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March 10, 2015 - Image 7

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 — 7

LOREN HOLMES/AP

Michelle Phillips and her team charge down Anchorage’s 4th Avenue during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Saturday, March 7, 2015, in Anchorage,
Alaska.
Mushers begin thousand mile
trek across Alaska for Iditarod

Appeals judge
to hear cases
in Ferguson

CHRIS TILLEY/AP

Morris Bounds Sr. pauses while talking Monday, Feb. 23, 2015, in Ansted, W.Va., about a train derailment that destroyed his
home near Mount Carbon, W.Va. Bounds said he is thankful to be alive after fleeing his home seconds before it was destroyed.
Wisconsin Gov. signs bill
ending forced union dues

Weather conditions
prompt change of
location for the race

PFAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP)

— Iditarod mushers began their
1,000-mile trek across Alaska
along a new route Monday after
poor trail conditions forced orga-
nizers to push the race’s start
north, bypassing a mountain
range.

Canadian rookie Rob Cooke,

who hails from Whitehorse,
Yukon Territory, was the first
musher to leave Fairbanks as fans
looked on from the starting gate
and along the expressway.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog

Race usually kicks off 225 miles
south in Willow. But because of
a lack of snow this year, officials
shifted the entire route around

the Alaska Range and an area
that left many mushers bruised
and bloodied last year.

This is only the second time

Fairbanks has hosted the official
start; similar low-snow condi-
tions moved the Iditarod there in
2003.

The finish line remains in

Nome, on the state’s wind-
whipped western coast.

The route change eliminates

mountainous
terrain
and
a

treacherous gorge. But the race
now will be run on about 600
miles of river ice, and that can
create a whole new set of obsta-
cles.

Some mushers have hinted the

new path might benefit Pete Kai-
ser, a young musher who recently
won an all-river ice sled dog race
in southwest Alaska. Kaiser dis-
puted that Monday.

“I don’t see it as an advantage

or disadvantage for me or anyone
else, really,” he said as he took
a break from packing his sled
before the race started.

“It’s just another trail through

the state, and it’s still a thousand
miles, and it’s still through some
rugged country,” Kaiser said.

Lance Mackey is running the

race with a young dog team and
is handling the changes in stride.

The four-time champion said

the fact that most of the thousand
or so dogs participating in the
race have never seen this part of
Alaska is “kind of cool.”

“Not a dog in this yard has

been on this trail or this race,”
Mackey said. “Everybody’s on the
same playing field in that aspect.

The new route reduces the

number of checkpoints in the
early part of the race, but it adds
stops at villages that have never
been part of the Iditarod — like

tiny Huslia, an Athabascan vil-
lage of about 300 residents.

Alaska’s
fairly
warm
and

snowless winter was caused by
the same weather pattern that
repeatedly dumped snow on the
East Coast. It has made for poor
conditions south of the Alaska
Range, especially in the area of
the Dalzell Gorge, considered the
roughest patch for mushers and
dogs.

This is where many mushers

were injured in crashes last year.
Officials said this year’s condi-
tions there are worse.

Four-time champion Martin

Buser said the lack of snow in the
greater Anchorage area made for
a challenging training season.

Buser said he intends to slow

his start this year after setting a
blistering pace in the early part
of last year’s race and then fading
back.

Legislation cements
freedom to work,

Walker says

ABROWN DEER, Wis. (AP) —

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on
Monday signed into law a mea-
sure that prohibits requiring a
worker to pay union dues, striking
another blow against organized
labor four years after the state
effectively ended collective bar-
gaining for public-sector employ-
ees.

Walker, a likely presidential

candidate fresh off a weekend
visit to Iowa, signed the right-to-
work bill affecting private-sector
workers at an invitation-only cer-
emony at Badger Meter north of
Milwaukee. The company’s presi-
dent was one of the few business
owners who publicly supported
the measure, which rocketed
through the Legislature in less
than two weeks.

His sleeves rolled up and his

suit jacket off, the Republican
governor sat at a table with a ban-
ner that said “Freedom to Work”
as he signed the bill that makes it
a misdemeanor to require work-

ers to pay unions dues.

Just before the signing, Walker

said the new law “sends a power-
ful message across the country
and around the world.” He fol-
lowed that up with a fundraising
plea to supporters.

