ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Thursday, January 30, 2014
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ADMINISTRATION
‘U’ declines to release Gibbons final ruling Experts say FERPA empowers institutions to release outcome of sexual assault cases
PATRICK BARRON/Daily
A worker carries in equipment to dry East Quad’s floors after a flooding occured Wednesday. Classes in the building were subsequently canceled.
Pipe burst cancels classes Flood affected first level of newly renovated residence hall
press release. According to the press release, the break occurred at 9:30 a.m. but caused no damage to residential areas of the building. University Housing spokesman Peter Logan said he could not confirm the precise time of the break, but said the flood was the result of a frozen one and a half inch pipe in the fire suppression system, which ruptured over the first floor theatre area. Fire alarms were set off throughout the building as a result of the flooding immediately after the line break. Logan said the alarms automatically activate when the
By IAN DILLINGHAM Daily News Editor
One day after the first University weather-related closure since 1978, some students were told to take another day off Wednesday. Classes in East Quad Residence Hall were cancelled Wednesday in response to a pipe burst in the early morning, according to a University
system senses a discharge of water, since that can be an indicator that the system is attempting to suppress an active fire. Fire officials must investigate the area to determine there is no fire present before the alarms can be deactivated. Logan said fire suppression systems in the building are now fully operational. Most classes in East Quad will resume normal operations Thursday, with the exception of five classrooms that may require additional repairs. Students with classes in affected rooms will be contacted by their professors to arrange alternate schedules or loca-
SAPAC pilots online chat to increase aid By JULIA LISS Daily Staff Reporter
The Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center has officially launched its new online chat feature, a program that will allow members of the University community to anonymously chat with an advocate. The chat feature will be available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to use. Amy Burandt, SAPAC program manager for survivor care, came up with the idea for the new feature in collaboration with SAPAC Director Holly Rider-Milkovich. The two women began discussing the idea for an online chat feature about two years ago and began the process of creating
and implementing the program about a year ago. Ensuring users’ confidentiality was a primary concern when selecting a chat provider. SAPAC decided to work with an Ann Arbor-based company, Alark, on the project. Next, the technical staff worked to set up the chat on SAPAC’s website in a way that would be visible and accessible. SAPAC began piloting the feature in a beta version last semester, during which interns would test it a few days a week to work out any bugs that might have come up. Given the new feature is intended for use by the University community, users are asked to enter their Kerberos password to verify their identity, although this information is not revealed to the SAPAC expert responding to the chat request. Users are also shown a detailed explanation about confidentiality and who will be corresponding with them. See SAPAC, Page 3A
Daily Sports Writer and Daily News Reporter
tions, Logan said. Wednesday’s pipe break reflects a similar situation in March 2013 — the flooding at North Quad — when a fire suppression supply line, much larger than the pipe in East Quad, broke and triggered a similar evacuation procedure. The flooding primarily affected the first level corridors and main concourse areas. Logan added that regular dining operations resumed as normal after the incident, although an e-mail from residential advisors to students suggested that the flooding might have reached some parts of the dining facilities. See FLOOD, Page 3A
After The Michigan Daily reported Tuesday that former Michigan kicker Brendan Gibbons was permanently separated from the University in December, University officials declined to release any information pertaining to his academic status, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and University policy. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald reaffirmed that stance Wednesday and cited University precedent of not discussing disciplinary records. “It’s a combination of being sensitive to FERPA, the law, as well as the University policies that are more restrictive than FERPA,” Fitzgerald said.
VO IC E S H E AR D
CAMPUS LIFE
Anonymous message system to be open to all University students
By MATT SLOVIN and ADAM RUBENFIRE
Fitzgerald said administrators deliberated Wednesday on what course of action to pursue, taking into account “the letter of the law, the spirit of the law and longstanding University policies.” “After consulting the law, consulting the attorneys in the Office of General Counsel, giving careful consideration to our long-standing policy of not discussing student disciplinary matters publicly, this is the only information we are releasing,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re not releasing any additional details.” Without directly referring to Gibbons, a written statement e-mailed to the Daily from Fitzgerald stated that allegations of sexual misconduct made in 2009 were “handled in accordance with the University policy in effect at the time.” Though FERPA does not prohibit the University from relying on its institutional policies as reason to withhold the results of a disciplinary proceeding, two experts specializing in media and records law said in interviews with the Daily on Wednesday that the outSee GIBBONS, Page 3A
RESEARCH
Engineering prof. works to prepare for epidemics Team creates model for policymakers to consider in potential disease outbreaks VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
BAMN organizers Joseph Semana and Jose Alvarenga speak at Activism Night as part of the exposure series at North Quad Wednesday.
ANN ARBOR
Construction on high-rise buildings moves forward Luxury apartments to bring over a thousand new rooms By HILLARY CRAWFORD Daily Staff Reporter
Two development companies have received authorization from the Ann Arbor City Coun-
cil to build new high-rises near campus. One building will be built on top of the south side of Pizza House at 624 Church Street, near South University Avenue. The 14-story building will consist of 76 units, 74 percent of which will be either one bedroom or two bedrooms. It is projected to open to tenants in August 2015.
University alum Bradley Moore, owner of the Ann Arborbased architecture firm J. Bradley Moore and Associates, will oversee development and construction of the high-rise above Pizza House. The restaurant’s owner, Dennis Tice, and Opus Group, a Minneapolis-based development company, partnered with J. Bradley Moore. See HIGHRISE, Page 3A
By PAULA FREDRICH Daily Staff Reporter
A flu epidemic in Portland? There’s a model for that. Engineering Prof. Siqian Shen and collaborators from Sandia National Laboratories, a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy, have created an optimization model that could help public health officials make decisions about which places to close in epidemic situations. The project uses data from Portland, Oregons social networks and censuses to model how the flu would spread when cities close facilities to contain it. It builds on previous simulations by taking into account people’s continued movement after certain facilities are closed, known as compensatory behaviors. The model gives the option of closing five different facilities and then See EPIDEMICS, Page 3A
Independent food A look at the unique culture of co-op cuisines on campus.
WEATHER TOMORROW
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News
2A — Thursday, January 30, 2014
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
THURSDAY: Alumni Profiles
UNDERGRADUATE TO REGENT
Detroit community today? I was not as involved in organizations while at the University of Michigan, although I was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and lived in the sorority house in Ann Arbor. That experience taught me the importance of being able to coexist with lots of different types of people and personalities and to appreciate the value of our similarities and differences. It was great preparation for my work in the Detroit community. Why did you decide to become a member of the Board of Regents for the University?
How do the organizations you were involved with in college relate to your work in the
I decided to become a member
CRIME NOTES
of the Board of Regents because of my love and passion for the University of Michigan. After all these years, my heart still skips a beat when I step on to campus. I also wanted to give back and contribute to my alma mater. Do you have any advice for current students? My advice to current students is to take advantage of every resource at the University of Michigan. Make sure your experiences are rich and live every moment of your college life to the fullest because it flies by all too quick. — THERESE BREUCH
Charge!
WHERE: 1500 Block E Hospital WHEN: Monday around WHERE: Wall St. 10:15 a.m. WHEN: Monday around WHAT: A vehicle was 5:45 p.m. WHAT: A heating unit was reported to have driven into reported to be on fire in the a cement pillar. While there parking lot of a construction were no injuries, the vehicle site. The unit was not on fire suffered from significant damage. and functioning properly.
Without a trace Left means WHERE: Bursley Hall right? WHEN: Monday around 4:25 p.m. WHAT: Less than $100 was reported to have been missing from the retail store safe with no signs of forced entry. No suspects were identified. The date of the incident is unclear, but may have occured between Dec. 15 and Jan 14.
WHERE: Northwood Apartments WHEN: Monday at 8:55 p.m. WHAT: A University bus was reported to have been struck by another vehicle driving in the wrong direction on a one-way street. There are no injuries, but damages are unknown.
VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
Chef Peter Julian gives a recipe themed ‘Savvy workshop’ in the Union Wednesday, teaching students household tasks they wouldn’t learn from classes.
Black History Month lecture
WHAT: A workshop for students interesting in learning beginners’ meditation techniques for stress, anxiety and focusing purposes. WHO: CAPS WHEN: Today from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. WHERE: CAPS office in the Union
WHAT: In the Black History Month Keynote Lecture, Melissa Harris-Perry will discuss race talk and leadership on campus. WHO: Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs & Trotter Multicultural Center WHEN: Today at 5:30. WHERE: Rackham Auditorium
WHAT: Hailed as one of the most innovative jazz pianists of the 21st century by Vanity Fair and The New York Times, Fred Hersch will perform. WHO: University Musical Society WHEN: Today at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. WHERE: The Michigan League
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K E E P I N ’ IT F R E S H
Ilitch: A philanthropic leader Denise Ilitch, a Democratic member of the University’s Board of Regents, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University and received her law degree from the University of Detroit. She currently serves as the President of Ilitch Enterprises, Inc., and is the owner of Ilitch Designs, owner and publisher of Ambassador Magazine and Of Counsel at Clark Hill PLC. She has earned several honors including “Marketing Innovator of the Year” from the Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit and “Best & Brightest Marketer” from Advertising Age magazine.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
CORRECTIONS A Jan. 29 article “Obama emphasizes domestic policy in State of the Union” misattributed a quote from Public Policy senior Adam Watkins, vice president of College Democrats. The original story attributed the quote to LSA junior Mary Bridget Lee. l Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
CNN reported a letter by former U.S. Senate aide Jesse Ryan Loskarn, who recently commited suicide, explained why he watched child porn. Loskarn said he felt connected with the films because he was sexually abused as a child.
2
Daily Arts takes an indepth look at the University’s unique co-op food culture by visiting local kitchens. A new performance arts minor is also examined. >> FOR MORE, SEE B-SIDE, PAGE 1B
3
After about 3 inches of snowfall, massive sections of Atlanta have been shut down as drivers attempt to adapt to icy driving conditions. Gridlock has shut down businesses and caused people to stay the night in their cars.
