According to United Auto Workers Union president Ron Gettelfinger, he is not expecting a disagreement with Ford Motor Corp.
Detroit Free Press
Early presidential primary on brink of death
State loses in a higher court
November 17, 2007
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
LANSING -- A divided Michigan Court of Appeals refused Friday to overturn a lower court ruling that effectively bars the state from holding its presidential primary on Jan. 15.
By a 2-1 decision, the appeals panel sided with an Ingham County Circuit Court judge who ruled last week that the presidential primary law illegally restricted access to the lists of voters who participated in the election to the two major political parties.
It was not immediately clear whether Friday's decision is the final nail in the primary's coffin or not.
Minutes after its release, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis called on the Legislature to approve a bill pending in the state House designed to restore the primary. Lawmakers are tentatively scheduled to convene Tuesday, but may not act.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS06/711170373/1001/NEWS
Student admits to hanging nooses at CMU
November 17, 2007
By Emilia Askari
Free Press staff writer
A male Central Michigan University has admitted to hanging some nooses in a university classroom earlier this week, campus police said Saturday.
The student called police late Saturday morning to confess to fashioning the hate symbols from flexible compressed gas line used for laboratory work.
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Another student found the nooses in the university’s Engineering and Technology Building on Nov. 12. The nooses were made from flexible compressed gas lines that are used for laboratory work.
“Whether it was meant as a prank or not, it was still the type of action that we find deplorable,” CMU spokesman Steve Smith said Saturday. “We will use this as an opportunity to continue discussions about diversity and inclusion of everybody in America.”
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Station owner killed in gas war
Dispute over price brings out handgun
November 17, 2007
BY AMBER HUNT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The two gas stations had rivaled for years. They stood across an intersection from each other on Fort Street in Detroit, where even a penny's difference was enough to lure customers.
And so came the price war: One station dropped a cent or two, and the other grudgingly followed.
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But the seemingly petty back-and-forth escalated Friday, ending with a fatal bullet in BP station owner Jawad Bazzi's head over what police say was a 3-cent difference in the cost of regular gas.
"It's crazy," said a red-eyed Hafed Bazzi, the victim's nephew. "There had been conflicts before but never like this."
Here's what police said happened:
The Marathon station on Fort near Springwells dropped its price to $2.93. That angered Jawad Bazzi, whose regular gas was priced at $2.96.
Bazzi walked across the street with a couple of employees to confront the Marathon owner and his posse.
The groups argued, then began throwing punches. One of Bazzi's employees hit a Marathon employee with a baseball bat, injuring him.
That's when the Marathon owner grabbed a handgun and fired three or four times. Bazzi, 45, of Dearborn Heights was shot in the head.
The Marathon owner, whose name wasn't released Friday, was arrested. He's identified as a 51-year-old Warren man.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS01/711170338/1001/NEWS
IN OUR OPINION
How were FBI and CIA deceived?
November 16, 2007
It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the war on terror when an illegal immigrant from a family suspected of having terrorist ties can get a job at the FBI and the CIA, one that includes reviewing government files and doing covert work overseas. Covert from whom?
OK, she got caught, and the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit and federal law enforcement agencies here deserve credit for bringing this case to light and getting Nada Nadim Prouty to plead guilty to marriage fraud and illegally accessing an FBI computer system. But that cannot be the end of it. Federal authorities need to establish how she got into such sensitive positions, how much information she got out, and where it went.
Authorities say Prouty, 37, a resident of suburban Washington, was trying to find out if she and family members were being investigated by the FBI and to learn details of a Detroit-based investigation of Hizballah, which the federal government lists as a terrorist group.
A former waitress at the Dearborn-based La Shish restaurant chain who later obtained advanced degrees, Prouty went from FBI agent to covert CIA operative in a span of about eight years with no one in either agency realizing that her U.S. citizenship was based on a fraudulent marriage for which she never made an agreed-upon payment to a downriver man. Through a sister's marriage, Prouty became sister-in-law to La Shish owner Talal Chahine, who is currently a fugitive under indictment on tax charges.
The worst fear is that Prouty's years in government service in Washington were part of a plot to plant someone in highly secret federal operations. Equally important is learning how government agents did not, in routine background checks, discover the sham marriage to a man who never had a relationship with Prouty. Shouldn't he have been interviewed?
