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