6B
Tuesday, December 6, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Postal Service asked to rethink bombing stamp
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The State Department, concerned about ruffling Japanese sensibilities, is asking the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider the planned stamp commemorating the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 50 years ago.
The stamp, due to be issued in September, portrays a mushroom-shaped cloud over the caption, "Atomic bombs hasten war's end, August 1945."
Japanese officials have protested the stamp, noting that tens of thousands of nonmilitary Japanese were killed in the bombings. They also complain that the caption ignores the view of many that the bombings were morally unjustified and not essential to ending the war.
"We are certainly aware of Japanese sensitivities in this regard," said deputy State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly.
Another official called the stamp "a pretty bad idea" and said that "we would be delighted if they decided to withdraw it."
In defense of the stamp, Postal Service spokesman Robin Wright said the stamp is part of a five-year series commemorating the events of World War II.
"We are not making a value judgment on any of those events," Wright said. "We would be remiss in omitting such a watershed and historically critical event as the use of the atomic bomb."
Smuggler uses dog to transport drugs
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Customs agents found 10 cocaine-filled condoms sewn into the belly of a sheepdog that arrived emaciated and lethargic aboard a plane from Colombia.
The smuggling plot was foiled after Customs officials became suspicious about the shaggy dog's appearance and ordered an X-ray.
The 4-year-old dog, shipped as cargo on Avianca Flight 020 from Bogota, arrived last Thursday.
The dog perked up considerably after the cocaine was removed and probably will be put up for adoption, the Customs Service said.
Steven Weinstein, the veterinarian who removed the drugs at Kennedy Airport's Vet Port, said, "It was not our most common procedure."
Customs said it appeared the condoms had been surgically implanted more than two weeks before the flight. Weinstein said the objects had caused an infection that prevented the dog from eating.
John Erik Roa, 22, of Paterson, N.J. was arrested on drug charges when he came to claim the dog at the airport the following day.
No sympathy for modern-day Hood
LEPANTO, Ark. — Larry Archer's story reads like a country song: A down-on-his-luck man who says he was so desperate to feed his family and pay doctors to treat his new wife's cancer that he robbed a bank
The Associated Press
Now food's on the table, and medical help is on the way.
As for Archer, he has been in the county jail since the holdup two days before Thanksgiving, facing bank robbery charges that could bring five to 20 years in prison. Federal charges could come next.
"He said he needed the money for his wife's surgery. But a crime is a crime, regardless of circumstances. It's out of my hands," said Jonesboro detective Rick Elliott.
Police and prosecutors don't know — or care, really — whether Archer's tale is true.
Lisa and Larry Archer were married in January. A short time later, she said, she learned she had ovarian cancer. She said her husband spent so much time caring for her as her condition deteriorated that he lost his factory job.
Archer moved his wife and her three children from West Memphis to this farming community of 1,900 people 50 miles to the northwest.
Mrs. Archer said last week that applications for public aid ran into hitch after hitch. At one point, she said, the state lost a Medicaid application. And several banks, she said, turned down their requests for a loan.
On the morning of Nov. 23, Archer took the children to school, dropped his wife off at their apartment and headed to nearby Jonesboro.
Police say he passed a note to a teller at a branch of MidSouth Bank. It read: "This is a robbery. I want $10,000." Though carrying no weapon, he threatened to blow up the building, police say. The teller gave him all the money in her cash drawer, $4.150.
Archer was captured in less than
half an hour after crashing his wife's car in a chase that police said topped 100 mph. He confessed and was held on $200,000 bail.
"I just hate that he got desperate enough to do something like this," Mrs. Archer said.
"He cries a lot when I talk to him. He just wants to come home. It's sad. We were going to have Thanksgiving at our house and after dinner put up decorations and make plans for Christmas. We don't have any plants now."
Archer has been in trouble before, pleading guilty to forgery when he was 17. He got five years of probation.
Still, his mother, Joyce Catt, said her son's actions were entirely out of character and driven by pressure from mounting bills and the fear of losing his wife.
But Mrs. Archer said the state finally approved the family's application for food stamps, and they're on an emergency waiting list for housing.
Toddler killed in holiday shooting accident
The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — A toddler enthralled by Christmas-tree lights tripped an anti-crime motion detector in his living room and was shot to death by his stepmother, who told police she mistook the 3-year-old child for a burglar.