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Research shows ACA will boost lower-class incomes New healthcare laws will result in minor wealth redistribution
while slightly reducing average incomes on the rungs above. Economists at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, a Washington public policy center, found an average increase of about 6 percent in the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of the United States, meaning those making below approximately $20,600 a year. The study used a broad definition of income that counts the value of health insurance,
which is not normally measured by Census Bureau income statistics. Changing the distribution of incomes was not a stated objective of the health care law, coWASHINGTON (AP) — authors Henry Aaron and Gary Maybe the health care law was Burtless wrote. “Nonetheless, about wealth transfer, after all. the ACA may do more to change New research shows that the the income distribution than Affordable Care Act will sigany other recently enacted law.” nificantly boost the economic “This is certainly a very big fortunes of those in the bottom deal for the income distribuNICK UT/AP A python is is prepared for transport Wednesday Jan. 29 in Santa Ana, Calif., at the home of William Buchman. Buchone-fifth of the income ladder tion of the United States,” Burtman has been arrested for investigation of neglect in the care of animals. less said. “If you are raising the incomes of the people in the bottom fifth by 6 percent, then we are talking about a big change.” A leading economic adviser to Republicans said he agrees with the broad findings. “This was always portrayed as a health reform, not a big redistribution policy, but it turns out care of animals, Bertagna said. there’s so many dead snakes ... they are the same thing,” said Buchman, 53, was still in cusranging from dead for months Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president tody Wednesday afternoon, Ber- to just dead. There’s an infesof the American Action Forum, tagna said. The Newport-Mesa tation of rats and mice all over a center-right public policy Unified School District, where the house. There are rats and institute. he works, declined comment, mice in plastic storage tubs that That could mean the health SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) saying it was a police matter. are actually cannibalizing each care law may one day be seen as — A California schoolteacher Buchman has not yet had a other.” President Barack Obama’s bigwas arrested Wednesday after court appearance or been forSome of the snakes were little HARD gest legacy to the poor, not just hundreds of living and dead mally charged and it wasn’t more than skeletons. Others, the uninsured. The two groups pythons in plastic bins were clear if he had an attorney. only recently dead, were covoften overlap, but not always. found stacked floor to ceiling Authorities said he lived ered with flies and maggots. Major programs such as inside his stench-filled home in alone, and neighbors said his Next-door neighbor ForSocial Security, Medicare and suburban Orange County. mother, who had lived with him, est Long Sr. said he has known Medicaid redistribute income As investigators wearing had passed away within the past Buchman for years, adding the in various ways: from workers respirator masks carried the few years. men had once been friendly, getto retirees and disabled people; reptiles out of the house and Sondra Berg, the supervi- ting together to watch sports on from wealthier people to those stacked them in the driveway, sor for the Santa Ana Police television. of more modest means; and reporters and passers-by gagged Department’s Animal Services But he noticed a change in his from younger people to older at the smell. Some held their Division, said four bedrooms neighbor about a year ago, he ones. noses or walked away from the in the home were stacked from said, adding Buchman stopped Americans describe such profive-bedroom home to get a floor to ceiling and wall to wall coming around and, when he grams as “social insurance,” or breath of air. with plastic bins on wooden did, he appeared to have gained the “safety net.” “The smell alone — I feel like and metal racks. The bins were a good deal of weight. Burtless said the Brookings I need to take a shower for a packed so tightly, Berg said, that “Something changed in Bill, researchers used a large govweek,” said police Cpl. Anthony they didn’t require lids because yes it did,” he said. “Something ernment survey of more than Bertagna. “They’re pretty much there was no room for the triggered it because I couldn’t 60,000 people. They developed in all the bedrooms — every- snakes to slither out. even think that that was going a measure of income that includwhere.” Each snake was catalogued on.” ed not only categories such as Officers found as many as by name and type, and Berg said The odor from the house, wages, rents and investments, 400 snakes, as well as numerous Buchman told authorities he meanwhile, became unbearable but also the value of health mice and rats, in the Santa Ana was involved in a snake-breed- about five months ago. insurance benefits, whether home of William Buchman after ing enterprise. “It got so bad as to where my © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com CUPID IS CALLING. provided by an employer or neighbors complained about “House of Horrors: That’s wife would throw up,” Long obtained through a government the smell. He was arrested for the best way to describe it,” said. “She’d get out of the car program. investigation of neglect in the Berg said of the house. “I mean and run into the house.” Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!
California teacher’s stenchfilled home tips off police
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Teacher’s snakefilled home part of an ‘enterprise’
News
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FLOOD From Page 1A
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GIBBONS From Page 1A
The Java Blue Café on the main level of East Quad reopened Wednesday afternoon, although one entrance may still be impacted by the damage. Logan said the housing staff turned off the water shortly after the flooding occurred and is working to repair any damage done to the affected areas. Per standard evacuation procedures, students exited the building onto either Church Street or East University Avenue. LSA freshman Jackie Saplicki said students from both evacuation zones were then moved to the Ross School of Business until they were allowed to reenter the building at around 10:45 a.m. Saplicki said she evacuated onto Church Street around 9:50 a.m. after the alarm was activated. She claimed there was a 20- to 30-minute delay before students on that side of the building were moved indoors, although Logan said housing staff immediately suggested that students move inside once the evacuation was complete. “Everyone was totally compliant, but people were obviously enraged,” Saplicki said. “All in all, it was a little annoying.” Students were allowed to enter the building around 10:45 a.m. Saplicki said. She said a second alarm was activated sometime after students entered. Although Logan could not confirm this, he said a second alarm may have sounded while the system was being reset.
The chat will be manned by an on-call advocate at the SAPAC office, which could be an intern, Social Work student, or professional staff member. The chat can support up to about five different users at once, though Burandt mentioned that there has not been enough traffic on the site yet to know for sure the maximum capacity. The goal of this program is to make SAPAC’s support services more accessible to more people, especially those who may not feel comfortable speaking to someone face-to-face or on the phone. “We’re really feeling like folks are really shying away from talking on the phone … so we thought this might be a nice step for students who don’t like to do that,” Burandt said. She added that national programs such as 1in6 have been successful in being able to reach out to male survivors through their online chat features, and SAPAC hopes to see that benefit as well. Burandt said she doesn’t anticipate the feature becoming so busy that the SAPAC office needs to hire additional staff, but if it does become a problem, they will adapt. For now she said she hopes people will log on to ask any questions they may have and feel comfortable reaching out to their staff. The University’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center staffs a 24/7 crisis line at (734) 936-3333.
come of the disciplinary process is not protected by FERPA. Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said FERPA does not prohibit the disclosure of the outcome of Gibbons’ disciplinary case because University investigators concluded that he was responsible for behavior that equates to a sexual offense. “They’re just wrong that FERPA applies to a finding that a person committed a sexual assault,” LoMonte said. “So that’s not a valid reason to refuse comment on a disciplinary outcome.” The text of FERPA notes that the law shouldn’t “be construed to prohibit an institution of postsecondary education from disclosing the final results of any disciplinary proceeding conducted by such institution against a student who is an alleged perpetrator of any crime of violence … or a nonforcible sex offense, if the institution determines as a result of that disciplinary proceeding that the student committed a violation of the institution’s rules or policies with respect to such crime or offense.” The provision, which was added by Congress in 1998, amended FERPA to allow the release of the final decision in
cases related to offenses that would be treated as a violent or sexual crime in a court of law. The lone exception that would allow the University to invoke FERPA, LoMonte said, would be if Gibbons had been found responsible solely for sexual harassment, as opposed to a more violent, physical crime like sexual assault or battery. Documents reviewed by the Daily do not disclose the specific conduct for which Gibbons has been found responsible, stating only that he was found to have “engaged in unwanted or unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, committed without valid consent, and that conduct was so severe as to create a hostile, offensive or abusive environment.” LoMonte acknowledged that investigators could have found Gibbons responsible for sexual harassment, but said the severe and rare punishment of permanent separation from the University doesn’t match the offense based on similar occurrences at other schools. “I suppose it’s conceivable, but I think that’s highly doubtful because of the penalty that was assessed,” LoMonte said. “You just don’t see people getting removed from college for sexual harassment.” Fitzgerald said the refusal to release the results of the disciplinary proceedings should not
Thursday, January 30, 2014 — 3A
be used to infer the nature of Gibbons’ alleged conduct. At the University, permanent separation is a very rare result of OSCR proceedings. In the latest OSCR data available from the 2011-2012 academic year, there were zero permanent separations. Mark Goodman, a media law professor at Kent State University, said institutions can’t cite FERPA as a reason for refusing to release the final results of a disciplinary investigation when a violent or nonforcible sex offense has been alleged. “If they’re saying that, they’re flat-out wrong,” Goodman said. “That’s all there is to it. Assuming this is a crime of violence or a nonforcible sex offense, they are simply wrong.” Though University officials claim only Gibbons can release information about his academic record, FERPA would not prohibit the release of the final outcome of the disciplinary proceedings. Therefore, it is possible that Michigan football coach Brady Hoke could have been informed of the disciplinary process and sanctions. If Hoke was informed, FERPA would not have prevented him from disclosing the permanent separation to the media. While FERPA prohibits certain information from being released to the public, it does not obligate their release. Requests for such information
is handled through a Freedom of Information Act process, which obligates institutions to release any documents not exempted from FOIA, redacting only what is exempt. The University has a history of narrowly interpreting Michigan’s FOIA law. In 2011, a Daily investigation found that the University charged much higher fees than other public Big Ten schools to release basic documents, such as parking ticket and payment card records. In 2012, the University refused to release to the Daily the graduate school application of James Holmes, the 24-yearold charged in the mass shooting that took place at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater in July of that year, despite the fact that several universities with similar public records laws released Holmes’ application to their institutions when asked. The state’s FOIA law contains a provision exempting documents that would prevent the University from complying with FERPA, but experts have said FERPA does not apply to the information in question. In response to requests for the Holmes application and many other documents pertaining to individuals, the University has often cited a provision of FOIA which exempts the release of information that would constitute “a clearly unwarranted invasion of an individual’s privacy.”
