Touted as the cannabis capital 
of the Midwest, Ann Arbor 
is no stranger to recreational 
marijuana use. However, the 
city’s marijuana market may be 
undergoing a dynamic shift. This 
past week, Deputy City Attorney 
Kevin McDonald presented a 
first draft proposal for a points-
based 
scoring 
process 
for 
businesses seeking to obtain a 
permit to sell cannabis products. 
 
At 
a 
City 
Council 
meeting 
Monday, 
several 
councilmembers, 
including 
Jane Lumm, I-Ward 2, said they 
believe the topic requires further 
discussion.
“It’s a topic of considerable 
interest to residents and deserves 
more public discussion and 
input,” Lumm said. “I just think 
it’s critical to get it right,”
Points would be assigned 
to businesses based on four 

criteria: 
past 
performance, 
state compliance, location and 
community 
interest. 
Each 
category would be worth a 
maximum of 25 points. Past 
performance 
points 
would 
showcase the business’s influence 
and historical relationship with 
the city. 
State 
compliance 
points 
would measure how well the 
business has followed the city’s 
regulatory 
laws 
surrounding 
marijuana. 
Location 
points 
would portray how strategic 
a 
company’s 
geographic 
positioning in Ann Arbor is, 
considering the demographics of 
neighboring residents as well as 
competitive stores. Community 
interest points would measure 
the potential demand for the 
business in the market. 
The city is planning to limit 
the number of permits available 
for marijuana micro-businesses 
to 28. 

As the threat of climate change 
continues to provoke protests 
demanding institutional action to 
address the issue, student activists 
are calling on the University of 
Michigan to reduce its use of fossil 
fuels for powering facilities on 
campus. 
Last week, activists sprayed 
graffiti and wrote chalk messages 

on the Diag and other public outdoor 
locations claiming the University 
has $1 billion invested in fossil fuels. 
The 2018 Report on Investments 
corroborates this claim, stating 
the 
University 
allocated 
$1.12 
billion dollars, toward investments 
classified under natural resources. 
The report defines investments in 
natural resources as “investments 
in companies located primarily 
in the U.S. that produce oil and 
natural gas, and companies that 
service those industries, as well as 

non-energy related investments 
in minerals, mining, and wetland 
restoration.”
Zaynab Elkolaly, student at 
Washtenaw 
Technical 
Middle 
College 
and 
cofounder 
of 
Washtenaw 
Climate 
Strike, 
criticized 
the 
University’s 
investments in fossil fuels.
“The 
University, 
from 
an 
educational 
standpoint, 
has 
a 
great environmental curriculum 
where students fully understand 
the resulting detriment that comes 

with fossil fuel consumption,” 
Elkolaly 
said. 
“Students 
are 
not ignorant, and nor is the 
administration. What’s appalling 
is that these authority figures 
touting their prestigious degrees 
and positions are still involved in 
the very thing that is destroying 
the planet, simply because of profit. 
The University of Michigan is 
notorious for exploiting students 
financially, and this is only part of 
the pattern.”

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 9, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

The Center for Academic 
Innovation 
held 
an 
event 
Tuesday 
afternoon 
recognizing academic teams 
for 
their 
spring 
projects 
centered 
around 
diversity, 
equity and inclusion. This 
was the first in a series of six 

events, featuring eight teams 
giving a brief overview of their 
DEI project and how their 
project will serve specific 
groups on campus, ranging 
from undocumented students 
to the LGBTQ community.
The 
event 
began 
with 
Rachel 
Niemer, 
director 
for outreach and access at 
the 
Center 
for 
Academic 
Innovation, 
who 
echoed 

sentiments made at the 2019 
DEI Summit by Van Jones, 
CEO of REFORM Alliance, 
political 
commentator 
and 
host 
of 
“The 
Redemption 
Project” and “The Van Jones 
Show” on CNN.
“Those of us working in higher 
education are in a very unique 
position,” Niemer said. “We not 
only get to shape the experience 
of the learners on campus, but as 

they move out into the broader 
world, we get to shape the 
broader social structures that 
they will impact.”
Niemer explained how the 
mission of these DEI projects 
is to understand and assist 
individuals 
from 
various 
minority communities, which 
is necessary for our society to 
succeed.
The 
Detroit 
Board 
of 

Police 
Commissioners 

approved a policy Sept. 19 
outlining the use of facial 
recognition 
technology 
for 
the police department. The 
policy includes guidelines for 
how officers who abuse the 
policy will be punished and 
a prohibition from sharing 
the 
photos 
with 
private 
companies. 
The software has been used 
by Detroit police since July 
2017, when the Detroit City 
Council approved the software 
purchase. 
In 
June 
2019, 
Detroit Police Chief James 
Craig asked the City Council 
to approve its permanent use. 
Controversy 
surrounds 
the 
technology 
because 
of issues with the systems 
misidentifying people with 
darker skin. In a test done by 
the ACLU, Amazon’s facial 
recognition tool Rekognition 
falsely matched 28 members of 
Congress, disproportionately 
identifying them as people 
who had committed crimes. 
The 
false 
matches 
were 
disproportionately 
people 
of color, misidentifying six 
members of the Congressional 
Black Caucus. 

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 8
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

Points-based 
system to rank 
A2 marijuana 
dispensaries

Local businesses assigned scores for 
licensing, permiting requirements 

Following an attempt to hack 
the voting app Voatz during the 
2018 midterm elections, the FBI 
revealed last week they have 
launched an investigation into 
the incident, which allegedly 
involved University of Michigan 
computer science students.
According to an article from 
CNN, 
anonymous 
sources 
revealed the FBI is investigating 
an 
individual 
or 
several 
individuals who tried to hack the 
app as a part of their University 
of Michigan election security 
course.
According to the EECS 498 
course description, the class 
teaches students how to hack an 
election in order to better defend 
against cyber break-ins.
“To defend a system you need 
to be able to think like an attacker, 
and that includes understanding 
techniques that can be used to 
compromise security,” the course 
description reads. 
Fifty-five 
percent 
of 
the 
students’ grades are determined 
by a large-scale group project 
related 
to 
a 
technical 
or 
tech policy topic on election 
cybersecurity. 
However, 
the 
description goes on to explain, 
the class will not allow students 
to directly break any laws.

Students 
implicated 
in possible 
app hack

GOVERNMENT
Center for Academic Innovation 
honors teams for new DEI projects

Event celebrates efforts to serve specific groups on campus, promote inclusion

New tech 
approved 
for use in 
Detroit 

FACIAL RECOGNITION

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Rachel Niemer, Director for Outreach and Access at the Centere for Academic Innovation, discusses the mission of the DEI projects at an event hosted by the Center for 
Academic Innovation in Palmer Commons Tuesday.

Climate activists express criticism 
of U-M’s fossil fuel investments 

ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily Staff Reporter

ANGELINA BREDE
Daily Staff Reporter

See DEI, Page 3A

DESIGN BY SHERRY CHEN

statement

See HACK, Page 3A
See SOFTWARE, Page 3A

NIKKI KIM
Daily Staff Reporter 

See MARIJUANA, Page 3A
See FUEL, Page 3A

LIAT WEINSTEIN
Daily Staff Reporter

Péripatéticienne

Federal investigation 
examines attempt to 
hack voting application

Software to come to 
police department amid 
controversy over bias

SONIA LEE
Daily Staff Reporter