For the sake of their future integrity, the FBI and CIA need to know what happened. For the sake of national security, they also need to determine how much damage has been done.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071116/OPINION01/711160334/1069
QUICK HIT: Editorial
November 17, 2007
DON'T FALL: Mild weather has kept leaves on trees weeks longer than usual. There ought to be a rule that if you're not on the ground by Thanksgiving, you have to stay up all winter.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/OPINION01/711170330/1069
More than 140 nations agree on warming plan
Guide due out at climate conference
November 17, 2007
BY ARTHUR MAX
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VALENCIA, Spain -- Delegates from more than 140 nations, including the United States, agreed Friday on a scientific guide for policy-makers, stating more forcefully than ever that climate change has begun and threatens to irreversibly alter the planet.
"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," a summary begins in a statement meant to dispel any skepticism about climate change, said participants in the meeting.
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In a startling and much-debated conclusion, the document warns that human activity risks causing "abrupt or irreversible changes" on Earth, including the widespread extinction of species and a dramatic rise in sea levels before the end of this century, they said on condition of anonymity because the details are supposed to remain confidential until today.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS07/711170389/1009
GROWING GREEN: Christmas tree farm's environmentally friendly ways lauded
November 17, 2007
BY L.L. BRASIER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Genovese family of Oxford has been growing Christmas trees on their 18-acre farm for 32 years.
But they are not just raising evergreens -- these are very green evergreens.
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Their Candy Cane CHRISTmas Tree Farm is gaining state recognition for its environmentally friendly practices and received a prestigious ecology award this week from the Michigan Farm Bureau.
"We decided early on that we have to live in concert with the Earth," said Cathy Genovese, who owns the farm with her husband, Frank. "We want to leave it a better place; to farm so that we do no harm."
Among their green practices, they plant each tree by hand -- there are thousands -- using an electric auger, rather than the large tractors found on most farms. The Genovese farm, among the first of the 780 Christmas tree farms in the state, uses a precise drip irrigation method that saves water and energy compared with overhead sprinkler systems.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS03/711170380/1001/NEWS
Japan Fleet Sets Off to Hunt Humpbacks
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Associated Press Writer
SHIMONOSEKI, Japan (AP) -- Japanese whalers set off into the South Pacific on Sunday with orders to kill humpback whales for the first time in decades. The hunt is certain to inflame tensions in the standoff between anti-whaling forces and Japan.
Angry environmental activists have pledged to chase Japan's whalers to the Antarctic.
"The Japanese government's scientific whaling program is a sham," said Karli Thomas, expedition leader aboard the Greenpeace boat Esperanza, waiting outside Japanese territorial waters to confront the fleet. "Whaling has no place in Antarctica - it's a place of peace and science, and this is not science."
International Whaling Commission, or IWC, allows Japan's annual research whaling mission, but anti-whaling activists call it a cover-up for a commercial hunt. Meat from Japan's scientific catch is sold commercially.
The large-scale hunt for up to 50 humpbacks is believed to be the first for the species since a 1963 moratorium that put the whales under international protection.
Scientists say the knobby-headed humpback whales - a favorite among whale-watchers - are intelligent creatures that communicate through lengthy "songs."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JAPAN_HUNTING_HUMPBACKS?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
'Heroes' star Hayden Panettiere took a stab at being a real-life hero when she and some animal rights activists tried to prevent a dolphin hunt in Japan. (Nov. 2)
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US Envoy: Pakistan Must End Emergency
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Washington's No. 2 diplomat delivered a blunt message to Pakistan's military ruler, telling him that emergency rule must be lifted and his opponents freed ahead of elections.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte's visit was seen as a last best chance to avoid political turmoil in Pakistan. He met for more than two hours Saturday with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan's deputy army commander, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.
"I urged the government to stop such actions, lift the state of emergency and release all political detainees," Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a news conference at the U.S. embassy Sunday at the end of his trip. "Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections."
But there was no immediate sign that Musharraf would heed that advice. An official in the president's office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the media, said Musharraf told Negroponte the emergency was needed to hold a successful vote.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PAKISTAN?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Strong Cyclone Kills 1,784 in Bangladesh
By PARVEEN AHMED
Associated Press Writer
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of survivors were stuck Saturday behind roads blocked by fallen trees, iron roofs and thick sludge as rescue workers fought to reach towns along Bangladesh's coast that were ravaged by a powerful cyclone that killed at least 1,784 people.
Tropical Cyclone Sidr, the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade, destroyed tens of thousands of homes in southwest Bangladesh on Thursday and ruined much-needed crops just before harvest season in this impoverished, low-lying South Asian country. More than a million coastal villagers were forced to evacuate to government shelters.
The official death toll rose to 1,784, and authorities feared the figure could rise further as the country works to recover.