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simulates how the population would move given those compensatory behaviors. Shen said the optimal choice would be the combination of five different facilities that spreads the population out the most. “After you think about it, you kind of see the intuition behind it,” Shen said. Shen added that when it comes to modeling infectious diseases, there are two main questions: how much to invest in preventative measures, and how much to invest in intervention after the fact. Prevention, measured in vaccination rates, is straightforward — the more people get vaccinated, the better a city is protected in the event of an outbreak. Intervention on the other hand, is harder to quantify. Policymakers might close facilities or work with security agencies to restrict travel out of certain areas, among other options. “At the beginning we had several very complicated models involving more different variables than this model,” Shen said. She said this led her team to a number of “failed models,” but eventually they were able to narrow it down to the “most sensitive part of the model” — how people move around the city when certain places are closed. Simplification of the model also made it a more powerful tool, Shen said. The simulation takes data from 100 people moving between 195 locations. To use this model, a city would have to collect travel data from only 100 people. This includes information about the disease and census data to determine how susceptible each person would be. It could then help in showing what closings would disperse, and thereby protect, the population the most. The team chose Portland because the data happened to already be aggregated. Shen said she’s hoping to gather more data from other cities to expand on the model as the project moves forward. As for a potential epidemic at the University, Shen said she’d have to collect the data about where students study first. “I have no idea,” she said. “I guess it also varies among the students who are studying on North Campus versus Central Campus.”
Moore likened the atmosphere of these new apartments to an “urban loft” style, adding that the development company intends for them to have a wide appeal. The building is estimated to cost $17 million, although the specifics of the construction plan are not yet solidified. After the plan is approved and a building permit received, the surrounding area south of Pizza House will be demolished. In addition to housing units, the new building will also feature an outdoor seasonal dining area on the first floor. The housing addition near pizza house has been in the works for years. A decade ago, J. Bradley Moore designed an addition to Pizza House intending to expand it in the future — including a stronger foundation that would accommodate a larger structure. “When we designed the addition to the Pizza House, we actually had enough foresight to put in extra large foundations to preserve the ability to someday in the future build vertically on top of that part of the building,” Moore said. The second high-rise, with its construction overseen by a Connecticut-based real estate firm called Greenfield Partners, will be located at 413 E. Huron St. and Division Street. It will be 14 stories high and include 513 bedrooms and a two-floor underground parking facility. The construction is estimated to cost $45 million. Both the former and current owner of the property were unavailable for comment. The approval of its construction was a controversial move by Ann Arbor City Council, The Michigan Daily reported. The Council was originally opposed to the structure’s potential commercial infringement on the community’s atmosphere but feared that the developers would file a lawsuit if their petition was denied. Moore acknowledged that while receiving approval from the Ann Arbor City Council is challenging for larger downtown construction projects, the process went smoothly for the Church Street structure. “I think there’s a great demand right now for housing anywhere in the downtown area,” Moore said.
KHALIL HAMRA/AP
In this photo taken with a fisheye lens over the city’s perimeter highway known as “Spaghetti Junction,” the ice-covered interstate system shows the remnants of a winter snow storm that slammed the city with over 2 inches of snow that turned highways into parking lots when motorists abandoned their vehicles creating massive traffic jams lasting through, Wednesday, Jan. 29 in Atlanta.
Snow storm sends Atlanta reeling Two inches of snow, ice causes freeway shutdown, stranded motorists ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of Atlanta students stranded all night long in their schools were reunited with their parents Wednesday, while rescuers rushed to deliver blankets, food, gas and a ride home to countless shivering motorists stopped cold by a storm that paralyzed the business capital of the South with less than 3 inches of snow. As National Guardsmen and state troopers fanned out, Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal found themselves on the defensive, acknowledging the storm preparations could have been better. But Deal also blamed forecasters, saying he was led to believe it wouldn’t be so bad. The icy weather wreaked similar havoc across much of the South, closing schools and highways, grounding flights and contributing to at least a dozen deaths from traffic accidents and a mobile home fire. Yet it was Atlanta, home to major corporations and the world’s busiest airport, that was Exhibit A for how a Southern city could be sent reeling by winter weather that, in the North, might be no more than an inconvenience. The mayor admitted the city could have directed schools, businesses and government offices to stagger their closings on Tuesday afternoon, as the
storm began, rather than dismissing everyone at the same time. The result was gridlock on freeways that are jammed even on normal days. Countless vehicles were stranded and many of them abandoned. Georgia State Patrol officials said two traffic fatalities had been reported in counties outside of Atlanta. State troopers also responded to more than 1,460 crashes between Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening and said more than 175 injuries had been reported. Officials said 239 children spent Tuesday night aboard school buses; thousands of others stayed overnight in their schools. One woman’s 12-mile commute home took 16 hours. Another woman gave birth while stuck in traffic; police arrived just in time to help. Drivers who gave up trying to get home took shelter at fire stations, churches and grocery stores. “I’m not thinking about a grade right now,” the mayor said when asked about the city’s response. “I’m thinking about getting people out of their cars.” National Guardsmen in Humvees, state troopers and transportation crews delivered food and other relief, and by Wednesday night, Deal said all Atlanta-area schoolchildren were back home with their parents. Atlanta was crippled by an ice storm in 2011, and officials had vowed not to be caught unprepared again. But in this case, few closings or other
measures were ordered ahead of time. Deal, who is up for re-election in November, said warnings could have been posted along highways earlier and farther out Tuesday. But he also fended off criticism. “I would have acted sooner, and I think we learn from that and then we will act sooner the next time,” Deal told reporters. “But we don’t want to be accused of crying wolf. Because if we had been wrong, y’all would have all been in here saying, ‘Do you know how many millions of dollars you cost the economies of the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia by shutting down businesses all over this city and this state?’” Deal faulted government forecasters, saying they warned that the storm would strike south of Atlanta and the city would get no more than a dusting of snow. However, the National Weather Service explicitly cautioned on Monday that snow-covered roads “will make travel difficult or impossible.” And around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, the agency issued a winter storm warning for metro Atlanta and cautioned people not to travel except in an emergency. Around the time the traffic jam started, Deal and Reed were at an award ceremony recognizing the mayor as the “2014 Georgian of the Year.” Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor left before 1:30 p.m. and was in constant contact with emergency officials.
Among the commuters trapped in the gridlock was Jessica Troy, who described her commute home to the suburb of Smyrna as a slowmotion obstacle course on sheets of ice. “We literally would go 5 feet and sit for two hours,” Troy said after she and a co-worker who rode with her finally made it home about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. They spent more than 16 hours in the car, covering 12 miles. The standstill gave Troy time to call her parents and send text messages to friends, letting them know she was OK. By 3 a.m. her car was stuck on a freeway entrance ramp. She put it in park, left the heat running and tried to get some sleep. “I slept for an hour and it was not comfortable,” Troy said. “Most people sat the entire night with no food, no water, no bathroom. We saw people who had children. It was a dire situation.” After daybreak, a few good Samaritans appeared, going carto-car with bottles of water and cookies. Traffic started moving again about 8:30. At Atlanta’s Deerwood Elementary School, librarian Brian Ashley spent Tuesday night with a dozen of his colleagues and 35 children on cots in the gym. The teachers and other staff members opened up the pantry in the cafeteria, making pizza and chicken nuggets with carrots and apples for dinner. Later, some police officers dropped off sandwiches, and parents living nearby brought food.
Opinion
4A — Thursday, January 30, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
KARA ARGUE
E-mail Kara at kargue@umich.edu
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MEGAN MCDONALD and DANIEL WANG EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
PETER SHAHIN EDITOR IN CHIEF
KATIE BURKE MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
Moving ‘forward’ again Obama must follow through on issues affecting University students
O
n Tuesday night, President Barack Obama reviewed his administration’s achievements and presented his vision for the future of the nation in his State of the Union address. While Obama addressed many pressing issues, he also covered topics of interest to University students. Among those topics, Obama discussed his efforts to improve the educational accessibility for all students, make higher education more affordable and a plan to assist a bankrupt Detroit. Stating these issues is one thing, but we must hold Obama to his word as he goes forward in his second term. During the address, Obama made a noteworthy reference to the White House’s College Opportunity Summit, saying, “150 universities, businesses and nonprofits have made concrete commitments to reduce inequality in access to higher education — and help every hardworking kid go to college and succeed when they get to campus.” The main aims of the conference — fairer standardized tests, making college more affordable and increasing opportunities for lowincome students — were warmly received by over 100 colleges and universities, whose presidents pledged to further the summit’s goals. Among those institutions were Massachusetts Institution of Technology, Georgetown University, The University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University. The University of Michigan did not sign in support of these efforts. The White House’s efforts to make college more accessible are clearly commendable, and seemingly coincide with the University’s claims to want to foster both socioeconomic and racial diversity. The University should support these actions by the White House. Furthermore, Obama should publicize these actions outside the SOTU, and make the push for accessibility a more public cause. For years, Obama has championed higher education as a tool of upward social and economic mobility. In his recent speech, Obama mentioned Congress’ efforts to “redesign high schools and partner them with colleges and employers” so that all American children will have a better chance at attaining a college education. Momentous changes have in fact been made with the nation’s highest high-school graduation rates in over 30 years. However, statistics are not enough. In a 2013 report from ACT, Inc. nearly one third