“The Big Government Labor

Bosses will never forgive me for
taking away their power but we
are doing the right thing,” Walker
said in the email, noting that he
had signed the law and asking for
donations of $10, $100 and $1,000.

Supporters have argued the

law will help keep and attract
new businesses that were wary
of spending in Wisconsin before.
But opponents say it will drive
down wages and make the work-
place less safe.

“By signing Right to Work into

law, Gov. Walker continues his
crusade on the hard-working,
middle-class families of Wiscon-
sin,” said Phil Neuenfeldt, presi-
dent of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO
in a prepared statement.

President
Barack
Obama

issued a statement late Monday
that called on Walker to improve
working
conditions
through

actions such as raising wages or
offering paid leave.

“I’m deeply disappointed that

a new anti-worker law in Wis-
consin will weaken, rather than
strengthen workers in the new
economy,” he said.

A coalition of more than 400

businesses formed to oppose the
bill and upward of 3,000 union
members and others gathered at
the Capitol in a failed attempt to
block its passage.

Walker was surrounded Mon-

day by Republican lawmakers
who shepherded the bill through
the process, including Assembly
Speaker Robin Vos and Senate
Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.
Representatives from the state
chamber of commerce, along with
Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, were
also on hand.

“This is one more big tool to

help places like Badger Meter,
when they can put jobs anywhere
around the world, they can put
them in Wisconsin,” Walker said.

Badger Meter’s chief executive

and chairman Rich Meeusen said
because of the law the company
will place a $2.5 million piece of
new water control equipment at
the Brown Deer facility and that
will lead to 30 to 50 new manufac-
turing jobs in the state.

After federal report,

judge tasked with

enacting reforms for

municipal court

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)
— A Missouri appeals court judge
was appointed Monday to take
over Ferguson’s municipal court
and make “needed reforms” after
a highly critical U.S. Department
of Justice report that was prompt-
ed by the fatal police shooting of
Michael Brown.
The Missouri Supreme Court
said it is assigning state appeals
Judge Roy L. Richter to hear all
of Ferguson’s pending and future
municipal court cases. The high
court said Richter also will have
the authority to overhaul court
policies to ensure defendants’
rights are respected and to
“restore the integrity of the sys-
tem.”
Ferguson Municipal Judge Ron-
ald J. Brockmeyer resigned Mon-
day, saying through a spokesman
that he was stepping down to
promote public confidence in the
court and help Ferguson “begin
its healing process.”
The Ferguson City Council met
in closed session Monday evening,
but members left without taking
questions and a city spokesman
didn’t disclose the purpose of the
meeting. Ferguson City Manager
John Shaw was escorted to his
vehicle by a police officer with-
out fielding questions, and Mayor
James Knowles III declined com-
ment to The Associated Press
afterward except to say that the
city on Tuesday would begin
seeking Brockmeyer’s permanent
successor.

Richter will take charge of the
court on March 16. The Supreme
Court said it also is assigning
staff from the state court admin-
istrator’s office to aid Richter in
reviewing Ferguson’s municipal
court practices.
“Judge Richter will bring a
fresh, disinterested perspective
to this court’s practices, and he
is able and willing to implement
needed reforms,” Chief Justice
Mary Russell said in a written
statement.
“Extraordinary action is war-
ranted in Ferguson, but the Court
also is examining reforms that are
needed on a statewide basis,” Rus-
sell added.
The change comes after the Jus-
tice Department released a report
last week that cited cases of racial
profiling and bigotry by police
and chided what it described as a
profit-driven municipal court sys-
tem in the predominantly black
St. Louis suburb where Brown,
18, was shot by a white Ferguson
police officer on Aug. 9. The shoot-
ing prompted protests in the St.
Louis area and across the nation.
A St. Louis County grand jury
and the U.S. Justice Department
both declined to bring charges
against Officer Darren Wilson,
who resigned from the depart-
ment. The Justice Department
report said Wilson acted in self-
defense when he shot Brown.
But the Justice Department said
Ferguson’s police and court sys-
tems functioned as a money-mak-
ing enterprise that heightened
tensions among residents.
The federal report noted that Fer-
guson was counting on revenues
from fines and fees to generate
$3.1 million, or nearly one-quar-
ter of its total $13.3 million bud-
get for the 2015 fiscal year.

