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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, February 5, 2015
CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 60
©2015 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A
OPINION.....................4A
SPORTS ......................7A
SUDOKU..................... 2A
CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A
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NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Snyder buys condo in Ann Arbor
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WEATHER
TOMORROW
HI: 27
LO: 18
Harbaugh flips six
commits, including
four-star QB Gentry,
RB Karan Higdon
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
When
Jim
Harbaugh
was
introduced as Michigan’s football
coach in the last week of Decem-
ber, it was viewed as a victory for
the ages for the program, a piece
of evidence that a duplication of
the glory days of Bo Schembechler
was around the next corner.
Wednesday’s National Signing
Day was Harbaugh’s first chance
to present tangible results. He
was at a disadvantage from the
start — he had only one month to
fill out a recruiting class that had
been decimated by the shaky job
status and eventual firing of for-
mer coach Brady Hoke.
In his first news conference
since his introduction, Harbaugh
The birthplace of
Ford’s Model T
endures economic
recession
By ARIANA ASSAF
Daily Staff Reporter
As The Michigan Daily con-
tinues to watch and report on
Detroit shaping its future, we
want to reflect back on how the
city got here. Our hope for this
week’s Detroit History Series is
that readers learn something new
about the city and, in turn, better
understand what’s to come.
The city of Detroit has been
inextricably tied to the automo-
bile industry since Henry Ford
established his Detroit-based
company in 1903. The Great
Depression marked the first
of several drastic setbacks for
Detroit’s auto industry, and the
once-booming economic envi-
ronment is still recovering from
the most recent economic reces-
sion.
The
Detroit
“Big
Three”
— General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler — once dominated the
industry, which together with
the
now-defunct
American
Motors, accounted for 95 of the
market share at one time. The
erosion of that power began in
1982, when the Japanese compa-
ny Honda moved to Marysville,
Ohio.
Arthur Schwartz, president
of Labor and Economics Associ-
ates, an Ann Arbor-based con-
sulting firm, said the Big Three
composed 45.5 percent of the
market in 2014.
Michigan became the hub of
the industry by 1905, just two
years after Henry Ford brought
his company to Detroit. The
city already had several natural
advantages — close proximity to
sources of coal, iron and copper
and a location easily accessible
by water and land. Though auto-
mobiles were first developed in
Germany and France, the Unit-
ed States was the first country
to develop mass motorization,
largely due to the improvement
Lecture discusses
recent White
House efforts to
reestablish ties
By KRISTEN ANDERSON
Daily Staff Reporter
With the White House begin-
ning to thaw relations with
Cuba, three University profes-
sors gathered Wednesday to dis-
cuss the developing diplomatic
relationship.
In an event titled “Re-estab-
lishing
U.S.-Cuba
Relations:
Walking the Tightrope for Suc-
cess,” a panel of University
scholars discussed a variety
of issues revolving around the
challenges and implications of
the normalization of U.S.-Cuba
relations.
Last month, President Barack
Obama announced he would
order the start of full diplomatic
Potential 2016
presidential
candidate hopes to
lower opportunity gap
By JACK TURMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush,
the son of 41st President George
H. W. Bush and brother of 43rd
President George W. Bush, dis-
cussed economic and immigra-
tion reform at the Cobo Center in
Detroit Wednesday afternoon in
what many pundits see as a trial
speech before a potential presi-
dential campaign.
The Detroit Economic Club
hosted the ticketed event with
about 600 club members, guests
and a mix of university and high
school students in attendance.
Bush,
who
in
December
announced he is considering a
presidential run in 2016, advocat-
ed primarily for a new economic
plan rooted in conservative prin-
ciples.
Though he did not provide
many details for specific policies,
he said his agenda would focus on
an immigration policy that would
drive the economy. He also advo-
cated for “economic freedom,”
and through that, a reduction
in the “opportunity gap,” a term
which refers to the ways in which
race, socio-economic status and
other factors influence one’s abil-
ity to attain educational or eco-
nomic achievement, among other
markers.
Bush’s remarks aligned closely
with the plan of his Right to Rise
political action committee, which
was launched earlier this year
and is dedicated toward reform-
ing immigration policies and
addressing the national income
gap.
“We believe that every Ameri-
Clerks performed
unions in March
after judge ruled
ban unconstitutional
By SHOHAM GEVA
Daily News Editor
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder
announced Wednesday after-
noon that the state would not
appeal a district court’s Janu-
ary decision ordering it recog-
nize the nearly 300 same-sex
marriages performed in Michi-
gan last March.
The original district court
ruling in Caspar v. Snyder was
stayed for 21 days to allow
time for the state to file an
appeal, meaning the ruling
would not go into effect for 21
days. Because the state has not
chosen to file an appeal, the
marriages will now be consid-
ered valid to receive state ben-
efits after the stay terminates
Thursday,
“The judge has determined
that same-sex couples were
legally married on that day,
and we will follow the law and
extend state marriage benefits
to those couples,” Snyder said
in a statement Monday.
The governor had previously
stated that though he believed
the marriages were valid, he
did not think they were eligible
for state benefits. Following the
January ruling in Caspar v. Sny-
der, his office did not respond
to requests for comment.
In an interview Wednesday
afternoon, Law Prof. Julian
Mortenson, who worked as a
cooperating attorney on the
case on behalf of the plain-
tiffs, said the legal analysis of
the decision is still develop-
ing. However, he said once the
stay terminates the marriages
should have the same legal
meaning as a marriage between
a man and woman in the state.
“The legal upshot, in all hon-
esty, is extremely simple,” he
said. ““There is no distinction
between those Michigan mar-
riages that are between same-
sex couples and those in-state
marriages that are between
CAMPUS LIFE
FOOTBALL
GOVERNMENT
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush discusses economic and immigration reform at the Cobo Center in Detroit Wednesday in what many pundits see as a trial speech
before a potential presidential campaign.
See SIGNING DAY, Page 3A
See AUTOS, Page 3A
See CUBA, Page 3A
See BUSH, Page 3A
See MARRIAGE, Page 3A
Art & Design senior examines
hidden Detroit gem
Detroit boxing
» INSIDE
ILLUSTRATION BY FRANCESCA KLEIB
State will
honor 300
same-sex
marriages
Jeb Bush talks economy,
immigration in Detroit trip
Detroit faces changing auto industry
Wolverines
secure 2015
class with 14
total signees
‘U’ profs talk
U.S., Cuban
diplomatic
relationship