
cell line is that they are made 
from embryos that otherwise 
would have been discarded as 
they have already been tested 
and are known to carry the 
genetic mutation for, in most 
instances, a very fatal disease,” 
Smith said.

STEM CELL
From Page 1

State legislator 
faces bribery 
charges, trial 

Assembly Speaker 

Sheldon Silver 
arrested for $4 
million payoff

NEW YORK (AP) — Assem-

bly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who 
bent state government to his 
will for more than 20 years as 
one of New York’s most power-
ful and canny politicians, was 
arrested Thursday on charges 
of taking nearly $4 million in 
payoffs and kickbacks.

The 70-year-old Democrat 

was taken into custody by the 
FBI on federal conspiracy and 
bribery charges that carry 
up to 100 years in prison and 
could cost him his politi-
cal seat. He was released on 
$200,000 bail.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bhar-

ara said Silver, a lawyer by 
training, lined up jobs at two 
firms and then accepted large 
sums of money over more 
than a decade in exchange for 
using his “titanic” power to 
do political favors. The money 
was disguised as “referral 
fees,” Bharara said.

Silver, who seemed unfazed 

in court, did not enter a plea.

“I’m confident that after 

a full hearing and due pro-
cess I’ll be vindicated on the 
charges,” said Silver, who 
even paused on his way out of 
court to sign a sketch artist’s 

rendering of the scene.

The arrest sent shock waves 

through New York’s Capi-
tol and came just a day after 
Silver shared the stage with 
Democratic 
Gov. 
Andrew 

Cuomo during his State of the 
State address, as Cuomo joked 
that he, Silver and the Sen-
ate majority leader were the 
“three amigos” of state gov-
ernment.

At a meeting Thursday 

with the Daily News editorial 
board, Cuomo said of Silver’s 
arrest: “Obviously it’s bad for 
the speaker, but it’s also a bad 
reflection on government, and 
it adds to the negativity.”

Silver is one of Albany’s 

most storied political figures, 
a 
consummate 
backroom 

operator with the power to 
single-handedly decide the 
fate of legislation.

Along 
with 
the 
Senate 

majority leader and the gov-
ernor, he plays a major role in 
creating state budgets, laws 
and policies in a system long 
criticized in Albany as “three 
men in a room.” He controls, 
for example, which lawmak-
ers sit on which committees 
and decides whether a bill gets 
a vote.

In a measure of his clout, he 

helped persuade Cuomo last 
spring to disband a state anti-
corruption commission that 
was investigating Silver’s finan-
cial dealings and those of his 
colleagues.

said ‘You know what, we’re 
going to set a precedent. It’s a 
new term. We’re starting fresh,’ 
” he said.

He 
added 
that 
citizens 

should know what the govern-
ment is doing, which is why he 
wants to improve the transpar-
ency of his actions.

“There’s going to be a lot 

issues that are going to be post-
ed that they probably will have 
not much interest in and we 
recognize that,” he said. “We’re 
going to try and be as concise as 
possible and make the informa-
tion available.”

RESEARCH
From Page 2

MICHIGANDAIL
Y.COM