of students met zero of the four college-readiness benchmarks. Only 39 percent of students met three or more of the benchmarks. Similarly, nearly 60 percent of first-year college students discover they are not ready for postsecondary education and must take remedial classes. If Obama continues to champion the American Dream of a college education, the administration must find practical and successful ways to help students transition from a secondary to postsecondary education. In his speech, the president also discussed the auto industry, specifically referencing Detroit manufacturing. The president introduced an initiative for the country’s training programs to “train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now.” Detroit is a city sorely in need of skilled labor. Obama’s proposal is one that could fill the open job market in Detroit and assist the city in its path back to prosperity. Similarly, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has laid out a plan to supply an extensively trained workforce by bringing immigrants to the city. Snyder aims to work with the U.S. State Department to grant visas to skilled immigrants to satisfy the needs of Detroit employers. While an obstructionist Republican-controlled House of Representatives makes it difficult to expect sweeping reforms in the president’s second term, students can at least expect Obama to accomplish some of his goals through executive orders and directing the federal agencies to focus on alleviating the challenges facing young Americans. His rhetoric is a welcome acknowledgement of many of the issues facing the nation, but only bipartisan proposals and action can remedy them.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Barry Belmont, Alex Bear, Rima Fadlallah, Nivedita Karki, Jordyn Kay, Kellie Halushka, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Send letters to: tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Republican response solidifies gender norms TO THE DAILY: As a moderately conservative female at the University of Michigan, I am oftentimes isolated from my peers. Finding firm ground to stand on as a conservative female has become increasingly difficult. The phrase “Republican women” incites images of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, after the State of the Union, the GOP did yet another disservice to young women like myself. Republican leaders, in an effort to skirt accusations of a “War on Women,” strategized that these problems would all go away if they chose a female speaker for the Republican response. This could have been an effective plan, had the speech even remotely pertained to any one of the political issues that matter to liberal and conservative women alike. Instead, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers ignored almost every point made about women in President Barack Obama’s speech. She gave a nice little chat that resembled an episode of Sesame Street rather than
Students must demand answers from ‘U’ TO THE DAILY: To say I am disappointed with how the University handled the sexual assault accusations against former kicker Brendan Gibbons would be a massive understatement. I have never been more ashamed of the University I have so long proudly called my own. The incident in which Gibbons was accused of assault was first reported to authorities in 2009. Almost four full years later, the University takes action by expelling him. The expulsion conveniently coincides with the end of Gibbons’ eligibility as a college football player. Why did it take four years to investigate the accusation? Why was he allowed to continue playing and representing the University while such serious charges were leveled against him? What support, if any, did the University offer to
addressing the issues in the most comprehensive speech of the year. There was no mention of equal pay for women in the workforce. There wasn’t even an attempt at addressing the “War on Women” and how McMorris defies this notion — something that could have actually helped the GOP. Instead, McMorris painted a picture of picking apples on the farm as a child, marrying a nice gentleman she met while serving in Congress and raising her family while facing life’s unexpected challenges. Unfortunately, McMorris’ speech solidifies the predominant conservative norm that unless females smile, talk politely and insist the source of their power derives from traditional female roles rather than intelligence or ambition, they will not be accepted into the Republican Party. McMorris stated she “came to Congress to empower people, not politicians.” Her remarks, however, only empower Republican leadership to continue marginalizing females, leaving my comrades and me to continue fighting the War on Women alone. Katie Koziara Public Policy junior
the victim? There needs to be far more transparency into the entire process. It can’t stop here. It is simply unacceptable that the investigation took as long as it did, considering the absolute seriousness of the charges against Gibbons. We as a collective student body must demand more answers from University administrators. We absolutely cannot let this story die quietly. Sexual assault and rape are incredibly catastrophic and life-altering tragedies that leave deep, and oftentimes, permanent wounds. I, for one, do not accept the University’s slow response and find the way the situation was handled appalling. All signs point to the University looking to cover up potentially bad publicity, and not doing everything possible to protect its students. Is this the Michigan Difference? Al Alsaidy Engineering junior
W
Waste of the union
atching the State of the Union on Tuesday night, I wanted to hear five words and five words only: end the war on drugs. Before President Barack Obama was even in college, he spent his days and nights in JAMES Hawaii hang- BRENNAN ing out with the now-infamous “Choom Gang.” Choom is an old euphemism for smoking weed, an activity Obama and his pals participated in quite frequently. Not surprisingly, last week the president came to the same conclusion a lot of other former and current marijuana users have — the substance is no more dangerous than alcohol. Obama famously joked in 2006, “I inhaled frequently. That was the point.” While Obama can look back at his pot-smoking (and coke-snorting) days with humor, millions of young men like him are imprisoned every day for drugs and released years later only to be treated like second-class citizens. Though our chief executive believes marijuana is less dangerous than a legal substance, police and prosecutors continue to send people to jail for pot and other nonviolent offenses every day — offenses Obama committed plenty of times as a young man. Had Obama been caught smoking pot or doing blow when he was my age, it’s likely he would have been convicted of a felony and barred for years from voting. He would also have been automatically disqualified from jobs with arbitrary criminal background screenings that toss any
applications from convicted felons, regardless of the crime. In 2004, Obama put it quite eloquently: “The war on drugs has been an utter failure.” Today the United States has over 2 million incarcerated citizens with $70 billion in costs for corrections and incarceration. Huge portions of both of these statistics are thanks to the war on drugs. Half of federal prisoners are serving time for nonviolent drug offenses, with U.S. taxpayers being billed some $51 billion a year for prisons and enforcement. The Drug Policy Alliance estimates that the totality of the war on drugs has cost America over $1 trillion in taxes. That’s not including the countless billions that we have lost from those who have been thrown in jail and labeled felons for life, unable to get housing or jobs. We all know the State of the Union address is a joke. It means very little in terms of both politics and substantive policy, but for some reason 40 to 50 million people still watch it every year. If there were ever a time for the president to call for an end to America’s longest war, it was Tuesday night. Obama has articulated the same vision at all of his other State of the Union addresses. It has gotten us almost nowhere, especially with the current Republican Party holding the House of Representatives. Article after article came out this week discussing the insignificance of the State of the Union, especially recently. Had Obama called for an end to the war on drugs, the country would have been set ablaze (no pun intended). The majority of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, while a huge majority of people in both Texas and California are tired of sending people
to prison over drugs. This is a winning issue. I know the president is afraid of losing popularity and alienating people on both sides of the aisle, but he needs to realize he’s already done that. From Obamacare, to drone strikes, to the NSA scandal and the economy, Obama has made enemies with both progressives and rightwingers. He has accomplished very little of note in the last few years, and sadly, it seems the man elected to bring hope and change has only reinforced our country’s ideology that politicians bring neither. If I were Obama, I’d take a cue from a more popular leader: Pope Francis. Pope Francis has said and done things no other Pope has, and his simple actions and words have inspired new debates and discussions that may change the world’s political, social and economic trajectory. It was unthinkable a few years ago to imagine a Pope saying he isn’t in a position to judge gay men and women or to call on the church to stop talking about abortion and contraception, let alone start talking about income inequality and the poor. This unthinkable situation led to Pope Francis becoming, potentially, the most popular pope the world has yet to see. Calling for an end to the war on drugs could be the president’s Pope Francis moment, and it could very well be his legacy if he chooses. Obama probably won’t see the drug war end during his time in office, but the conversation has to begin somewhere; someone needs to start talking. How about the guy with the microphone? — James Brennan can be reached at jmbthree@umich.edu
MARY BRIDGET LEE | VIEWPOINT
An optimistic vision
During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, I was proud to hear our president talk about the issues that matter to Americans, especially those that impact us as students. From the skyrocketing cost of college to the importance of raising the minimum wage, the vision the president laid out last night is distinctly American — infused with the optimism and pragmatism that has always kept our nation moving forward. By making the issues so important to our generation a priority, President Barack Obama has committed to leading our nation to a bright future. We know that the cost of college is unacceptably high, and it isn’t going to go down overnight. But this president has put college affordability front and center, from creating a College Scorecard, to helping inform students about financial aid opportunities, to keeping student loan rates low. When Republicans in Congress were ready to abandon us by doubling interest rates, Obama stood up
for us and saved money for students across the country. In Michigan, a state controlled by Republicans at every level of government, college becomes less affordable every day. Gov. Rick Snyder has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of concern for education, cutting more than $1 billion from K-12 funding in 2011 and watching higher-education funding fall by 11 percent since taking office. These cuts result in lower quality and more expensive education. Obama reminds us that it’s time to elect leaders who will make education a priority. Notably, the president also discussed that Congress needs to step up to boost our economy and help the American people. By heeding the president’s call and raising the minimum wage, Congress would affirm that it is unacceptable for a person to work full-time and live below the poverty line. Raising the minimum wage is especially important to young people, many of whom rely on hourly
jobs to help pay for their education. Along these same lines, Congress should immediately renew emergency unemployment insurance. In our state, Michiganders have lost these vital benefits. Without unemployment insurance, these people may struggle to put food on the table for their families and lack resources like gas money to effectively search for jobs. Obstructionist Republicans are blocking these bills in Congress, and we should stand up to them — now is not the time to play political games while hurting our economy. Throughout his presidency, Obama has fought to expand opportunity for all Americans — especially young people. As a member of the College Democrats, I’m fired up to continue to stand with Obama in this fight. It’s our responsibility to hold Congress and Washington accountable to ensure that our futures are as bright as they can be. Mary Bridget Lee is an LSA junior.
TAYLOR NORTON | VIEWPOINT
Does it make a sound?
Last Saturday, President Barack Obama established the White House Task Force on Protecting Students from Sexual Assault, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to fight sexual violence on college campuses. In a Title IX procedure in December, the University permanently separated a student athlete from our institution after naming him responsible for a sexual assault committed in 2009. While the reality of the assault and the subsequent years of inaction are deeply disturbing to our community, we can count this as an enormous success for our new Title IX policy. This thorough and conclusive investigation suggests that we are finally on the right track, that the University administration has, like Obama, recommitted itself to creating a safe environment for everyone on our cam-
pus. So far, there has been no official statement from any department of the University administration. The question remains: why are we ignoring such an enormous success? The I Will campaign was designed to challenge the University community to engage in difficult, yet necessary, dialogue about sexual violence and the silence surrounding this instance is greatly disappointing to us. When faced with an epidemic in our own community, it is our duty as the leaders and the best to seek it out and eliminate it — a duty that in this case, was ultimately fulfilled. How can we lead by example if nobody gets the chance to hear about it? This is our campus. It’s our business. When sexual violence haunts our friends and peers, their struggles mustn’t languish in obscurity. As a community, we deserve all the facts
we need to ensure the safety and prosperity of the people we love. This silence must be broken. In ignoring this enormous success, we reject an opportunity for silent survivors on campus to witness the justice lying within their reach, and prevent the courage of their peers from inspiring them to seek the help and support that they deserve. This is inexcusable. Please join the I Will Team on Friday, Jan. 31 at 2:30 p.m. at Amer’s on Church Street for a conversation about the evolving Gibbons separation and Obama’s newly formed task force. We’re done with the silence. We’ll be there. Will you? Taylor Norton is a School of Music, Theatre, and Dance senior and campaign director of I Will.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, January 30, 2014 — 5A
Twenty journalists on trial in Cairo courts
NEWS BRIEFS EMPIRE, Mich.
