Articles of Interest 1-15-07
659 Days until election day.
Tonight…Jackson Listen & Learn.
We will continue traveling around the state holding a total of 11 “Listen & Learn” sessions. Last week we held three sessions that were very productive. We would encourage you to participate when and where you can. If you can’t make if for one reason or another, please download our questionnaire and send it in…which can be done anonymously as well. Here is the link:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2006/12/mrp_2007_listen.html
So what is it going to cost to run for President in 2008? Take a look at this historical chart and prediction in the New York Daily…wow!!!
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/01/whats_it_cost_t.html
Michigan’s unemployment at 6.9%…which rates 49th in the country behind hurricane ravaged Mississippi.
http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm
Econobrowser has an interesting write-up about how GDP is affected by geography.
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/01/worldwide_gdp.html
Governor Romney’s Presidential Exploratory Committee named it’s Michigan political staff. Here is a list of what was sent around last week:
Romney for President Exploratory Committee – Michigan Staff
(all staff can be reached by email at first initial last name@mittromney.com – i.e: jmcbride@mittromney.com)
Jason McBride – State Director
David Mroz – Michigan Field Director
Brandon Darin – Regional Field Director for the 1st and 4th Congressional Districts
Ryan Kool – Regional Field Director for the 2nd and 6th Congressional Districts
Reka Holley – Regional Field Director for the 3rd and 7th Congressional Districts
Stefani Zimmerman – Regional Field Director for the 5th and 8th Congressional Districts
Ryan Klementowski – Regional Field Director for Oakland County
Jon Minjoe – Regional Field director for Macomb County and 10th Congressional District
Gailute Dedinas – Regional Field Director for Wayne County and 15th Congressional District
Congratulations to all and I’m glad to see so many former state party staffers on the list. As the other Presidential campaigns actually hire their staff…I’ll make sure to let you all know and hopefully get their contact info as well.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/METRO/701150360
More help others as a way to honor King
Iveory Perkins / The Detroit News
As Metro Detroiters and others across the country look for ways to mark the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today, some are moving away from traditional gospel concerts, dinners and community forums and turning to more activism-related activities, including protests and volunteerism.
King's complex life -- part social activist, war protester and champion for racial justice -- makes it difficult for the holiday to take on one unified meaning.
"People try to box him in, and to some it's a feel-good moment, but he was about commitment," said Carl Taylor, a sociology professor at Michigan State University. "It is a very conflicted date. Many people and corporations are doing what is politically correct by volunteering. Dr. King was about humanity; he was against the war and violence."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/COL03/701150330
DESIREE COOPER
For doctor, friendship with King was destiny
Southfield man rallied leader's support in Jim Crow protests
January 15, 2007
When William Anderson, 79, was a struggling college student at Fort Valley State College in Georgia, he would visit the Atlanta home of his future bride, Norma Dixon.
"There would be her brother, James, practicing preaching with his friend M.L.," said Anderson, a Detroit-area surgeon for 25 years. "I would wonder when they were going to shut up."
M.L. turned out to be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the future leader of the civil rights movement.
That was the beginning of a friendship that would endure through the civil rights era, and is part of the reason King chose Detroit for a major march in 1963. It was in June of that year that the activist first gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.
"I have the utmost respect for Dr. King," said Anderson, who lives in Southfield. "But I may be one of the only people who ever told the future winner of the Nobel Peace Prize to be quiet."
By 1957, Anderson was a doctor in Albany, Ga., with a wife and three children.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION01/701150305/1068/OPINION
Honor King with action
January 15, 2007
Honoring the life of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. ought to be a call to action and community service. Although King is often remembered as a dreamer for the enduring eloquence of the "I Have a Dream" speech, he was also a doer, a leader whose actions discomforted much of the nation that now celebrates his legacy.
So rallying to make today's holiday "a day on, not a day off" -- as do the King Center, the Corporation for National and Community Service and others -- is right on point. Instead of shopping or kicking back, more and more Americans are observing King's birthday by taking part in thousands of community projects, including mentoring at-risk children, serving meals at a homeless shelter, registering organ donors, teaching seniors how to surf the Internet, organizing a neighborhood watch and cleaning up vacant lots.
King would be disappointed by folks today
FLINT JOURNAL COLUMN
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Rickey Hampton
JOURNAL COLUMNIST
I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I have the honor of delivering the keynote address at Monday's King Day Celebration at Baker College.
