CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Friday, November 7, 2014
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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GOVERNMENT
Same-sex marriage ban upheld in court JAMES COLLER/Daily
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje (D) leads his final meeting at the Ann Arbor City Council Meeting Thursday.
Hieftje leads his last city council meeting as mayor Christopher Taylor to take the helm at next session By EMMA KERR and JACK TURMAN Daily Staff Reporters
Thursday night’s City Council meeting marked the end of an era. The weekly session was the last
for Councilmembers Sally Hart Petersen (D–Ward 2) and Margie Teall (D–Ward 4), as well as mayor John Hieftje, who will be succeeded by current Councilmember Christopher Taylor (D–Ward 3). When all was said and done, Hieftje received a standing ovation from councilmembers after his closing speech, and he thanked councilmembers and city staff. “I think you have all served very well,” Hieftje said. “But,
I also want to mention all the councilmembers that I had the opportunity to serve with over the years.” He also expressed gratitude to the people of Ann Arbor for the support he received. He said he was thankful for the people who followed Council meetings and spoke to the Council. Hieftje said the Council benefitted from these gestures and the people’s engagements in city issues.
City Administrator Steve Powers thanked Hieftje and councilmembers Teall and Petersen for their work on the Council at their final meeting Thursday. “You will be missed and we are sorry to see you go,” Powers said. “Please accept our gratitude for your service and support.” As for the future, Hieftje said he plans to stay in Ann Arbor and live a simple life. See HIEFTJE, Page 3
Decision differs from recent rulings across the nation By SHOHAM GEVA Daily Staff Reporter
The ban against same-sex marriage in Michigan was upheld in a decision announced by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Thursday afternoon, reversing a March decision from the district court. The three-member panel of judges in the case, who first heard oral arguments from both sides in August, along with five other cases from the region, voted 2-1 to uphold the ban. This decision is the first from a circuit court to uphold a ban on same-sex marriage following multiple decisions nationwide that have made same-sex mar-
CAMPUS LIFE
FormerKerryaide discusses peace negotiations Middle East expert talk covers potential for two-state solution By NEALA BERKOWSKI Daily Staff Reporter CHANMEE CHUNG/Daily
LSA Senior Colleen Rathz, event coordinator for Food Recovery Network, talks at the third annual Food for Thought dinner Thursday night.
Student group works to eliminate food waste Food for Thought works to recycle excess from dining halls By CARLY NOAH For The Daily
At the beginning of the third annual Food for Thought dinner, LSA senior Rachel Ross posed a question to the group. “Where does the food go?” she asked. Ross was referring to food scraps from the University’s dining hall; their final destination a central topic of Thursday evening’s event. Hosted by the University’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network, the gathering drew a crowd of 20 students. FRN communications director Taylor Flowers, an LSA senior, said the purpose of the dinner was to
WEATHER TOMORROW
HI: 43 LO: 30
not only participate in food recovery but also to share its importance with University students. “We go to local businesses in Ann Arbor and we get their recovered food, which is food that hasn’t been served but would typically go to waste, and we have dinner with our members and volunteers and people at the University who are interested in sustainability and food waste,” she said. At the dinner, participants helped themselves to bagels, salads and other excess food donated by businesses in Ann Arbor. LSA junior Rob Luzynski tried eating recovered food for the first time and said he found the experience meaningful. “It’s both a social justice issue and also an environmental issue. That’s my favorite thing to do — give the food to people who will use it or specifically people who need it,” he said. “It’s really
important that we reduce our energy needs and there are people that are hungry or people that could use some extra food and it’s being wasted.” Food recovered from campus dining is given to Food Gatherers food bank, and is then distributed to those in need in Washtenaw County. The organization is currently recovering food from East Quad Residence Hall, the Hill Dining Center, and Mary Markley Residence Hall. The chapter hopes to be eventually be actively recovering food from all dining halls. FRN outreach coordinator Madi Togrul, an LSA junior, noted the importance of community waste and raising awareness about food recovery. “One in seven people in Washtenaw County are food insecure, which means they don’t know where their next meal is coming See FOOD, Page 3
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Discussions of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict continued Thursday as a member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s negotiating team spoke to a crowd of more than 60 students and community members. David Makovsky, professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, lead the lecture in South Hall. Makovsky is also a Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and the Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Over a 10-month period, Makovsky worked with Kerry on peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and over territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Though Kerry hoped to reach a final status agreement by April 2014, the talks ultimately fell apart last spring. “When Secretary Kerry came in as Secretary of State and made this a priority, he said, ‘How can it be that both sides want a two-state solution? Each one is doing it for their own self-interest of course, but they overlap. Why can’t we take this issue and move on it?’”
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Despite intense negotiations, Makovsky said the teams were able to narrow, but not close, gaps during framework talks. He said this occurred in part because riskaverse leaders did not want to jump too far ahead on the most controversial and emotionally charged issues. However, he said Kerry’s team was able to assist in initiating a ceasefire in August after violence erupted in the region for much of the summer. “The big thing for the government was trying to find a way to end the Gaza War and that meant a ceasefire,” Makovsky said. “We had a clear strategy that we wanted this war to end without Hamas gaining, but reinstating the Palestinian Authority in Gaza because Hamas had taken over this place and held the Gazans hostage since 2007.” During the lecture, Makovsky also stressed the importance of college-aged students working to promote values such as acceptance and dialogue, rather than hostility or conflict. “I feel it’s very important that American campuses did not import the politics of confrontation from the Middle East but rather exports of politics of coexistence and of tolerance and pluralism that are really hallmarks of American society,” he said. “I feel that as being an eyewitness to official dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, if they can sit at the table and narrow their difSee KERRY, Page 3
Vol. CXXIV, No. 24 ©2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
riage legal in 35 states. Thursday’s decision also encompassed rulings against more narrow measures surrounding the recognition of same-sex marriages performed outside of Michigan and of death and birth certificate rights for same-sex couples, both stemming from cases brought by the other states in the Sixth Circuit. The majority opinion in the case, written by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, framed the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage as an inevitability, but upheld the ban based on one key issue: whether the decision on the legalization of same-sex marriage should be made by the courts. “Our judicial commissions did not come with such a sweeping grant of authority, one that would allow just three of us — just two of us in truth — to make such a vital policy call for the 32 million citizens who live within the four States of the Sixth CirSee MARRIAGE, Page 3
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Ford School competition to relieve parking woes Students develop projects designed to fix shortage in East Lansing By PARISHA NOVA Daily Staff Reporter
The Spartans couldn’t figure it out, so they’re commissioning Wolverines to fix East Lansing’s parking woes. The 2014 Ford School Case Competition is an opportunity for Public Policy graduate students to work collaboratively to address the parking needs in the city of East Lansing. The inaugural kickoff event for the competition took place in Weill Hall on Thursday night. Teams of three to five Master of Public Policy degree candidates will collaborate in finding creative solutions to East Lansing’s parking issues. Home of Michigan State University, the city struggles to provide an adequate number of spots for all students and residents. The team with the best solution will have the opportunity to present their proposal to the East Lansing City Council. If deemed feasible and efficient, it might be implemented. The idea for the Case Competition was created last spring from Ford School of Public Policy graduate students. This competition evolved into medium term cases of 10 days, as opposed to solely a weekend or 24 hours — all timeframes used for similar Public Policy School competiSee COMPETITION, Page 3
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