4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
STATE
THURSDAY. OCTOBER 20, 2005
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Biology teacher enters race
TOPEKA — A pro-evolution leader will run next year for the State Board of Education, hoping to unseat a conservative who favors proposed science standards criticized as promoting creationism.
BY JOHN HANNA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
McDonald has become visible as president of Kansas Citizens for Science, which wants public school science standards to continue treating the theory of evolution as long-established science.
Harry McDonald, a retired biology teacher, announced Wednesday he would challenge John Bacon in the Aug. 1 Republican primary, making Bacon the second conservative to
State law requires the board to update all academic standards regularly, and the board expects to vote later this year on new science standards.
face GOP opposition. Both are from Olathe.
However, McDonald said Wednesday that evolution would not be the only issue in his race. He said he had notified other Kansas Citizens for Science leaders that he was giving up the group's presidency.
The board's 6-4 conservative majority wants to rewrite the science standards to include language sought by intelligent design advocates reflecting skepticism of evolutionary theory. While the standards
don't mandate how courses are taught, they determine what's on statewide tests.
Because of the debate over
the science standards, evolution was likely to be a kev issue.
"The evolution debate is just a symptom of what's wrong with the State Board of Education," McDonald said during an interview. "My campaign is going to revolve around larger issues."
McDonald plans to kick off his campaign at 9 a.m. Tuesday outside the Johnson County election commissioner's office in Olathe. He is a 57-year-old who retired last year after 32 years teaching science, most of them at Blue Valley High School.
The KU Chamber Choir performs Tuesday night at Northwest High School in Wichita. The choir concludes its three-day, five-stop tour today in Meade.
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The choir's first performance was on Tuesday at Northwest High School in Wichita.
The choir sings at Meade High School today.
The KU Chamber Choir joined the Northwest Concert Choir for one performance.
The stage was a mixture of
The KU Chamber Choir then performed five compositions. During the show, Johnson made a "sales pitch" for the University.
Stranghoner said the experience his students would gain was the whole point of asking the KU Chamber Choir to perform with them.
black tuxedos, black dresses and blue robes with gold trim.
"It was sheer luck," Strang-
honer said.
Brian Stranghoner, Northwest High School Choir Director, said he and Johnson were both on the board of the Kansas Choral Directors Association.
He said when Johnson mentioned the donation from Daugherty for the tour, he noticed the tour's first date and the date of Northwest's first concert coincided.
"If you ever have a chance, come visit Mount Oread," Johnson said to the students in the crowd. "There's always a place for you in the choral program. Look at KU,
you won't regret it."
"It let them hear the sound, to see how the big boys and girls do it," Stranghonner said.
— Edited by Anne Burgard
Don't be heartless
Charlie Riedel/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A larger-than-life likeness of the tin man dwarfs a passerby at the Wizard of Oz Museum in Wamego on Monday. The museum opened in late 2003 and holds about 2,000 Wizard of Oz related items.
SCIENCE
Trial for ex-space center leader opens
BY ROXANA HEGEMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WICHITA — The former head of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center who is facing charges of stealing and selling space artifacts is a dreamer who turned the center into a nationally recognized museum, not the schemer portrayed by the prosecution, a defense attorney said Wednesday.
In his opening statement Wednesday morning, defense attorney Lee Thompson told jurors that Max Ary did not intend to cheat, steal or defraud anyone. He was an idea man, not a detail man, Thompson said, adding Ary may have made some mistakes and errors in judgment.
on the sale of a number of artifacts, including some on loan from NASA.
Opening arguments provided the first glimpse into the defense of Ary against 19 federal counts. He is accused of making profits
Thompson told jurors that what Ary accomplished in his 26 years at the Cosmosphere could not be ignored. He turned it from a small-town museum with a budget of $40,000 into space center with a budget of $3.7 million, building a treasure in Hutchinson that now includes exhibits such as the Apollo 13.
Cosmosphere President Jeff Ollenburger — whom Ary groomed as his successor — broke down and cried on the witness stand as he recounted his disbelief upon discovering that Ary had sold museum artifacts and kept the money.
"This was a really hard time, because of my relationship with Mr. Ary," he said. "There was nobody I respected more. He was a tutor and a friend. I just couldn't believe it."