In the past few days, I've been trying to find words that would pay sufficient honor to King's rich legacy. After much thought, I have come to the realization that there aren't enough words to properly express the love, gratitude and respect I feel for him.
What King accomplished means the world to me. As a child of the '60s - the greatest generation for black people in America - and a native of the South, I remember the marches and the sit-ins. I remember King's moving, heart-felt speeches. He is most worthy of a national holiday. You can make the argument that he is America's greatest citizen.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION03/701150326
Daniel Howes
Can our ex-govs emulate Kwame?
M emo to former Govs. Jim Blanchard and Bill Milliken:
Since the current occupant of your old office has outsourced leadership to you with her emergency financial panel, maybe you'll take a more clear-eyed assessment of how Michigan can get off its proverbial back instead of sinking deeper.
It is possible, but not easy, to make some headway, as the state's other prominent Democrat is showing -- if folks take the time to look.
Down in Detroit, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has spent the last few years literally re-engineering the city government. He's right when he says Detroit has to "transform or die." And like him or not, he is mostly doing the leading, not off-loading it to last-generation pols.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/SCHOOLS/701150362
51,000 opt out of Detroit schools
Nearly a third of students attend charter or suburban schools
Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Nearly a third of Detroit's students -- or about 51,000 -- are attending charter schools and suburban public districts, causing enrollment and budgets at other districts to surge while Detroit Public Schools shrinks.
About 5,000 Detroit residents left for other schools this fall alone, according to recently released enrollment records, a continuation of declines that have ravaged district funding but resulted in more options for students.
More than 25 districts in Metro Detroit had enrollment swings of more than 130 students last fall alone, according to a Detroit News analysis of enrollment million changes between September 2005 and September 2006. That's either a $1 drop or $1 million bump in state aid. It could mean hiring teachers -- or laying them off.
Nowhere was the drop as significant -- or critical -- as in Detroit, and it comes with ramifications for the far-flung suburbs as well as the state's largest district.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/BIZ03/701150359
New home building plummets
Metro construction permits drop nearly 50% as stalled subdivisions become common sight.
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
Construction of new homes in southeast Michigan -- which reached record levels just two years ago -- fell dramatically in 2006 in the face of harsh economic conditions.
Total housing permits for the nine counties in the region fell to 9,873, a 48 percent decline from 2005 and more than 60 percent off the all-time high in 2004, according to data released Sunday by Housing Consultants Inc. of Clarkston.
Oakland County was down 54 percent, excluding rentals, while Wayne and Macomb fell 49 percent and 36 percent respectively.
The decline in home starts -- a key indicator of an area's economic health -- is part of a larger housing downturn plaguing the region.
Scores of homes are languishing on the market as residents flee the area for jobs in other states or take early retirement and move south. Foreclosures and personal bankruptcies are soaring.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/SCHOOLS/701150341
Economy stalls plan for school
Archdiocese says Macomb Twp. Catholic academy won't be built if money can't be raised.
Charles E. Ramirez / The Detroit News
MACOMB TOWNSHIP -- Michigan's sputtering economy has slowed down the drive to build a new Catholic high school in northern Macomb County.
Despite the holdup, fundraisers for the new school -- planned for 23 Mile in Macomb Township -- say the effort continues to move forward.
"(The economy is) the biggest problem we have right now," said Leonard Brillati, president of the fundraising campaign for the Austin Catholic Academy. "It's not going as well as we would like, and it could be better."
Organizers of the effort to build Austin Catholic Academy had hoped to break ground in 2006 on 63 acres on 23 Mile between North Avenue and Card Road in Macomb Township. They're now aiming for fall 2008.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION01/701150321/1008
Immigrants hold key to reviving Michigan ...
Immigrants are a potent, growing force for entrepreneurship in Michigan and the United States -- a trend that southeastern Michigan should capitalize on to help its own economic revitalization.
The need for people is critical. A report by United Van Lines shows Michigan is tied for first in the nation in the percentage of out-of-state moves by households -- 66 percent. That's a skip away from Michigan's record 66.9 percent rate in 1981 during the depth of Michigan's worst automotive recession. This finding comes on the heels of a Census Bureau report that found Michigan was sixth in the nation in people leaving the state from 2000-06.
