3-News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, February 16, 2015 — 3A

NEWBERRY, Mich.
Arctic deep freeze 
blankets Michigan

An Arctic cold front gripped 

Michigan on Sunday, sending 
temperatures plunging to minus 
27 in the Upper Peninsula and 
minus 22 in the northern Lower 
Peninsula and shattering at least 
five record lows for the date.

The deep freeze came with 

an easing of the snow and windy 
conditions that forced a number 
of Upper Peninsula roads to close 
Saturday. At 6 a.m., state police 
announced the reopening of U.S. 
2 between Manistique and Rapid 
River and Michigan 35 between 
Lathrop and Perkins.

“Both of the roadways closed 

yesterday and throughout the 
night due to inclement weather 
where snow and high winds 
were causing whiteout condi-
tions,” the state police Negaunee 
post said in a statement.

NEW YORK
New York Times 
writer David Carr 
died of lung cancer

 New York Times media col-

umnist David Carr died of com-
plications from metastatic lung 
cancer, according to autopsy 
results released Saturday.

Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman 

for the New York City medical 
examiner’s office, said the autop-
sy shows heart disease also con-
tributed to his death.

Carr, 58, collapsed at the 

newspaper’s headquarters and 
died on Thursday.

He wrote the newspaper’s 

Media 
Equation 
column 
and 

penned a memoir about his fight 
with drug addiction. He was laud-
ed as “the finest media reporter of 
his generation” by Times’ Execu-
tive Editor Dean Baquet.

PHOENIX
Boyfriend of ISIS 
captive describes 
effort to free her

Kayla Mueller was in a deten-

tion cell, face to face with her 
Syrian boyfriend. Had she told 
her captors she was married to 
Omar Alkhani, she might have 
been freed from the hands of 
Islamic State militants, he said. 
Instead, she denied being his 
wife.

After posing as Mueller’s hus-

band and persuading a string of 
people to let him plead for her 
release, Alkhani left the room 
empty-handed. He said he saw 
her face for just a few seconds 
when guards uncovered it.

The guards had assured Muel-

ler, 26, that Alkhani would not be 
harmed if she told the truth, so 
she apparently stuck to honesty 
to save him rather than take the 
slim chance to save herself, he 
said.

“Since she’s American, they 

would not let her go anyway. No 
sense to stay here, both of us,” 
Alkhani said. “Maybe she want-
ed to save me. Maybe she didn’t 
know I came back to save her.”

COPENHAGEN
Danish authorities 
say shooter had 
criminal record 

The slain gunman suspected 

in the deadly Copenhagen attacks 
was a 22-year-old with a history 
of violence and may have been 
inspired by Islamic terrorists — 
and possibly the Charlie Hebdo 
massacre in Paris, Danish authori-
ties said Sunday.

Prime Minister Helle Thorn-

ing-Schmidt mourned the two 
people killed and vowed to protect 
freedom of speech and Denmark’s 
Jewish community.

The suspect was killed in a gun-

battle with a SWAT team early 
Sunday. He had opened fire Sat-
urday at a cultural center hosting 
a seminar on free speech with an 
artist who had caricatured the 
Prophet Muhammad and then 
later at security forces outside a 
synagogue, police said.

—Compiled from 
Daily wire reports 

NEWS BRIEFS

directed their complaints to 
the new supervisor Donna 
Navarre, a call center coor-
dinator, in March and April 
2013. The lawsuit charges that 
Navarre did not do anything 
about the complaints.

“Biggs and Mercurio also 

complained to Navarre about a 
coworker who Biggs and Mer-
curio felt was leering at them,” 
the lawsuit reads. “Navarre 
responded by telling Biggs and 
Mercurio to drop a pen and pick 
it up in front of the co worker to 
‘give him a show.’ “

Violation of the 
Americans with 

Disabilities Act of 1990
The lawsuit notes that Biggs 

has a disability that is eli-
gible for coverage within the 
definition of the ADA. Biggs 
claims that in September of 
2013 she requested a different 
chair because of a back-related 
problem and despite filing the 
appropriate paperwork, did not 
receive it.