Sleeping Bear Dunes wilderness bill advances A bill that would designate 32,000 acres of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore as wilderness is moving closer to congressional approval. The measure won unanimous backing this week from the House Committee on Natural Resources. A floor vote has not been scheduled. A similar version cleared the Senate last year. The lakeshore is headquartered in Empire in the northwestern Lower Peninsula in and is in the district of Rep. Dan Benishek, who is sponsoring the bill. He says it would preserve the park’s natural features while protecting county roads, historical structures and access to recreation and enjoyment of the lake.
WASHINGTON
Japan envoy urges calm amid tensions with China Japan’s ambassador called for improved relations with China on Wednesday as the top U.S. intelligence official warned that territorial disputes and nationalist fervor are increasing the risk of conflict in East Asia. Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae said people are afraid of the consequences of a deteriorating relationship between the two Asian powers, and appealed for a calming of “agitated remarks” from both sides. Sasae told a Washington think tank that constructive dialogue was needed but also said Japan would not give in to pressure over its sovereignty claims. The long-running dispute over unoccupied islands that Japan calls Senkaku and China calls Diaoyu has grown more intense since Japan, a key U.S. ally, nationalized some of them in 2012. China has stepped up patrols around the islands, which are controlled by Japan but claimed by both nations. China recently declared an air defense zone over the islands, drawing stiff international criticism.
NEW YORK
Super Bowl ads show signs of maturity Forget slapstick humor, corny gimmicks and skimpy bikinis. This year’s Super Bowl ads promise something surprising: Maturity. There won’t be any close-up tongue kisses in Godaddy’s ad. Nor will there be half-naked women running around in the Axe body spray spot. And Gangnam Style dancing will be missing from the Wonderful Pistachios commercial. In their place? Fully-clothed women, well-known celebs and more product information.
KIEV, Ukraine
Ukraine lawmakers offer amnesty to mass protesters Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday passed a measure offering amnesty to those arrested in two months of protests, but only if demonstrators vacate most of the buildings they occupy. The move was quickly greeted with contempt by the opposition. The measure was put forth by a lawmaker from the party of President Viktor Yanukovych, who is casting about for a way to end the protests, which are calling for his resignation. The measure was a softer version of an earlier proposal to only offer amnesty if all protests dispersed. But the opposition regards the arrests during the protests — 328 by one lawmaker’s count — as fundamentally illegitimate. —Compiled from Daily wire reports
Egyptian gov. accuses al-Jazeera reporters of assisting terrorists
CARLOS OSORIO/AP
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is floating to lawmakers whether the state should contribute money to shore up Detroit pension plans to stave off the sale of city-owned pieces in an art museum.
Detroit’s emergency manager submits debt plan to creditors
Details not available to public, will likely be adjusted before court hearing
DETROIT (AP) — The stateappointed emergency manager overseeing Detroit’s finances on Wednesday gave the bankrupt city’s creditors copies of his plan to restructure the debt, though it could be modified before being reviewed by a court. Details of the plan were not released publicly. In a written statement to the media, Orr said the so-called plan of adjustment outlines how much each class of creditors would receive for claims submitted in bankruptcy court. The plan is expected to be filed with the court in about two weeks, Orr said. Orr said the plan “offers the most effective and efficient
way for Detroit to resolve its numerous issues.” He originally had said the plan would be released in late December but moved that back as mediation continued with city unions, banks, a group representing retirees, and other creditors. “There is much work still to do and we believe the proposed plan provides the roadmap for all parties to resolve all outstanding issues and facilitate the city’s efforts to achieve long-term financial health,” said Orr, who was appointed by the state last March to fix Detroit’s finances. He filed the bankruptcy petition in July. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes approved it in December. It’s the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Experts have said the debtrestructuring plan likely will bear some similarities to a June 14 report laid out to cred-
itors when Orr said Detroit was insolvent. He placed Detroit’s debt at $18 billion or more, including $3.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and $5.7 billion in unfunded retiree health care obligations. “Time is of the essence,” Orr said Wednesday. “The longer we remain entrenched in our positions and fail to reach an agreement, the worse life gets for Detroit’s 700,000 residents and the greater our collective challenges become. My team and I believe this plan presents each interested party with fair and equitable treatment, and we look forward to working with our creditors to adopt this plan.” Since filing for bankruptcy, Orr has proposed freezing pension benefits to thousands of city workers and reducing health care benefits, affecting about 28,500 current and retired employees.
Uruguay president opposes the business suit, other formalities Saying they must stay faithful to cultural roots, Mujica spurns the tie HAVANA (AP) — War! Imperialism! Racism! Formal attire! One after another, the leaders of Latin America denounced the ills of the world at a regional summit in Cuba on Wednesday. It fell to famously casual Jose Mujica, the Uruguayan president, to tackle a subtler evil plaguing humankind: the business suit. “We have to dress like English gentlemen!” exclaimed Mujica, clad in a rumpled white shirt. “That’s the
suit that industrialization imposed on the world!” “Even the Japanese had to abandon their kimonos to have prestige in the world,” he continued, gesturing forcefully and rapping a pen on the table to punctuate his words. “We all had to dress up like monkeys with ties.” Mujica’s tirade was a light moment in an otherwise mostly sober gathering of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that focused on hunger, poverty and inequality. But Mujica was also trying to make a serious point: That Latin American leaders must stay faithful to their cultural roots and not alienate the common man in a region where the wealthy are a tiny minority.
Mujica is known for his homespun oratory, cantankerous personality and insistence on living simply in a world of conspicuous consumption. Even as president, he still lives on a small, ramshackle flower farm with his wife. He gives away nine-tenths of his salary, doesn’t have a bank account and drives a VW Beetle that’s more than four decades old. “To be free you have to have time, a little bit of time, to live, to cultivate the three, four, five unquestionable, fundamental things that are important in life,” he said in Havana. “All the rest is noise and fuss.” Mujica is also famous for never wearing a tie. Wednesday was no exception.
Researchers link antioxidant supplements to cancer risks Some antioxidants may paradoxically increase risks for tumors WASHINGTON (AP) — Antioxidant vitamins are widely assumed to be cancer fighters even though research in smokers has found high doses may actually raise their risk of tumors. Now a new study may help explain the paradox. Swedish scientists gave antioxidants to mice that had early-stage lung cancer, and watched the tumors multiply and become aggressive enough that the animals died twice as fast as untreated mice. The reason: The extra vitamins apparently blocked one of the body’s key cancer-fighting mechanisms, the researchers
reported Wednesday. The scientists stressed that they can’t make general health recommendations based on studies in mice, but said their work backs up existing cautions about antioxidant use. “You can walk around with an undiagnosed lung tumor for a long time,” said study co-author Martin Bergo of the University of Gothenburg. For someone at high risk, such as a former smoker, taking extra antioxidants “could speed up the growth of that tumor.” Antioxidants are compounds that help protect cells from certain types of damage, and antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables certainly are healthy. The question is the health effect of extra-high doses in pill form. Studies in people have shown mixed results but haven’t proven that vitamin supplements prevent cancer, and a few have suggest-
ed the possibility of harm. One study in the 1990s found betacarotene increased the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Nor are smokers the only concern: A 2011 study found Vitamin E supplements increased men’s risk of prostate cancer. As for people who already have cancer, the National Cancer Institute says: “Until more is known about the effects of antioxidant supplements in cancer patients, these supplements should be used with caution.” But biologically, scientists couldn’t explain why antioxidants might harm. Wednesday’s report in the journal Science Translational Medicine is a first step to do so. The research doesn’t examine whether antioxidants might help prevent tumors from forming in the first place — only what happens if cancer already has begun.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt said 20 journalists, including four foreigners, working for Al-Jazeera will face trial on charges of joining or aiding a terrorist group and endangering national security — an escalation that raised fears of a crackdown on freedom of the press. It was the first time authorities have put journalists on trial on terrorism-related charges, suggesting authorities are expanding the reach of a heavy-handed crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since the military’s ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3. A trial date was not set, and the full list of charges and names of defendants not yet issued. But they are known to include three men working for Al-Jazeera English — acting bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian, award-winning correspondent Peter Greste of Australia and producer Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian. The three were arrested on Dec. 29 in a raid on the hotel suites in which they were working. The charges are based on the government’s designation last month of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Authorities have long depicted the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network as biased toward Morsi and the Brotherhood. But police largely targeted its Arabic service and its Egyptian affiliate, which remained one of the few TV stations to provide a platform for the Brotherhood after the government crackdown. While journalists have been detained, the decision to refer cases to trial is unprecedented, experts said. Al-Jazeera denies bias and has demanded the release of its reporters, whose arrest sparked an outcry from rights groups and journalist advocacy organizations. Authorities have also denied the network’s reporters accreditation. In the United States, which has already suspended some of its more than $1 billion annual aid to Egypt, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington remained “deeply concerned about the ongoing lack of freedom of expression and press freedom.” “The government’s targeting of journalists and others on spurious claims is wrong and demonstrates an egregious disregard for the protection of basic rights and freedoms,” she told reporters at a regular briefing. “We strongly urge the government to reconsider detaining and trying these journalists.” The prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that 16 Egyptians in the case are accused of joining a terrorist group, while an Australian, a Dutch citizen and
two Britons were accused of helping to promote false news benefiting the terrorist group. If found guilty, the defendants could face sentences ranging from three years for spreading false news to 15 for belonging to a terrorist group. Prosecutors allege that the 20 journalists set up a media center for the Brotherhood in two suites in a luxury hotel. The statement said the defendants “manipulated pictures” to create “unreal scenes to give the impression to the outside world that there is a civil war that threatens to bring down the state” and broadcast scenes to aid “the terrorist group in achieving its goals and influencing the public opinion.” An official from the high state security prosecution team investigating the case said Fahmy, the acting bureau chief, was an alleged member of the Brotherhood, led the media operation that “fabricated footage” and broadcast it with the “aim of harming Egypt’s reputation.” The official said equipment confiscated included editing equipment, microphones, cameras, computers, Internet broadcasting equipment and money. The official said national security agents also seized documents, and handwritten notes including “students on strike during exams,” and “the most important trials of December.” Student supporters of Morsi were on strike and held protests that frequently turned violent for most of December. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Fahmy’s brother, Adel, said the family had given evidence to the prosecutors showing Mohammed Fahmy was not paid by the Brotherhood and did not adhere to the group’s conservative lifestyle. He said his brother has been kept in a high-security prison with Islamists and terror suspects. “This is a cooked case and they are trying to make it bigger than what it is,” Adel Fahmy said. Another relative said Mohammed Fahmy’s conditions have sharply deteriorated in the past week. The relative, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, said Fahmy has been denied food from outside, books and forced to sleep on the floor without a blanket. He has not been allowed out of his cell to exercise and has no concept of time. The prosecutors’ statement said eight defendants were in custody. Presumably they include Fahmy and his two detained colleagues. Two AlJazeera reporters were arrested in August while covering a police crackdown on pro-Morsi protesters in Cairo that killed hundreds. It was not known if they are among the defendants in the case.