But attracting foreign-born entrepreneurs can help reverse that trend, especially since they have been behind one in four U.S. technology and engineering start-ups during the last decade, according to Duke University researchers. Michigan was third with 33 percent of start-ups founded by immigrants from 1995 to 2005.
Immigrant entrepreneurs' companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in sales in 2005, researchers found.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION01/701150313/1008
... As do African-American entrepreneurs
Black-owned businesses are key to King's equality drive
I t is not enough for Americans to simply remember the dream of equality preached by the Rev. Martin Luther King. Equality for all Americans, particularly African-Americans, is a continuing struggle.
King battled for civil rights against legal oppressions -- official segregation in schools and public accommodations. Thanks to civil rights-era pioneers such as King, those battles have largely been won.
But the battle continues, particularly for the economic empowerment of African-Americans. Some of the greatest warriors for economic equality are black entrepreneurs. Think, for example, of Detroit's own Dave Bing, for many years a star of the Detroit Pistons who went on to found the Bing Group, which produces steel and auto parts and has operations throughout the Midwest.
Bing has been a leader in supporting Detroit's schools, helping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. He has improved the area around his Detroit headquarters and has been tapped to help develop the city's riverfront.
Michigan delegation divided over stem cells, minimum wage
1/14/2007, 1:02 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan's congressional delegation showed divisions over proposals to increase the minimum wage, expand stem cell research and implement more of the anti-terror measures offered by the 9/11 commission.
The Democratic-led House, pursuing their 100-hour agenda, approved all three bills last week as Congress had its first full week of activity of the year.
The minimum wage bill would increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over 26 months, the first increase in a decade. Four Republicans — Reps. Vernon Ehlers of Grand Rapids, Thaddeus McCotter of Livonia, Fred Upton of St. Joseph and Candice Miller of Macomb County's Harrison Township — joined the state's six Democrats to approve the plan.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1168773339311060.xml&coll=4
Bay City's budget to be talk of town hall meetings
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By SCOTT E. PACHECO
TIMES WRITER
Bay City begins looking at its 2007-08 budget this week, and you're invited to learn all about it.
You might learn that the city won't have much choice but to cut jobs to balance the budget. About 76 percent of the general fund budget goes toward personnel costs.
''We anticipate (layoffs),'' said Commissioner Wendy A. Legner, 3rd Ward. ''Hopefully, it won't be to the point where we have to cut services.''
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/BUSINESS03/701150317
China's car industry shows its wares
Changfeng settles in Cobo basement
January 15, 2007
BY AMBER HUNT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Chris Wenker examined the banana yellow SUV, the five-seater truck and the rounded El Camino throwback Sunday and made a decision:
"I'm going to buy stock in Changfeng," she said.
Not because the Changfeng Group's vehicle designs are very innovative -- in fact, Wenker said, they're downright mediocre -- but because other foreign, entry-level carmakers have fared well in the U.S. market, and the Chinese company could do the same.
"Look at Hyundai and Kia," said Wenker, 52, visiting from New Baltimore. "They're doing so well, and when they were first introduced, people barely looked at them."
This year marks the first time show goers have had the chance to see any Chinese automaker's vehicles. Last year, Geely Motors showed a compact sedan to the media but didn't keep it on display for the general public.
Michigan charter company to bring Iraq war dead home
1/15/2007, 7:38 a.m. ET
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan air charter company has received an $11 million, six-month contract to bring home the bodies of American military personnel killed in the Iraq war.
This month, the Defense Department reduced its use of commercial airlines for body transport.
Kalitta Charters of Washtenaw County's Ypsilanti Township will carry the caskets from Dover Air Force Base, Del. Kalitta handles executive charter and cargo flights and is based at Willow Run Airport, about 25 miles west of Detroit.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Bush refuses to waver on Iraq troop plan
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush concedes he isn't popular, and that the war in Iraq isn't either. Yes, progress is overdue and patience is all but gone. Yet none of that changes his view that more U.S. troops are needed to win in Iraq.
"I'm not going to try to be popular and change principles to do so," Bush said in a television interview that aired Sunday night.
Digging in for confrontation, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney say they will not budge from sending more U.S. troops to Iraq no matter how much Congress opposes it.
"I fully understand they could try to stop me," Bush said of the Democrat-run Congress. "But I've made my decision, and we're going forward."
