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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

University
researchers collect
norovirus samples

Researchers at the Medical

School began collecting samples
from the recent outbreak of
norovirus that swept campus
earlier this month, the University
announced on Wednesday.

More than 100 students were

infected by a strain of the virus
causing diarrhea and vomiting. The
University confirmed last week that
the initial infections were traced to
dining halls, though the outbreak
may have spread beyond residence
halls.

Though the virus is fairly

common, it is difficult to grow in
laboratory settings. Dr. Christiane
Wobus, a microbiologist at the
Medical School, has studied the
disease in mice for the past 10
years and is now investigating
stool samples from members of the
campus community who recently
experienced symptoms.

No approved vaccines or

treatments currently exist for the
virus. Wobus and other researchers
will compare the human samples
to the infected mice and attempt
to determine the way the virus
interacts with human cells.
Detroit mayor finds
$50 million in
unused city bonds

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

revealed $50 million dollars in
unspent bond funds as a part of his
new budget plan, The Detroit News
reported on Thursday.

The unspent funds date back to

1987, and will be allocated toward
improvements to public safety
and parks. Duggan’s proposal
allocates $11.7 million to city parks,
$7.5 million to the Detroit Police
Department’s Real Time Crime
Center and $7 million toward
updating the police department’s
8th precinct in northwest Detroit.

John Hill, the city’s chief

financial officer, presented the four-
year balanced budget plan, which
calls for conservative spending by
the city for the foreseeable future.

Discussion of the plan centered

around shortages in pension
funds. The city’s bankruptcy plan,
organized by the former state-
funded emergency management
team, promised full funding
of pension obligations to city
employees. Duggan announced
in his remarks, however, that the
forecast was inaccurate. He hopes to
put together an organized approach
before the city must begin making
payments in 2024.



Odeh’s verdict
vacated by federal
appeals court

A federal appeals court approved

an appeal on Thursday in the case
of Rasmea Odeh, a former Jackson
resident originally found guilty for
lying on immigration forms, the
Detroit Free Press reported.

Odeh, originally from Palestine,

was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney
for the Eastern District of Michigan
for not revealing her role in a 1969
civilian bombing in Israel when
entering the United States. Her case
quickly became a rallying point for
Palestinian rights groups around the
country.

A panel of appeals judges called

into question the exclusion of
evidence related to Odeh’s post
traumatic stress disorder. Though
the appeals court vacated the U.S.
District Court’s decision, it did not
explicitly call for a new trial.
Workplace shooting
in Kansas plant

Four to seven people have

been killed and 20 injured in a
workplace shooting in Hesston,
Kan. on Thursday, NPR reported.
The suspected shooter, identified by
employees as coworker Cedric Ford,
opened fire at Excel Industries,
a local manufacturing plant.
According to a local sheriff, Ford
was fatally shot by authorities.

Nearby Hesston College put the

campus on lockdown in response
to the shooting. About 375 students,
plus staff members, remained on
school grounds for several hours.

-RIYAH BASHA

NEWS BRIEFS

allows us to explore what is pos-
sible in the future of transporta-
tion, as well as apply learnings
to today’s road safety opportu-
nities, including driving apps,
on-demand services and com-
mercial fleets,” Zendrive CEO
Jonathan Matus said in the
release.

Representatives
from

Zendrive were also unavailable
for comment Thursday evening.

To help create Mcity, the Uni-

versity partnered with many of
the world’s leading auto com-
panies such as Honda, Ford and

General Motors. In addition
to Mcity, the state of Michi-
gan is home to 375 automotive
research centers and hosts the
highest concentration of indus-
trial and mechanical engineers
in the country.

The 32-acre testing site simu-

lates urban and suburban envi-
ronments using traffic signs,
sidewalks, construction obsta-
cles and even potholes. Ford
became the first auto industry
to use Mcity to test its driverless
car technology by testing how
its LiDAR sensors — sensors that
use laser beams to gauge the sur-
rounding environment — would
operate in the winter.

MCITY
From Page 1

and you can see what ward they’re
in,” said Jacqueline Beaudry, Ann
Arbor city clerk, in an interview.
“Students can choose to register
to vote in Ann Arbor and some
do.”

To have their name on the bal-

lot for primary elections, which
will take place in August, partisan
candidates must submit a peti-
tion containing 100 signatures by
April 19.