News
6A — Thursday, January 30, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Monarch butterfly numbers drop to two decade low
Sochi chief: city is the ‘most secure venue’
Extreme weather, reduction of butterfly habitat are culprits
Over 50,000 police and soldiers deployed to Sochi LONDON (AP) — After all the talk of terror threats, corruption, overspending and anti-gay legislation, the head of the Sochi Olympics is determined to show the world the games will be a huge success. Nine days before the opening ceremony, organizing committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said Wednesday that Sochi is “fully ready” and will deliver safe, friendly and well-run games that defy the grim reports that have overshadowed preparations. “History will be made,” he said of Russia’s first Winter Games. With Sochi facing threats of terrorist attacks from insurgents from the North Caucasus, Chernyshenko said the city is the “most secure venue at the moment on the planet” and promised that tight security measures will not detract from the atmosphere of the games. “I can assure you that Sochi will be among the most securityfriendly games and all the procedures will be very gentle and smooth,” he said in a conference call with reporters. Russia is deploying more than 50,000 police and soldiers to guard the Olympics. A Muslim militant group claimed responsibility for back-to-back suicide bombings that killed 34 people in Volgograd in late December and threatened attacks on the games. “You will see thousands of (security) people around but it’s important to understand that the Olympics is a global event and the security is also a global multinational event and state authorities are doing (their) utmost to deliver Sochi as safest for everyone,” Chernyshenko said. Referring to the Russian law banning gay “propaganda” among minors, he repeated assurances that Russia will not discriminate against anyone at the Olympics on the basis of sexual orientation.
ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/AP
U.N. Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi reacts during his daily press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 29.w
Bitterness of Syrian civil war demonstrated at U.N. talks Supporters and opponents of Assad have first meeting in three years GENEVA (AP) — The bitterness and rancor stirred by Syria’s civil war were on full display this week at peace talks in Switzerland — and not just in the closed room where rival delegations are seeking a way to end the three-year conflict. For the first time since the country devolved into its bloody civil war, supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad — many of them journalists — are meeting face to face. The mix is producing more than just awkward moments between people with vastly different views. In the hallways of the U.N.’s European headquarters and on the manicured lawns outside, tempers have flared. Scuffles have broken out as journalists interrupt rival reports, government officials have received extraordinary public grillings, and a distraught mother confronted the Syrian government
delegation at their hotel. More than 130,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, and millions of people have been uprooted from their homes. The conflict has pitted neighbor against neighbor. People who were once friends have stopped talking to each other. Journalists who once worked together have been separated. Sectarian tensions, once tamped down under Assad’s grip, have exploded into the open. Many journalists have been forced to leave the country, either thrown out by the regime or going into selfimposed exiled in order to continue their work freely. Many have switched jobs to work with opposition or government outlets. “It has been a rare opportunity to meet and get to know each other again,” said Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian journalist working for the London-based Arabic regional newspaper, AlHayat. “It’s unnerving for both sides.” In Geneva, anti-government activists accuse journalists supporting the regime of com-
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Thursday, January 30, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Like many abbreviated terms in footnotes 6 “Hurlyburly” playwright David 10 Beer 14 __ ballerina 15 “Foaming cleanser” of old ads 16 Champagne Tony of ’60s golf 17 Biblical peak 18 Confused state 19 Plodding haulers 20 Emulate the successful bounty hunter 23 Halloween creature 26 Three NASCAR Unsers 27 Part of D.A.: Abbr. 28 __ Fáil: Irish “stone of destiny” 29 “To the best of my memory” 33 Chem lab event 34 A.L. lineup fixtures 35 Baby powder ingredient 36 Siesta 38 Missal sites 42 Grind 45 Start of a green adage 48 “Shalom aleichem” 51 Adolphe who developed a horn 52 “Do the Right Thing” director Spike 53 Intraoffice IT system 54 Attach, as a codicil 55 Devious traps, and a hint to surprises found in 20-, 29- and 48Across 59 Mechanical method 60 Open and breezy 61 Initial-based political nickname 65 Touched ground 66 Govt.-owned home financing gp. 67 Made calls at home
68 Chest muscles, briefly 69 Early temptation locale 70 Mails
37 Mitt Romney’s 2012 running mate 39 “The Celts” singer 40 Stacked fuel 41 Poker game 43 Bruins’ campus: Abbr. 44 Like most new drivers 46 Hot springs resorts 47 Strengthened
48 Prisoner’s reward 49 Strikingly unusual 50 Trailing 51 Purse part 56 New York team 57 “Him __”: romantic triangle ultimatum 58 Bout of beefy battlers 62 ER vitals 63 “However ...” 64 Product promos
DOWN 1 12-in. discs 2 Bush spokesman Fleischer 3 Sardine holder 4 Colorful Apple 5 Finger painting? 6 Hilton rival 7 In __: stuck 8 Cairo market ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 9 Pushed (oneself) 10 Explode 11 Store name derived from the prescription symbol 12 “Bam!” chef 13 Film fish 21 Second half of a ball game? 22 Cut with acid 23 1984 Olympics parallel bars gold medalist Conner 24 Out of port 25 Nonstick cookware brand 30 Seaport of Ghana 31 Bowled over 32 Tree with quivering leaves xwordeditor@aol.com 01/30/14
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ing with a specific mandate to ask disruptive questions. And for government officials used to controlling the narrative back home, the experience has been frazzling. “The regime’s delegation feel besieged here, they are on the defensive — clearly the weaker party,” claimed Rima Fleihan, a member of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group. During an impromptu briefing at last week’s opening session in Montreux, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi was hounded by a widely known anti-government activist who pressed him on the government’s indiscriminate use of barrel bombs against civilians in the hard-hit northern city of Aleppo. “Who is using barrel bombs in Aleppo?,” Rami Jarrah asked. “I will give you the Google coordinates of ISIL headquarters in Raqqa. Why don’t you bomb them?,” he demanded, referring to the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which hopes to turn the war into a regional conflagration that would allow it to take deeper root.
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The stunning and littleunderstood annual migration of millions of Monarch butterflies to spend the winter in Mexico is in danger of disappearing, experts said Wednesday, after numbers dropped to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1993. Their report blamed the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, extreme weather trends and the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter. After steep and steady declines in the previous three years, the black-and-orange butterflies now cover only 1.65 acres (0.67 hectares) in the pine and fir forests west of Mexico City, compared to 2.93 acres (1.19 hectares) last year, said the report released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission. They covered more than 44.5 acres (18 hectares) at their recorded peak in 1996. Because the butterflies clump together by the thousands in trees, they are counted by the area they cover. While the Monarch is not in danger of extinction, the decline in their population now marks a statistical long-term trend and can no longer be seen as a combination of yearly or seasonal events, experts said. The announcement followed on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which saw the United States, Mexico and Canada sign environmental accords to protect migratory species such as the Monarch. At the time, the butterfly was adopted as the symbol of trilateral cooperation. “Twenty years after the signing of NAFTA, the Monarch migration, the symbol of the three countries’ cooperation, is at serious risk of disappearing,” said Omar Vidal, the World Wildlife Fund director in Mexico. Lincoln Brower, a leading entomologist at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, wrote that “the migration is definitely proving to be an endangered biological phenomenon.” “The main culprit,” he wrote in an email, is now genetically modified “herbicide-resistant corn and soybean crops and herbicides in the USA,” which “leads to the wholesale killing of the monarch’s principal food plant, common milkweed.” While Mexico has made headway in reducing logging in the officially protected winter reserve, that alone cannot save the migration, wrote Karen Oberhauser, a professor at the University of Minnesota. She noted that studies indicate that the U.S. Midwest is where most of the butterflies migrate from. “A large part of their reproductive habitat in that region has been lost due to changes in agricultural practices, mainly the explosive growth in the use of herbicide-tolerant crops,” Oberhauser said. Extreme weather — severe
cold snaps, unusually heavy rains or droughts in all three countries — have also apparently played a role in the decline. But the milkweed issue now places the spotlight firmly on the United States and President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to visit Mexico on Feb. 19, with events scheduled for Toluca, a city a few dozen miles from the butterfly reserve. “I think President Obama should take some step to support the survival of the Monarch butterflies,” said writer and environmentalist Homero Aridjis. “The governments of the United States and Canada have washed their hands of the problem, and left it all to Mexico.” It’s unclear what would happen to the Monarchs if they no longer made the annual trek to Mexico, the world’s biggest migration of Monarch butterflies and the second-largest insect migration, after a species of dragonfly in Africa. There are Monarchs in many parts of the world, so they would not go extinct. The butterflies can apparently survive yearround in warmer climates, but populations in the northern United States and Canada would have to find some place to spend the bitter winters. There is also another smaller migration route that takes butterflies from the west to the coast of California, but that has registered even steeper declines. Oberhauser noted that some Monarchs now appear to be wintering along the U.S. Gulf coast, and there has been a movement in the United States among gardeners and home owners to plant milkweed to replace some of the lost habitat. But activists say large stands of milkweed are needed along the migratory route, comparable to what once grew there. They also want local authorities in the U.S. and Canada to alter mowing schedules in parks and public spaces, to avoid cutting down milkweed during breeding seasons. The migration is an inherited trait. No butterfly lives to make the full round-trip, and it is unclear how they remember the route back to the same patch of forest each year, a journey of thousands of miles to a forest reserve that covers 193,000 acres (56,259-hectares) in central Mexico. Some scientists think the huge masses of migrating butterflies may release chemicals that mark the migratory path and that if their numbers fall low enough, not enough chemical traces would remain and the route-marking might no longer work. The human inhabitants of the reserve had already noted a historic change, as early as the Nov. 1-2 Day of the Dead holiday, when the butterflies usually arrive. “They were part of the landscape of the Day of the Dead, when you could see them flitting around the graveyards,” said Gloria Tavera, the director of the reserve. “This year was the first time in memory that they weren’t there.” Losing the butterflies would be a blow for people such as Adolfo Rivera, a 55-year-old farmer from the town of Los Saucos who works as a guide for tourists in the Piedra Herrada wintering ground. He said the butterflies had come later and in smaller numbers this year, a fact he attributed to a rainy winter. “This is a source of pride for us, and income,” Rivera said.