Jonathan was shot in the head as he stood inches from the Christmas tree.
On Saturday night, the woman grabbed a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun and fired when she saw movement.
Jonathan Hicks' death was ruled an accident. No immediate charges were brought against the stepmother, whom police refused to identify. Police said they were still investigating.
"He loved Christmas lights. He
would jump up and down. He just liked looking at it," said his grandmother, Georgia Hicks.
The shooting took place in druginfested west Jackson, where anticrime devices such as motion detectors and burglar bars are common in many homes.
The largest city in Mississippi, Jackson had the 12th-highest homicide rate among U.S. cities last year, according to the FBI. The city of nearly 200,000 people has surpassed its 1993 record of 87 slayings with 89 so far this year.
"They were imprisoned in their own home," said retired police Officer Nicki Temple, who worked in the neighborhood during his 21 years on the force.
Temple recalled the trade of crack and the sound of gunshots at night.
"If you hear gunshots all night long, you're going to stay in a certain state of fear," he said.
Katherlene Stevenson, who lives a couple of blocks from the shooting scene, said she wasn't ready to take up a gun, even though burglaries are common in the area.
"This neighborhood is not that bad," said Stevenson, a mother of three. "I'm not frightened to the point where I grab a gun every time I hear a noise. The first thing I would have done is checked on my child."
Temple, who now teaches gun-safety classes, said he understood the fear that drives homeowners to buy guns. But he urged them to be careful.
"You just don't shoot targets. You've got to identify if it's a real threat," Temple said.
Cats die in home they inherited
The Associated Press
STANTON, Calif. — At least 10 cats that inherited their owner's home more than a year ago died in a weekend fire that destroyed the house.
The cats had lived alone in the 1,100-square-foot home since Rachel Whitten died in 1993.
"She asked me to take care of her babies. I promised her I would, and look what happened," said 76-year-old Doris Duewier, who drove 36 miles round trip from Long Beach at least twice a week to take care of her friend's pets.
Whitten stipulated in her will that her 13 cats be allowed to live in the house until they died. A neighbor, Bentita Rice, gave them daily care. A gardener trimmed the lawn, and the utilities remained on.
"Except for the phone. They took that out," said Rice's husband, Gene Rice. "I guess the cats didn't need that."
Men arrested for handing out needles
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — His father stood trial here for demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Now Andrew Hoffman, Abbie's son, is headed to court in his fight against AIDS.
They're challenging a law barring possession of hypodermic needles without a prescription.
Hoffman and fellow activist Jon Stuen-Parker meant to get arrested when they handed out clean hypodermic needles in exchange for dirty ones turned in by drug addicts, whose sharing of needles spreads the virus that causes AIDS.
sands, more than mowing down through the streets of Chicago with a shotgun," Stuen-Parker said.
Some studies estimate that more than one in four AIDS victims contract the virus through drug use. Critics say needle-exchange programs encourage intravenous drug use.
Hoffman and Stuen-Parker were due in court today. If convicted, they face up to a year in jail or $1,000 fine.
Hoffman said he saw "ironic similarities" between his trial and that of his late father and the rest of the Chicago Seven, charged with conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
"This Illinois law is killing thou-
Using holiday lights with care
Some cautions to use when decorating with lights:
Knight-Ridder Tribune
The Associated Press
Supreme Court pulls plug on man's Christmas light display
The court told the Osbornes to cut the size and extravagance of the display to a level that won't attract the crowds previously drawn to the neighborhood.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The state Supreme Court yesterday ordered Jennings Osborne to dim his multi-million-light annual Christmas display.
"It's a pretty much a complete victory for our position," said Gary Corum, lawyer for the neighbors who took Osborne to court after he responded to their pleas for moderation by doubling the size of last year's display — to more than 3 million lights.
The lights for this year's display are going up now, but Osborne hasn't announced when he'll flip the switch. He began decorating his estate in an affluent neighborhood in the late
1880s and the display has grown each year.
While neighbors complained about the traffic jams and crowds, Osborne said any restrictions would infringe on his right to free speech and religious expression.
"The fight over this Christmas display is far from over," said Osborne's lawyer, Sam Perroni.
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