To verify a signature is viable,

Beaudry said the city cross-ref-
erences the petition with a data-
base of registered voters, which
is linked to the Secretary of State.
According to Michigan law, voter
registration and drivers operat-
ing licenses must have the same
address.

Beaudry said only one candi-

date — Diane Giannola, a Demo-
crat seeking the Ward 4 seat
currently held by Krapohl — has
filed a completed petition as of
Thursday, though petitions for
others have already begun to cir-

culate. Giannola is a former mem-
ber of the Ann Arbor Planning
Commission, and works as in the
University of Michigan’s Tech
Transfer lab as a Venture Accel-
erator Manager. She is a Univer-
sity alum.

Ann Arbor resident Will Leaf

has also pulled petitions to repre-
sent the First Ward. He is attempt-
ing to run again after challenging
current
councilmember
Sabra

Briere (D–Ward 1) last year. Leaf
intends to run as a Democrat, hop-
ing to fill the seat currently held
by Sumi Kailasapathy (D–Ward
1). Kailasapathy has not yet pulled
a petition for re-election.

There are aso independent

candidates, such as Ann Arbor
resident Kevin Leeser in Ward 5,
running. Independant candidates
must file a petition comparable
to those for partisan candidates
by July 21 to be on the November
general election ballot.

Leeser has pulled petitions to

run as an independent candidate
for a seat representing the 5th
Ward. He lost in last year’s elec-
tions to Chip Smith (D–Ward 5),
when he ran as a write-in candi-

date. Lesser is a U-M Health Sys-
tem nurse and University alum.

This year he is vying to fill the

seat on Council currently held by
Warpehoski. In last year’s cam-
paign, Leeser focused primarily
on bicycle and pedestrian safety.
He has also expressed opposition
to the ongoing Ann Arbor deer
cull, of which Warpehoski is in
favor.

For both mayoral and Council

seats, each term lasts two years,
with half of Council eligible for
reelection each year. This year
is also a mayoral election year
— Taylor, currently running for
mayor without opposition, pulled
his petitions last month.

Candidates running for mayor

must collect 50 signatures from
residents in each ward of the city,
requiring them to collect a total of
250 signatures.

“Even if he had, say, 100 but

they were all from the Fifth Ward,
he’d still need to get the 50 from
each of the other wards,” Beaudry
said.

Daily Staff Reporter Marlee

Breakstone contributed reporting
to this article.

COUNCIL
From Page 1

versity officials discussed sev-
eral benefits of the proposed
facility.

For students, the new center

will mean the opportunity for
increased seating on each bus,
Hank Baier, associate vice presi-
dent for facilities and opera-
tions, said.

“We currently cannot service

articulated buses at our cur-
rent facility,” Baier said. “We
can transport more passengers

between North Campus and
Central Campus, which is our
biggest student demand.”

The center’s future North

Campus location will also mean
buses will no longer need to
drive from the current facilities’
South Campus location to North
Campus each morning to begin
their routes, meaning less fuel
will be used, Baier added.

“The more people we put per

trip, the better our emissions
characteristics, so it also helps
us
with
our
environmental

goal,” he said.

CENTER
From Page 1

sity — and, in turn, students
— money. According to a newly
released report analyzing pub-
lic transit alternatives in Ann
Arbor, a light rail is the most
cost-effective
option.
That

being said, the entire project is
estimated to cost between 500
and 700 million dollars and
add an additional 8-percent
increase in annual operating
costs to both the University
and the city of Ann Arbor.
Subsequently, in the immedi-
ate future, students could see
a tuition hike. It should be
noted, however, that similar

projects in the past have been
paid for with a combination of
federal, state and University
funding, along with public and
private partnerships. The Uni-
versity would not be taking on
this project alone.

Though the project would

be expensive in the immediate
future, it would likely save the
University and students money
in the long run. A light rail
would provide an easy, acces-
sible, convenient, ultimately
less expensive and more envi-
ronmentally friendly way to
bridge the gulf between our
campuses and greatly improve
the quality of student and city
life.

OPINION
From Page 1

he felt at home at the University
of Michigan, and emphasized the
positive effects finding that the
community had on him. Solidar-
ity, he noted, was key to many
communities on campus.

“I want to get to the topic of

building solidarity, which is why
we are all here today — margin-
alised students here at UMich,”
Reed said. “There’s Black stu-
dents, there’s Latino students,
there’s Native American students,
and there’s not a lot of us here. We
can’t afford not to come together
in solidarity.”

