michigandaily.com
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

B - S I D E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B

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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