As the president talked tough, lawmakers pledged to explore ways to stop him.
"We need to look at what options we have available to constrain the president," said Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a possible White House candidate in 2008. Democrats remain wary, though, of appearing unsupportive of American troops.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/488673p-411469c.html
Wanna be Prez? First get $100M
Pros predict astronomical '08 contest
Americans love to tell their kids that anyone can grow up to be President if they are smart and work really hard.
These days, they also need to raise heart-stopping amounts of money.
The next White House race is certain to break every spending record. And despite various attempts to curb the cash orgy that presidential politics has become, it will likely also spell the end of publicly financed campaigns.
"The 2008 race will be the longest and most expensive election in American history," warned Federal Election Commissioner Michael Toner. "We're heading into the first $1 billion election."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/NEWS07/701150354/1001/BUSINESS05
Rice meets doubt on Mideast tour
Peace talk seen as veil for U.S. war
January 15, 2007
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Two days into her tour of the Mideast, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is encountering widespread skepticism over the depth of the U.S. commitment to negotiating peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Rice's efforts, on what she and aides billed as a listening tour, look to many Palestinians -- and some Israelis -- like a sop to Washington's moderate Arab allies.
The White House is showing interest, they suspect, to gain Arab backing on what President George W. Bush really cares about: containing Iran and stabilizing Iraq.
"Is the visit, like your previous visit, just for listening?" a Palestinian journalist asked Rice on Sunday, after she traveled a well-worn path from Jerusalem to Ramallah, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and appeared next to him during a brief news conference.
"It's not a bad thing to listen," Rice replied.
But she said she had registered demands for more U.S. attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jan 15, 7:44 AM EST
Rice Asks Arab Allies to Back Bush Plan
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will attend a three-way summit with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming weeks in an effort to boost Mideast peace efforts, U.S. officials said Monday. The announcement came shortly after Rice wrapped up a brief visit to Israel and the West Bank.
A senior U.S. official in Rice's delegation said the "trilateral meeting" will be aimed at "having a conversation about the political horizon leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state."
He spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement of the summit.
The official said the U.S. remains committed to the stalled "road map" peace plan, which calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. But he said the sides need to reach "some understanding about what lies in wait for everybody ... what are the difficulties and what are the opportunities."
Jan 14, 9:02 PM EST
AP Analysis: Iraq Policy Isolates Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush once said he was determined to stick with the Iraq war even if his wife and his dog were the only ones left at his side.
It's moving in that direction.
People in the United States already were angry about the war before Bush said he would try to bring unrelentingly violent Iraq back from the brink by adding 21,500 more U.S. troops to the 132,000 there now.
Polls show the U.S. public overwhelmingly does not like the idea. Democrats always in opposition were joined very publicly by some Republicans in dissent. Even Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had to be persuaded to go along with a larger U.S. presence in Baghdad.
"He is as isolated as a president can be," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Boston University.
Lawmakers did authorize the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Today, however, the Democratic-controlled Congress is poised to produce votes against a policy that, although nonbinding, will reverberate into the 2008 elections.
Jan 14, 7:15 PM EST
Cheney: Credit Checks Aren't Illegal
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday the Pentagon and CIA are not violating people's rights by examining the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his panel will be the judge of that.
National security letters permit the executive branch to seek records about people in terrorism and spy investigations without a judge's approval or grand jury subpoena.
"The Defense Department gets involved because we've got hundreds of bases inside the United States that are potential terrorist targets," Cheney said.
Jan 14, 1:23 PM EST
Major Farm Bill Divides Lawmakers, Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers begin work on a new multibillion-dollar farm bill at odds with President Bush over whether big changes really are needed.
The two sides are far apart. Just how far, farmers saw for themselves during the American Farm Bureau Federation's recent meeting in Salt Lake City.
"I think the bill could look a lot like what we have now. What I think we're going to end up doing, you could say, is extending the farm bill," Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told farmers.
Contrast that with Bush's agriculture secretary, Mike Johanns, who said at the meeting that farm programs need an overhaul.
"I will be the first to argue that the 2002 farm bill was good policy for its time," Johanns said. "But the agricultural and economic realities that influenced the development of the '02 farm bill - they simply don't exist."
Jan 15, 5:23 AM EST
Saddam Half Brother, Ex-Official Hanged
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn Monday, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.