The government scrambled Saturday to join international agencies and local officials in the rescue mission, deploying military helicopters, thousands of troops and naval ships.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BANGLADESH_CYCLONE?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Ca. Fire Documents Conflict With Reports
By AARON C. DAVIS
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Several aircraft were able to fly in strong winds on the first full day of last month's Southern California firestorms, contradicting officials' earlier claims that the weather had grounded virtually all aircraft, according to documents released Saturday.
Twenty-eight of 52 aircraft the state was tracking for firefighting efforts remained grounded that day, and high winds were not listed in the documents as the reason.
The documents attempt to answer charges by federal lawmakers, military officials and others that the state did not effectively marshal all its available air resources as a series of blazes began roaring out of control, eventually destroying more than 2,000 homes and killing at least 10 people.
An earlier Associated Press investigation revealed that military helicopters sat grounded for days, in part because of a shortage of state fire "spotters" who are required to be on board military aircraft used for firefighting.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WILDFIRES_GROUNDED_AIRCRAFT?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
McCain Says He'll Respect Clinton
By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer
COLEBROOK, N.H. (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Saturday said he won't follow his rivals' lead in taking personal shots at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, and that voters seeking a candidate who will do that should look elsewhere.
"I think people want a respectful debate and a respectful discussion. And if they don't, then obviously, I'm not the person to be their candidate," McCain told reporters in response to questions about criticism of Clinton by Republican rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.
"Legitimate policy differences, those should be debated and discussed," McCain said. "But I don't think you should take shots at people, like imitating her voice. I'm serious, I'm not sure what you gain by doing that."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MCCAIN_CLINTON?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Michigan's Band of Brothers
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=999961113001&template=theme&theme=BANDBROS112006
Today, they'll be home
April 29, 2007
BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Sandy Leshinsky has the 13-pound turkey thawing in the refrigerator, presents around a small tree and cookies and ice cream in the freezer.
Her husband, Joseph, a sergeant major in the Marines, is coming home from Iraq.
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"He doesn't know it yet, but we're going to have Christmas in May," Leshinsky said Friday. "I feel excited, anxious, nervous and relieved.
"My rock is returning."
Julie Kolomjec's hometown of Grosse Pointe Farms is planning a surprise welcome home -- complete with a police and fire escort -- when her husband, Maj. Christopher Kolomjec, rolls into town.
"All of this is so overwhelming," she said. " I didn't know that so many people cared."
For nine months, the Free Press has chronicled the journey of the more than 900 members of the 1st Battalion of the 24th Marine Regiment, their families and the impact of their service in Iraq. The regiment includes about 700 Michigan Marine reservists.
Each of the 1/24th's five companies returns to Michigan today. Many will land at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070429/NEWS06/704290608&theme=BANDBROS112006
Around the world
November 17, 2007
TEHRAN, IRAN: Leader demands apology from Bush
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that an International Atomic Energy Agency report disproved U.S. allegations that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, and he called on the Bush administration to apologize for making false accusations.
The United Nations agency said in its report Thursday that Iran had been generally truthful about its past uranium enrichment, which Iran says is intended to generate only fuel for nuclear reactors.
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The nuclear watchdog also said restrictions Iran placed on inspectors mean the agency can't eliminate the possibility of a weapons program.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS07/711170337/1009
Across the nation
November 17, 2007
ATLANTA: Plan aims to help parched South
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed Friday to reduce the flow of water from Lake Lanier, the main water source for Atlanta and the focal point of a three-state water fight during a serious drought in the Southeast.
After the agency decided that federally protected mussels can live with less water from Lanier, the Army Corps of Engineers cut the flow of water to Florida by 5%.
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Florida and Alabama have said that reducing the flows downstream could cripple their economies. Federal officials said the states have promised to collaborate on a long-term water pact.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS07/711170360/1009
Suit follows Gipp's exhumation
November 17, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRAVERSE CITY -- Relatives of George Gipp filed a lawsuit against another family member, ESPN and a sports writer over the exhumation of the football legend's body to determine whether he fathered a child out of wedlock.
The lawsuit, officially filed Friday, also targets the medical examiner who authorized the Oct. 4 removal of Gipp's remains from a grave near his Upper Peninsula hometown for DNA testing. An ESPN crew filmed the exhumation for a planned program.
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Test results made public last week showed the Notre Dame star was not the father of his former girlfriend's daughter, born five days after Gipp's death in 1920 from pneumonia and a strep infection.