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Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, January 30, 2014— 7A
Men’s Lacrosse Season Preview: Wolverines starting to think big Aided by strong recruiting class, Michigan looks to rebound By MINH DOAN Daily Sports Writer
After years of dominance at the club level, the transition phase to a Division I contender has been a steep learning curve for the Michigan men’s lacrosse team. But in its third season and with two recruiting classes under its belt, the team believes it’s ready to command respect from the rest of the nation. Michigan coach John Paul believes this is finally the season that Team Three blossoms. “Our first two years were overwhelmingly about building a culture,” Paul said. “Now, enough of that is done and we feel like we have the talent to start thinking about bigger goals. We have two goals for this year. One is to win a conference championship and the other is to beat Ohio State.” The team returns the first Wolverine recruiting class in its history, which includes last year’s leading scorer, sophomore midfielder Kyle Jackson, and sophomore midfielder Mike Hernandez, who leads the team in assists. Both players were also on the Eastern College Athletic Conference All-Rookie team last year. The first recruiting class will also have a full year of experience and will look to improve into its sophomore campaigns. “All the freshmen last year
got a lot of playing time,” Jackson said. “Those game experiences should help us out a lot this year.” But even with big goals for the season, Michigan began the season practicing the basics. “We’re doing the fundamental drills in practice,” Jackson said. “We’re doing the passing, the catching, the shooting, the individual stick work. We’re just looking to get better every day.” With that, the Daily breaks down the 2014 season, position by position. ATTACKMEN The attack comes into its second year under offensive coordinator, Ryan Danehy, and looks to become more complex after players have had a year to get accustomed to the system. Junior attacker Will Meter, who led all attackers last season with 10 goals, will miss the first month of the season due to a knee injury that occurred over winter break. “Will has been a threeyear starter for us and the ‘quarterback’ of our team,” Paul said. “We’ll miss him.” In Meter’s absence, the Wolverines will look to freshman attacker Ian King to head the offensive attack. King, who was ranked as the No. 45 recruit in the country by Inside Lacrosse and the No. 13
attacker in the class, was a 2013 US Lacrosse All-American. “King has been really coming on in practice,” Paul said. “He’ll be a freshman, but I expect some good things from him.” MIDFIELDERS The Wolverines return the core of their midfielders this season. Jackson, Hernandez and redshirt senior midfielder Thomas Paras — the top-three scorers from a year ago — return to a midfield that Paul expects to be the strongest point of the team that scored 64 percent of Michigan’s goals a year ago. Jackson will look to replicate his scoring total from last year. But he knows that if the team is successful, it won’t matter if he replicates his team leading total or not. “I just want to help my team do as well as it possibly can,” Jackson said. “I want to do whatever I can to lead the team to NCAA championships.” Freshman midfielder Mikie Schlosser from Davis, Calif., another heralded recruit, will also compete for playing time in a crowded midfield.
“I feel like we have the talent to start thinking about bigger goals”
DEFENDERS Considered a weakness the past two years, the defense has vastly improved and the backline will look to stifle opponents.
But a solid recruiting class and another year of experience should bolster a defense that allowed an average of 11.79 goals per game. “Our defense is one of our strengths this year,” Jackson said. “We struggled last year with it, but we’ve taken some steps to improve the system.” The coaching staff will give a hard look at freshman defender Andrew Hatton, another U.S. Lacrosse All-American, who will push for a substantial amount of playing time this season. GOALTENDERS Sophomore goalie Gerald Logan, a 2013 ECAC AllRookie, was expected to continue his dominance in the net. But the sophomore tore his labrum and needed surgery on the shoulder muscle. Because of the surgery, Logan will be out for the remainder of the 2014 season. To fill the big hole left by Logan, the Wolverines will rely on freshman goalie Robby Zonino, the No. 68 recruit in the nation, to guard the Michigan net. “We’re going to be putting a lot of trust into Zonino,” Paul said. “I think he’s ready for the challenge.” Backing up Zonino will be sophomore Mike D’Alessio and senior goalkeeper Bobby Riso, a walk-on, who was recently brought up from the men’s club lacrosse team because the varsity team needed three goalkeepers to practice. After two years of building a culture, Michigan will open the season looking to the freshman and sophomores of the program to lead them to success.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan lacrosse team has higher expectations this season after welcoming a high-level recruiting class. Freshman Ian King will lead the offensive attack.
PATRICK BARRON/Daily
Sophomore goaltender Gerald Logan will miss this season with a torn labrum.
Riso makes jump
from club to varsity By MATHEW KIPNIS Daily Sports Writer
Is sitting on the bench ever better than starting for a team? For senior goalie Bobby Riso, the answer is a resounding yes after he was called up from the club lacrosse team to the varsity level. Many club sports players dream of a day they might be called up to the varsity level and have an opportunity to fight for a starting job, but Riso is satisfied with his spot on the practice squad and has no complaints. “I didn’t even imagine I would be on this team so I am 100-percent satisfied with this role,” Riso said. “Everyone would love to be able to start for a Division I team but the fact that I am on the team now is pretty satisfactory. I am pretty happy with the backup role.” For Riso, practice does not make perfection — it means perfection. On this stage he is able to compete against the best competition that he has ever played. “My first reaction when I heard I was called up to the varsity lacrosse team was honestly disbelief and it didn’t seem real to me,” he said. “I remember waking up the next morning and checking through my emails to make sure it actually did happen.” When Riso received the e-mail, he almost missed the chance to be promoted. Riso was abroad over break and didn’t have a way to contact anyone from Michigan. He had to think fast and find a way to get in touch with someone to relay his message back to the states. “I guess they had left me a voicemail but I had no way to access it,” Riso said. “Because I was out of the country, I had no Wi-Fi. I was able send a message to my sister and she was the one that actually called the assistant coach, Jeff Turner, back to tell them that I had an interest in joining.” Because of an injury to sophomore goalie and reigning
team MVP Gerald Logan and the departure of sophomore goalie Dylan Hurd due to academic reasons, the Wolverines were left with two goalies on the roster. If the team had three goalies, it could survive, but it couldn’t make do with two since it couldn’t scrimmage. After the initial call up — when the entire club team was promoted to the varsity level — Riso is the first player to be promoted to varsity in the team’s three-year history. “We knew we had to add somebody and we knew Bobby, as we had been tracking him at Michigan,” Michigan coach John Paul said. “It was a logical fit. A lot of our guys knew Bobby and thought highly of him so that was important so that he could fit into our team culture.” Riso played his first threeand-a-half seasons on the club team. As a freshman, he split time in goal and earned the starting role the following year. During his sophomore year, he had a 62-percent save percentage, but he broke his hand and missed his junior season. Last fall, he played seven games before getting called up. Club lacrosse has helped Riso over the past three years by keeping him active and helping him stay sharp. “He is going to add what we need in practice, which is a third goalie,” Paul said. “It allows for us to function more effectively in practice.” Riso wasn’t called up to compete for the starting job or to be a leader on this team. He was called up to be a great teammate, and he understands that. “They were pretty up front with me about that,” Riso said. “They were very confident that (freshman goalie) Robbie Zonino is the starter. My role is to be the best teammate I can during practice. It’s staying around after practice to help” Riso has no complaints about his role on the team. For him, it’s a dream just to sit on the varsity bench.
Chiasson waits for his opportunity on defense By ALEJANDRO ZÚÑIGA Daily Sports Editor
The afternoon before every game, junior defenseman Mike Chiasson and the rest of the Michigan hockey team sit together to watch film of the upcoming opponent. Afterward, the flatscreen TV displays the line pairings for the next day’s contest. For much of the season, Chiasson has been disappointed to not see his name on those lists. After playing 30 games each year as a freshman and sophomore, the defenseman has earned little playing time this year. When freshman Kevin Lohan suffered a torn lateral meniscus on Nov. 1, Michigan coach Red Berenson replaced him by converting junior Andrew Sinelli from a forward to a defenseman instead of turning to Chiasson. Even as the unit has struggled, allowing 33 shots per game, Chiasson has seen time in just seven games. “I’ve been around hockey
for a long time, and I know it’s not easy,” Chiasson said. “I have to come to the rink and be a professional every day. I understand that coach Berenson says I’m right there, but we have a solid six defensemen back there. I’m taking it in stride and I’m learning from it.” Berenson’s game-day decisions are based heavily on a system he uses to rate each athlete’s performance. The coaches assign values to positive or negative plays and then compare them to individualized benchmarks. The players aren’t privy to the exact numbers, but they meet for progress reports three times per season. “He’s a great kid and he’s worked hard, just like everyone else,” Berenson said. The sparse playing time isn’t all Chiasson’s doing. Berenson admitted that he gave the freshmen preferred opportunities at the beginning of the season. Because Chiasson has seen such little time in games, coaches have
had limited opportunity to rank his progress throughout the year. “Players that are not in the lineup, the best way to get back in the lineup is to be lights out in practice,” Berenson said. “They’ve got to make practices their games.” That hasn’t stopped others from earning roster spots, though. Sophomore Justin Selman and freshman Max Shuart both impressed enough to play against Michigan State last weekend, and though the roster for the Wisconsin series this weekend hasn’t been decided, Berenson said both will likely retain those roles. No line pairing has been perfect. Against the Spartans last Thursday, junior Brennan Serville rushed off the ice for a change on the fly despite the play moving toward the Wolverines’ defensive zone. The resulting two-on-one nearly resulted in a Michigan State goal. That’s just one of many miscues by a disorganized defense that
has forced freshman goaltender Zach Nagelvoort into needing to regularly make spectacular saves. Though Sinelli’s transition to defense has been a pleasant surprise, Berenson gives Serville mixed reviews. Wednesday, he explained that the junior “is just starting to put it together,” but that he has “really had to work hard to stay in the lineup this year.” Meanwhile, the coach said Chiasson has regressed at times according to his rating system. “If a player has an off night or we feel like we need another guy out there, Chiasson hasn’t let us down,” Berenson said. Added Chiasson: “If you can play a consistent game, the better chance you have to play in the lineup every single game. They make the decisions, and I support it.” Until then, the junior promises to continue learning and fighting to stand out in the eyes of his coaches. And the day before every game, he’ll keep hoping to see his name on that flat-screen TV.