He stressed the importance of

MSA and BSU students attending

each other’s events for the educa-
tional experience.

“If we can erase that petty

mindset that comes with Uni-
versity students who are so cen-
tered upon making sure that
their individual organization or
their resume, or these superficial
things, are so padded with junk,
then we can really make change,”
Reed said.

University
alum
Donavan

McKinney,
another
panelists,

took a different approach to
the idea of solidarity. Though
he echoed Reed’s sentiments
about coming together as a cam-
pus community, McKinney said
he advocated for the Muslim
and Black communities coming
together economically, by mak-
ing contributions to one another’s

organizations and events.

LSA senior Lehman Robinson,

who attended the event, said he
has personally struggled with the
intersectionality of his Black and
Muslim identities.

“Being a Black Muslim it is

important to combine our com-
munities and I found it hard to be
Black and be Muslim at the same
time,” Robinson said. “I find it
harder to go into the BSU being
Muslim.”

This is the third and final MSA

event for Black Heritage Month.
MSA also hosted a discussion of
the African and African-Ameri-
can history of Islam, and a talk on
mass incarceration from the lens
of a Muslim narrative leading up
to Thursday’s panel.

PANEL
From Page 1

order, and over 70 percent of all
students screened were some-
what dissatisfied with their
bodies.

Ayub emphasized the need

for more resources to help com-

bat the prevalence of such disor-
ders on campus.

“We saw a need that there

wasn’t
enough
conversation

of how to turn awareness into
activism,” Ayub said.

Read more online at michigan-

daily.com

DIET
From Page 2

time that they can’t spend on other
things.”

Councilmember Chip Smith

(D–Ward 5) echoed many of Bri-
ere’s points, adding that he is dis-
appointed in DEQ’s continued
failure to update its 1,4-dioxane
standards, and that there is a lack
of trust in the community of DEQ.

“Frankly, DEQ’s got a little

bridge building to do on Monday
night,” Smith said. “We’ve been
very patiently waiting for (the new
standards) as this plume creeps
closer and closer to the river and
impacts more and more private
wells.”

“Their failure to deliver on this

is a pretty big failure, in light of
the DEQ’s failures in other areas
— namely Flint — I think there is
rightfully an awful lot of concern
in our community,” Smith added.

CITY
From Page 2

MAZIE HYAMS/Daily

LSA feshman Brett Boehman looks at works honoring the late Art Prof. Jon
Onye Lockard on display in the Fine Arts Library on Tuesday. Lockard’s art,
focussing on the spirit of civil rights and Black pride, was instrumental in the
development of Black arts and culture in Michigan.

LOCK ARD’S ART

MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily

Rackham student Maryam Aziz speaks at a panel on Muslim solidarity at Rackham Auditorium on Thursday.

Ann Arbor woman killed in collision
Incident involving

truck caused
closure of all

eastbound traffic

By CAITLIN REEDY

Daily Staff Reporter

A car crash on I-94 resulted

in the death of a 21-year-old Ann
Arbor woman Wednesday night.
Another woman was in critical
condition after the incident.

The collision of a semi-truck

and a car occurred just after 6

p.m. on I-94 East, near Pittsfield
Township. A 30-year-old woman
was driving in the far left lane
when, according to the Michi-
gan State Police, she lost con-
trol and swerved in front of the
semi-truck, killing the 21-year-
old passenger. The crash is still
under investigation.

The incident resulted in the

closure of eastbound I-94 for
six hours Wednesday night. It
happened amid a heavy and
wet snowfall, which began that
afternoon and accumulated sev-
eral inches of slush and snow.
The National Weather Service

released a winter storm advi-
sory in the days leading up to
the snowfall, predicting upward
of 10 inches in some areas. The
peak of the snowfall happened
Wednesday
afternoon
into

nighttime, covering the time that
the I-94 accident took place.

Other
car
accidents
also

occurred due to the severe
weather Wednesday. The sys-
tem, formally named Winter
Storm Petros, hit much of the
southeastern parts of the state.
The Washtenaw County Dis-
patch reported multiple minor
crashes during the time of the

3 — Friday, February 26, 2016

KRISTINA PERKINS /Daily

Mayor Christopher Taylor expresses his support for new water cleanup standards at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting
in the City Council Chambers on Feb. 1, 2016.