The suit -- filed on behalf of Karl Gipp, who says he and George Gipp are first cousins once removed, and another cousin, Ronald Gipp -- contends remains of the sister, Bertha Isabelle Gipp Martin, were disturbed because workers initially dug in the wrong spot.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS05/711170339/1001/NEWS
Abuse Risk Seen Worse As Families Change
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Six-year-old Oscar Jimenez Jr. was beaten to death in California, then buried under fertilizer and cement. Two-year-old Devon Shackleford was drowned in an Arizona swimming pool. Jayden Cangro, also 2, died after being thrown across a room in Utah.
In each case, as in many others every year, the alleged or convicted perpetrator had been the boyfriend of the child's mother - men thrust into father-like roles which they tragically failed to embrace.
Every case is different, every family is different. Some single mothers bring men into their lives who lovingly help raise children when the biological father is gone for good.
Nonetheless, many scholars and front-line caseworkers interviewed by The Associated Press see the abusive-boyfriend syndrome as part of a broader trend that deeply worries them. They note an ever-increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHILD_ABUSE?SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Sex offender sweep nets 397 arrests statewide
November 17, 2007
DETROIT -- Law enforcement officers have arrested 397 people during a recent sweep of the state for violators of Michigan's sex-offender registry law.
The Michigan State Police says the effort also resulted in 658 additional arrest warrant requests.
Offenders must register with the state and notify police when they move. The Lansing State Journal says more than 130 law enforcement agencies took part in the 40-day sweep that ended November 9th.
The Ann Arbor News reports the effort was the state's fourth coordinated sex-offender sweep.
There were 41,942 names on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry as of November 1st.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS06/71117028/1001/NEWS
Mom offered child for sex to others, cops say
November 17, 2007
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A Taylor mother shopped her 7-year-old daughter for sex not just once, but three times, police say.
The twist in the case was revealed Friday when law enforcement announced the arrest of Chad Gorzela, 32, of Saginaw on five child-sex felonies after uncovering evidence in the investigation of the Taylor mother earlier this year showing e-mail conversations between the woman and Gorzela to allegedly arrange sex between Gorzela and the 7-year-old.
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"The chats are very graphic," said Sheriff Warren Evans.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS02/711170302/1001/NEWS
SATURDAY STARTERS: Some points you can raise to get a conversation flowing this weekend
November 17, 2007
Beat the clock on state tax rate
The State of Michigan took in $587.1 million in income taxes in October, a 4.4% jump from October 2006. The tax rate increased Oct. 1 from 3.9% to 4.35%, but the state Treasury wasn't sure how many employers had made the switch, since the boost wasn't enacted until the month was a few hours old. Enough, apparently.
The opportunity and résumé gap
For all those folks trying to earn an income in Michigan so they can pay taxes, the state Department of Labor and Economic Growth has revamped its Web site that contains information for job-seekers and a central repository for online resumes. Check out the improved Michigan Jobs & Career Portal at www.michigan.gov/careers to learn about employment and training opportunities, advanced education, job and career fairs, even starting your own business. A sign of the times: As state unemployment hit 7.7% in October, the Michigan Talent Bank part of the Web site, where applicants and prospective employers can both search, had 675,228 résumés posted last week but just 36,561 jobs.
Farmers not so awash with water
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We all know what a disaster Michigan has been economically for the past few years, but this week the federal government made it official, at least for farmers. All 83 counties in the state were declared disaster
areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of drought conditions since April. The decision enables farmers to qualify for low-interest emergency loans -- and it also ought to send a message to those folks from the southern and western states who think places like Michigan have water to burn, so to speak.
And the rich get ... farm subsidies
Speaking of farming and the federal government, the Grand Rapids Press reported this week that Dick DeVos, the multimillionaire west Michigan business owner who waged the most expensive run for governor in Michigan history last year, received about $6,000 in farm subsidies from 2003-05 for growing corn. The issue appears to have more to do with ridiculous federal farm policies than with DeVos, since subsidies also went to the likes of David Rockefeller and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, both of whom are loaded even by DeVos standards. A DeVos spokesman told the Press the former candidate bought the cornfield to protect it from development and was not even aware the farm was getting federal subsidies. Still, a guy who wanted to get rid of the waste in state government shouldn't be on the receiving end of it from the feds.
Expect billions more to go to war
While the White House, predictably, dismisses the report as "partisan and political," it also seems entirely plausible that the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan really is $1.6 trillion, about double the $804 billion the Bush administration has run through Congress to date. The estimate came from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee in Congress, who said they figured in "hidden costs" such as interest payments on borrowing for war bills, disruptions in the oil market and long-term health care for injured veterans. The report figured Michigan's share of the cost at $77.1 billion. And while the news from Iraq has of late been encouraging, with murders and mayhem on the decline, there are surely billions more American dollars to be spent there before the country is stabilized.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/OPINION01/711170331/1069
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