Violation of Elliott-Larsen 

Civil Rights Act

In January 2014, Biggs was 

terminated for performance 

issues and Mercurio was placed 
on temporary unpaid leave. 
The lawsuit notes that neither 
of the two women had been 
criticized or disciplined prior 
throughout their employment.

“Biggs was fired because 

she complained about sexu-
al harassment,” the lawsuit 
reads. “Mercurio was placed 
on unpaid leave of absence 
because she complained about 
sexual harassment.”

The lawsuit also charges that 

after Biggs was fired, Navarre 
mailed her a box of rocks, as 
well as created a hostile work 
environment 
for 
Mercurio 

when she returned to her posi-
tion.

The plaintiffs, represented 

by Gold Star Law P.C., are cur-
rently awaiting the University’s 
response.

Normally, a defendant has 

21 days to respond to this type 
of lawsuit. However, Caitlin 
Malhiot, one of the attorneys 
representing the two plaintiffs, 
said in an interview Friday 
they have granted a request 
from the University for a two-
week extension to provide a 
response to the allegations. 
Once the response is received, 
court dates will be set.

Malhiot said resolving the 

issues 
through 
a 
mutually 

agreeable settlement without 
going to court is always prefer-
able, though she added that it’s 
unclear whether such a settle-
ment exists because the Uni-
versity has not yet replied to 
the complaint.

“This is a very upsetting 

issue for my clients,” Malhiot 
said. “They just want the issue 
to be done, but at the same 
time what happened to them is 
wrong and they do want it to be 
addressed, they do want justice 
for that. They do want the com-
pensation that they are owed.”

Malhiot 
said 
monetary 

compensation at some level 
is always a significant option. 
Additionally, she noted that 
Biggs would be willing to con-
sider reinstatement at the Uni-
versity, in a position away from 
the alleged harassers.

Navarre, Page and Wilson 

declined requests for com-
ment via e-mail, referring The 
Michigan Daily to the UMHS 
Department of Communica-
tions.

In response to a request for 

comment Friday, Mary Mas-
son, a media relations repre-
sentative for UMHS, said she 
couldn’t provide any informa-
tion on a pending litigation.

LAWSUIT
From Page 1A

Divest and Invest’s goal resonat-
ed with many students.

“This is our future we’re 

fighting for and divestment is 
definitely one tactic through 
which students can make an 
impact,” Jansen said.

Volunteers and Divest and 

Invest members set up a table 
and encouraged passersby to 
sign an online petition as well 
as a large banner in support of 
divestment that lay on the Diag.

“Invest in your future, divest 

today,” one volunteer handing 
out flyers called to a group of 
students.

Supporters later wore their 

orange 
shirts 
and 
gathered 

around the signed banner at 
the center of the Diag. Jansen 
engaged the crowd in a series of 
call and response chants.

“Invest!” Jansen called to 

group. “Tomorrow!” the group 
yelled back in unison.

“Divest!” 
Jason 
screamed. 

“Today!” the group responded.

The protest was part of “Glob-

al Divestment Day,” an interna-
tional series of events planned 
for this past weekend to call for 
governments, universities and 
other organizations to divest 
from companies that produce 
fossil fuels.

More than 400 events were 

planned in several dozen coun-

tries on six different continents, 
according to 350.org, which 
organized the protests. 350.
org is an international environ-
mental organization that aims 
to mobilize grassroots action 
and pressure leaders around the 
world to address climate change.

Schools with groups par-

ticipating in Global Divestment 
Day included Harvard Uni-
versity, Columbia University, 
Syracuse University and Univer-
sity College London. The United 
Nations has also endorsed the 
international event.