LSA junior Tiffany Brocke

took the previous version of the
MCAT in August 2014, and has
no plans to retake the new one.
However, she said the changes
in the test, particularly the new
emphasis on sociology and psy-
chology, will likely benefit stu-
dents.

“I think it’s important for doc-

tors to have an understanding
of people as social animals and
how complex the mind is as well
as the physical body,” Brocke
said. “I do think it’s important
to evaluate that understanding
of people on a personality level,
so I think it’s a positive change
overall.”

In addition to demanding

more endurance and a broader
material base from test takers,
the new MCAT test will also
serve as a challenge for medical
school admissions officers. Chiu
noted that for the next few years,
medical school admissions offic-
es will be tasked with compar-
ing applications from students
who have taken the old MCAT
to those who have taken the new
version.

“This is going to be a chal-

lenge for medical schools to fig-
ure out how they compare test
scores across the two exams,”
Chiu said. “But remember that
the new exam is meant to help
medical schools make even bet-
ter decisions, so as much as pos-
sible they’re going to be looking
for ways to use that new score
to inform better decisions about
applicants.”

The new test will be scored

differently from the previous
1-15 and 3-45 scale. Each section
will range from a low score of
118 to a high score of 132. Total
scores will range from 472 to
528.

Changes
in
the
MCAT’s

demands reflect broader adjust-
ments in the demands of medi-
cal schools. The University’s
Medical School recently revised
its
admissions
requirements

to include a humanities-based
experience and to encourage
applicants to learn necessary
material in unique and alterna-
tive ways.

Steven Gay, assistant dean

of admissions at the University
Medical School, said he believes
the MCAT is being updated in
response to changes that have
already starting occurring in

pre-medical education.

“I’m very pleased that the

MCAT is trying to mirror what
schools find are very important
characteristics to have as you go
to medical school,” Gay said.

Brocke,
the
LSA
junior,

echoed Gay’s opinion on the
changes, saying she believes the
entire process is becoming more
holistic.

“Overall, I think it reflects a

trend of looking at the applicant
as a person and much less as a set
of numbers and achievements
and extracurricular activities,”
Brocke said.

LSA freshman Krishna Vemu-

lapalli said he disagrees with the
MCAT’s added focus on humani-
ties-related topics.

“I think the humanities is

something that students should
learn on their own, rather than
being tested on for medical
school,” Vemulapalli said.

Chiu said the more demand-

ing exam should not discourage
pre-med hopefuls.

“Pre-med students are a highly

motivated group of students, so
it’s unlikely that this more chal-
lenging exam will deter them
from aspiring to medical school,”
he said.

MCAT
From Page 1

Injured woman

recalls 2013 attack

BOSTON (AP) — A woman

testifying from a wheelchair
Monday in the Boston Marathon
bombing trial recalled shielding
her husband from the sight of his
mangled leg, being pushed to the
ground by a bystander frantically
trying to extinguish the flames
on her body and coming to grips
with becoming a double amputee.

Jessica Kensky said she and her

husband, Patrick Downes, each
lost a left leg in the 2013 attack.
After more than 18 months of
surgeries and consultations with
doctors around the country, she
came to the painful conclusion

that her right leg would have to be
amputated, too, she said.

“I did not want to become a

bilateral amputee,” Kensky said.
“I wanted to paint my toenails,
I wanted to put my feet in the
sand, and I wanted to do all these
things. To lose the second leg was
a
gut-wrenching,
devastating

decision.”

Kensky’s account came dur-

ing the third day of testimony
in the federal death penalty
trial of bomber Dzhokhar Tsar-
naev, whose own lawyers have
acknowledged his involvement
but insist he was influenced by his
older brother, Tamerlan, who was
killed during a getaway attempt
days after the bombings.

Jurors also watched a timeline

video compiled by the FBI using
surveillance video from stores
and restaurants near the mara-
thon finish line. The video, which
shows both brothers’ movements
around the time of the bombings,
focuses on Dzhokhar and shows
him carrying a backpack up until
he gets to the front of the Forum
restaurant, when he is shown
dropping the bag from his shoul-
der.

One frame then shows the

backpack at his feet. The back-
pack is in a crowd of people and
just feet from children stand-
ing on a metal barrier, including
8-year-old Martin Richard, who
was killed, and his younger sis-
ter, Jane, who lost a leg in the
blast.

Boston bombing survivor
testifies from wheelchair

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