In confirming the executions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the head of one of the accused, Barzan Ibrahim, had been severed during the hanging in what he called "a rare incident."
But he stressed that all laws and rules were respected during the proceedings, choosing his words carefully after Saddam's execution became an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government. Video of the execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the gallows.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400906.html
New Law Could Subject Civilians to Military Trial
Provision Aimed at Contractors, but Some Fear It Will Sweep Up Other Workers
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A01
Private contractors and other civilians serving with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be subject for the first time to military courts-martial under a new federal provision that legal scholars say is almost certain to spark constitutional challenges.
The provision, which was slipped into a spending bill at the end of the last Congress, is intended to close a long-standing loophole that critics say puts contractors in war zones above the law.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009525
Archbishop 'Grey'
Postcommunist McCarthyism in Poland.
BY MATTHEW KAMINSKI
Monday, January 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
Among the documents in the Polish security service's folder on covert informant "Grey," a two-page "Note" dated Oct. 5, 1977--and prepared by a Col. J. Mazurek--gives a good idea of what collaborating with the Communists entailed.
A Catholic priest and philosophy professor "with moderate opposition views," Grey only "partially carried out his tasks" during a recent trip to Sweden, reports his handler. He discussed academic exchanges with an émigré Medievalist the Polish spooks wanted to know more about, but failed to get "closer to the immigrant community," since a social club in Stockholm popular with them was closed when Grey stopped by. The following year, Col. Mazurek writes to his superiors, Grey will take a fellowship at the University of Munich and is "ready to work for us in Germany 'along the way.' . . . He emphasized his commitment to us but declared that he didn't want to be treated as a dependable agent." In return, Grey asked for a passport, but explicitly not money. None of the other documents in the 69-page folder suggest that Grey's spying for his country, as it was then, was anything but banal, ineffective and as far as anyone can tell harmless.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/OPINION03/701150317/1008/OPINION01
Deb Price
Speaker Pelosi needs to put protecting gay kids first
T he photograph of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was political gold: Surrounded by a sea of lawmakers' shiny-faced girls and boys, a few of them her own grandkids, the first woman to lead "the people's House" waved the gavel, signaling a new era, particularly for America's youngest citizens.
Odds are that at least one of the 19 children will start becoming aware of being gay by age 10.
If Pelosi's picture-perfect snapshot is to mean something beyond being a politically useful prop, she should direct the new Congress to take its first serious look at what it's like to grow up gay in America.
That picture isn't so pretty. And those of us who're gay adults have the psychic scars to prove it.
Painfully aware that much of the world considers them worthless, many gay kids struggle with a cycle of self hatred that they carry into adulthood, if they are lucky enough to survive that long.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070115/NEWS07/701150381/1001/BUSINESS05
Districts use family wealth in assigning kids to schools
Leaders, parents oppose new way of bringing diversity
January 15, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Class is starting to replace race as the way to diversify schools.
A small but growing number of school districts are using -- or thinking of using -- a child's socioeconomic status to help determine which school they attend. The trend has been fueled by court rulings that limit race-based student assignment and research that suggests children learn better when they are in classrooms with more well-to-do peers.
Fourth-grade students, regardless of wealth, scored higher on national math tests in 2005 in schools where poverty rates were low, the U.S. Department of Education reports.
"I don't think achievement is contagious," said David Holdzkom, assistant superintendent of evaluation and research for the Wake County, N.C., school system. "But I do think that kids are very smart and when they recognize that the kids next to them know how to read, they'll learn how to do that. Peer pressure."
The 127,000-student school district once assigned students by race. Since 2000, Wake County has used the percentage of children who qualify for government-subsidized lunches as the poverty benchmark. The goal is to make sure each school falls within 15 percentage points of the district-wide average, which was 27% in 2005-06.
Jan 15, 2:19 AM EST
Hyundai Workers Begin Partial Strike
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co. began a promised partial strike Monday amid a dispute with management over bonuses, a union official said.
The walkout, which was approved last week by union representatives, began as scheduled Monday afternoon, said Jung Jun-yung, the head of the union's overseas cooperation department. Unionized workers plan to lay down tools Monday for a total of eight hours at three different factories.
Hyundai Motor confirmed the strike was under way, company spokesman Jake Jang said. Hyundai asked the Ulsan District Court to issue an order barring the walkout, Jang said, though added no decision had yet been reached.