Nineteen 
colleges 
in 
the 

United States have pledged to 
divest from fossil fuels, though 
most have only done so in mod-
est amounts. Stanford Univer-
sity is the largest and wealthiest 
school to have pledged to divest. 
Last May, Stanford administra-
tors promised in a statement 
that they would not make finan-
cial investments in coal mining 
companies.

About $1.04 billion of the 

University’s $9.16 billion endow-
ment was categorized as fossil 
fuel investments as of 2012. The 
Divest and Invest campaign has 
asked the University’s Board of 
Regents several timesto divest.

In a November 2014 inter-

view with The Michigan Daily, 
University 
spokesman 
Rick 

Fitzgerald said the University 
purposely sets stringent stan-
dards for divestment.

“The bar is set intentionally 

high ... to somewhat insulate the 
investment office from the polit-
ical winds that could change 
from one direction to the other,” 
Fitzgerald said.

The regents have only voted 

to divest twice — from South 
Africa in 1978 during apartheid 
and, more recently, from tobac-
co-related companies in 2000.

While Jansen conceded that 

the University has been “pretty 
unresponsive” to Divest and 

Invest’s calls to action, he cited 
the success of those two divest-
ment movements as inspiration 
for the organization.

“We’ve been working a lot 

with the administration and 
they have specified certain cri-
teria that we have to meet for 
them to take action,” Jansen 
said. “The main criterion they 
said we have to meet is to show 
that it’s an issue students care 
about.”

Jansen also emphasized the 

urgency and global nature of 
the problem of climate change 
as key drivers behind Global 
Divestment Day.

“With climate change, we’re 

running out of time — it’s a prob-
lem we have to address now,” 
Jansen said. “Because it’s such 
a global issue, the perfect way to 
portray that is to have a global 
day to support the cause.”

CHANMEE CHUNG/Daily

Rackham student Kevin Li signs in support of the divestment movement during Global Divestment Day on the Daig Friday.

ROBERT DUNNE/Daily

Patrons wait in the cold outside HopCat on its opening day Saturday. 

DIVESTMENT
From Page 1A

Kentucky Breakfast Stout,” Lee 
said. “They’re only on tap in a 
given city maybe three times a 
year.”

In 
an 
interview 
Saturday 

morning, HopCat founder and 
owner Mark Sellers said the beer 
list was given special consider-
ation for the grand opening.

“We challenged our ‘beer 

guy’ … to come up with the best 
100-tap list any bar’s ever had,” 
he said. “It’s arguable whether 
we’ve done that, but we’ve got an 
amazing list.”

Sellers said most HopCat loca-

tions are typically near universi-
ties, so they’re used to a customer 
base of faculty and students, but 
thus far the clientele here has 
had slightly different tastes.

“The thing I’ve noticed just 

in the couple of days that we’ve 
had some customers come in is 
that they seem to be very knowl-
edgeable about beer, right from 
the start,” he said. “That’s not 
always the case. Some of the 
places we’ve opened we’ve had to 

teach the customers a lot about 
the beer.”

HopCat 
waitress 
Meg 

Schemanske, a University alum, 
said she had been interested in 
beer before working at HopCat, 
but the training process gave her 
a new perspective.

“It’s definitely a culture,” she 

said. “That’s one thing that I 
think I learned the most.”

She said the company put on 

a week of “beer school” for the 
staff, in addition to two weeks of 
general service training.

“We spent an entire week in 

class learning different beer 
styles, different aromas, differ-
ent hops, different yeasts,” she 
said. “As much as you can learn 
about beer, we learned it.”

Seller said he thought several 

factors would distinguish Hop-
Cat from the other bars down-
town.

“We have a very laid-back 

family environment with our 
employees, so it’s like a big fam-
ily that works here,” he said. “We 
have 100 beers on tap, all craft 
beer, and we have a pretty cool 
interior design, with a lot of inte-
rior artwork.”

HOPCAT
From Page 1A