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Junior defenseman Mike Chiasson has played in just seven games this year.
Sports
8A — Thursday, January 30, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
After grueling schedule, Wolverines Behind enemy lines: look to catch their breath vs. Purdue Terone Johnson Michigan prepares to defend dual offensive threats in Johnson brothers By SIMON KAUFMAN Daily Sports Writer
The Purdue men’s basketball team has a better shot of getting a major Purdue at sponsorship Michigan from Matchup: American Purdue 13-7; manufacturer Michigan 15-4 Johnson & When: Johnson Thursday than it does 9 P.M. of remaining relevant in the Where: Crisler Big Ten. The Center TV/Radio: Boilmakers backcourt is ESPN led by brothers Terone and Ronnie Johnson, who will faceoff against Michigan Thursday night. After an upset victory in East Lansing, the tenth-ranked Wolverines own sole possession of first place in the Big Ten, and it’s unlikely that will change following their matchup with Purdue (3-4 Big Ten, 13-7 overall). Thursday night’s opponent is a drop off in talent given Michigan’s recent competition and may give it an opportunity to catch its breath — even if only for one game.
The Wolverines (7-0, 15-4) are coming off their most grueling week of the season thus far, in which they faced three top-10 opponents — Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State — and came away with their three biggest wins of the year thus far. Michigan coach John Beilein, in typical Beilein fashion, refused to look past Thursday, regardless of the opponent. Purdue has played Beilein’s teams competitively over the past two years, losing by just five a season ago in West Lafayette — but Michigan has handily taken care of the Boilermakers at the Crisler Center. “That’s the challenge I think of coaching everywhere,” said Beilein when asked if he was concerned about his team losing energy after coming off of a big week. “You have to continue to address that, and you trust the character of your kids, and you trust that they get it, they understand this game.” The Johnson brothers are Purdue’s biggest threats. Terone and Ronnie are averaging 13.4 and 10.6 points per game, respectively, as the family affair has scored 32 percent of the Boilermakers’ points this season. In Michigan’s matchup against them last March, the pair combined for 37 points. “We could not stop them last year,” Beilein said. “Terone could get anywhere he wanted to get to, so it’s a big challenge for us.” The bigger challenge facing the Wolverines going forward,
“With us playing so well, you almost wanna be able to play games, not practice.”
By DANIEL WASSERMAN Daily Sports Editor
The 2013-14 season has brought another year of so-so basketball to West Lafayette, as the Purdue men’s basketball team sits at seventh in the conference — exactly where they were picked to finish by the media. But for one set of parents, every game this year — win or lose — can’t be taken for granted. At each game Terone and Rona Johnson attend, they get to their pair of sons sharing the starting backcourt, just like they did at Indianapolis’s North Central High School. Terone, a senior, leads the team with 13.4 points per game, while younger brother Ronnie, the starting point guard, leads the team in assists. At Chicago’s Big Ten Media Day in October, the Daily sat down with Terone to talk about the tempered expectations heading into the season and what it’ll be like to play with his brother for one final season. The Michigan Daily: You guys were picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten. How much does that motivate you guys heading into the season? Terone Johnson: I think you look at it at some point, but I don’t think it’s something you look at on a daily basis. You want to worry about yourself and worry about what we have to do as a team and get better. We feel like we have a chance to win the Big Ten this year with the talent that we’ve got. We’ve just got to put it all together. TMD: You never want to have a season like last year, but can
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Fifth-year senior forward Jordan Morgan looks to control the paint Thursday.
though, will be endurance. Thursday night it begins a stretch of five games in 13 days, including Indiana, Iowa and Ohio State on the road. The two-week stretch will be telling of how good Michigan is. A clear vulnerability of the squad is its lack of depth beyond a regular eight-man rotation, and the Wolverines’ ability to recover quickly from game to game will begin to be tested. “With us playing well, you almost wanna just be able to play games, not practice as much,” said fifth-year senior forward Jordan Morgan. “At the same time its gonna be difficult — obviously for recovery, our bodies and things
of that nature.” If Michigan’s three wins last week helped validate the team, a successful run in this upcoming stretch would help define it and further mitigate doubts that arose after dropping four nonconference contests. “There was a bunch of teams that were all highly ranked before their league season started,” Beilein said. “They had unblemished records, and now they’re not even close to it.” But as quickly as an unblemished Big Ten record comes, it can go. Michigan will try to avoid finding that out as it continues its quest to remain perfect in the conference starting on Thursday night.
those types of seasons help kick the program back into gear and get everyone hungrier? TJ: Oh yeah. The young guys, they actually took it well, as far as off-season workouts and things like that. That was something that we talked about the whole summer, that had to sit with us and I feel like they took the challenge over the summer and they got better. The new guys coming in, they attached to us really fast, so our chemistry is coming together really well right now. TMD: I’m sure you’re very used to getting questions about your brother, but has it crossed your mind much that this is probably going to be the last season that you will play on a team together at a competitive level? TJ: It does. It’s been a good — as far since I’ve been playing, we’ve been playing together. He’s always played up and played with me and I’ve been able to see him play, so obviously it’s going to be something that we look at as a family also. TMD: Bigger deal for your parents, maybe? TJ: Yeah, I think it’s a bigger deal for my parents. It’ll probably be a bigger deal for me later on, but it’s just fun and it’s something that we’ve always loved doing. TMD: For a guy like you who has NBA aspirations, how does the Big Ten help prepare you for that? TJ: It’s a huge conference as far as professional basketball, no matter where you want to play at. It puts you in the best position because of the physicality, the competition that you get to play against and also, I feel like the league is so smart that guys won’t let you do certain things and they’ll make you play to your weaknesses, so I think that really helps for professional basketball.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Nebraska too much for Wolverines in Lincoln By SHANNON LYNCH Daily Sports Writer
The road warriors have finally hit a wall. At the start of the second half in Pinnacle Bank Arena, junior forward Nicole Elmblad gave the Michigan women’s basketball team MICHIGAN 51 its first NEBRASKA 84 chance for points after the break with a layup. She missed. Seconds later, Nebraska guard Tear’a Laudermill easily knocked down a nothing-but-net 3-pointer, extending the Cornhuskers’ lead to 21 with just under 20 minutes remaining in the game. Those short seconds are a good summary of the Wolverines’ first road loss, when Michigan (5-3 Big Ten, 14-7 overall) fell flat offensively and failed to protect on its own end. It allowed Nebraska — a team coming off back-to-back losses — to finish the contest with a bigger lead than any of the Wolverines’ opponents this season. Michigan never came close to bridging the gap and fell to the Cornhuskers, 84-51. “It was one of those nights,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. After managing to keep the scoring gap close in the first eight minutes of play, Nebraska (4-3, 14-7) racked up nine unanswered points. It never handed the momentum back over, and as hard as Michigan pushed back, the Cornhuskers couldn’t be stopped. “We tried to get different
looks, and it seemed like we couldn’t get stops,” Barnes Arico said. “When we did score, they ran in transition on us, so they did a really great job.” Elmblad was the only Wolverine with any consistent shooting throughout the game, and she was able to knock down the jumpers the Husker defense forced Michigan to take. She finished the night with 16 points, but her contribution couldn’t lift the offense out of its slump. Nebraska never let up on defense, forcing the Wolverines to run down the shot clock and take tough jump shots under pressure. Junior guard Shannon Smith, Michigan’s leading scorer, finished the night with just 10 points. The Cornhuskers kept her in check with a steady dose of double teams, cutting off nearly every driving lane. Smith went just 4-for-15 from the field, far below her normal 42-percent shooting average. “They always sag off of non3-point shooters, and that’s why I was able to get some open shots,” Elmblad said. “They did a good job with their center court and really knowing their matchups on us, and we weren’t able to execute our offense.” Junior forward Cyesha Goree, whose aggressive presence and consistent rebounding have been important for the Wolverines this season, was hampered by foul trouble midway through the second half, forcing Barnes Arico to bench her. The absence of her 6-foot-2 frame on the court put Michigan at an even bigger disadvantage. The Wolverines suffered
shooting woes from the start, which they failed to make up for on defense. Five Nebraska players made at least one 3-pointer — the Cornhuskers’ leading scorer, forward Jordan Hooper, made four. She finished the night with 10 rebounds and 25 points in just 27 minutes on the court. “The biggest thing that we had trouble with was just locating her in transition,” Elmblad said. “Sometimes, we just had some lapses and forgot where she was, she got open, and all she needs is a few seconds of space.” Though it never backed down, Michigan couldn’t cut down on Nebraska’s shot production. The Cornhuskers finished the night shooting 53 percent from the field, 90 percent from the free throw line, and totaled 38 rebounds, 27 assists and just seven turnovers. Losing by 33 points has the potential to ruin the confidence that the young and inexperienced Wolverines have worked so hard to build up this season. To limit the damage done, Barnes Arico said they will need to make major improvements on both ends of the court before their next conference game Saturday against Minnesota. “Other teams are going to watch this to figure out how to attack us, so we better get better at the things we didn’t do too well,” Barnes Arico said. “The wind was out of their sails in the locker room, and hopefully they don’t get too down about this because we do have to bounce back.”
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