THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2008
NEWS
7A
Technology on the move
ResNet moves from McCollum, plans to add amenities
BY LIZ SCHUBAUER editor@kansan.com
Think of it as the trek of the tech: student technology services move into the Burge Union.
ResNet, which provides Internet service for student housing, moved to the Burge from McCollum Hall over winter break. Last Monday, an information technology desk opened.
The technology services moved to the Burge Union this semester in hopes that the Burge's location near the Anschutz Sports Pavilion will make the services more accessible for students.
Next fall, students will see a Pulse coffee shop, new furniture and 10 to 15 high-end computer workstations, in addition to the help desk.
The workstations will feature software for photo and video editing. A large screen plasma or LCD TV will be added to a conference room. Students also will be able to check out laptops, digital cameras and digital camcorders.
"Hopefully it'll be a new destination for folks," said Bill Myers, director of assessment and outreach for information services.
The added services are located on the second floor of the Burge and include wireless Internet and a lounge area. A conference room is also available for student use.
started about a year ago after art supplies moved out of the Burge bookstore and into the Art and Design Building, providing room for the technology expansion.
"Computer centers across the country have become more amenities-laden," said David Mucci, director of KU Memorial Unions.
Myers said talk about moving technology services to the Burge
A $30,000 construction project, funded by IT and ResNet, reduced the size of the bookstore and added the help desk and lounge. While located in McCollum, IT only had a help desk in the Computer Center across from the Dole Center. The help desk in the Computer Center will remain open.
The services' hours are still being decided, but the lounge area can be accessed whenever the Hawk Shop is open because the Hawk Shop, bookstore and lounge are all connected.
—Edited by Madeline Hyden
Release of abortion records on hold
TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Sedgwick County grand jury's access Tuesday to patient records from abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.
BY CARL MANNING ASSOCIATED PRESS
The grand jury is investigating whether Tiller, one of the nations few late-term abortion providers, has broken Kansas laws restricting abortion. The grand jury subpoenaed medical files of about 2,000 women, including some who decided against abortions and information about current and former employees and referring physicians.
Tiller's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to quash the grand jury's three subpoenas, and the court agreed to block their enforcement until it considers the issue.
The court set a Feb.11 deadline
Chief Justice Kay McFarland also said Tiller's challenge raises "significant issues" about patients' privacy and a grand jury's power to subpoena records.
for the judges to file any objection to the court's action.
"Abortion opponents forced Sedgwick County to convene the grand jury by submitting petitions. Kansas is one of six states that permits citizens to petition to create a grand jury.
Abortion opponents accuse Tiller of violating a 1998 law restricting late-term abortion.
Tiller's clinic has not started handing over patient records. The edited patient records would not have the women's names, but they would have patient-identification numbers. Tiller's attorneys claimed in court last week that in an earlier investigation, former Attorney General Phill Kline was able to track down patients' names using
the identifving numbers.
A spokesman for Kline, who is now Johnson County district attorney, denied that any patients had ever been identified.
Tiller's attorneys told Buchanan that if Kline could use that information to identify patients, then someone else could as well.
Kline eventually filed 30 misdemeanor charges against Tiller before leaving office last year, only to see the case dismissed for jurisdictional reasons.
The grand jury is seeking all health care records of patients who aborted a fetus determined to be 22 weeks or older from July 1, 2003, through Jan. 18 at Tiller's clinic, Women's Health Care Services. The grand jury also wants the health care records of patients who did not have abortions but were at least 22 weeks pregnant when they consulted with a physician at the clinic.
Al-Qaida remains U.S. threat
A Pakistan Army soldier sits on an armored vehicle as he monitors the area of Matta near Mangora, the main town of Pakistani district Swat along the Afghan border, on Sunday. Pakistan reiterated that it will not allow U.S. forces to hunt down al-Qaida and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said that Washington was considering to allow covert U.S. military and intelligence operations against Islamic quarrelists in Pakistan's tribal regions.
BY PAMELA HESS ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Al-Qaida is establishing cells in other countries as Osama bin Laden's organization uses Pakistan's tribal region to train for attacks in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Africa and the United States, the U.S. intelligence chief said Tuesday.
The al-Qaida network in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan has suffered setbacks, but he said the group poses a persistent and growing danger.
"Al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States," Mike McConnell told a Senate hearing.
McConnell said while the level of violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since last year, it is going to be years before Iraq is stable.
The Pakistani tribal areas provide al-Qaida a safe haven similar to what it enjoyed in Afghanistan before the war, but on a smaller and less secure scale, McConnell told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The next attack on the United States will most likely be launched by al-Qaida operating in those "undergoverned regions" of Pakistan, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, planned to tell Congress on Wednesday.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, said al-Qaida continues to present a "critical threat to the homeland" and warned that "homegrown terrorists" inspired by al-Qaida's propaganda on the Internet拥提a threat as well.
Still, McConnell lauded Pakistan's cooperation, saying that more than 1,300 Pakistani died fighting terrorists or in terrorist attacks in 2007. He said Islamabad has done more to "neutralize" terrorists than any other partner of the United States.
Despite the cooperation, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the Pakistani military has been unable to disrupt or damage al-Qaida terrorists operating in the tribal border region. And the U.S. military is prohibited by Pakistan from pursuing Taliban and al-Qaida fighters that cross the border to conduct attacks inside Afghanistan.
CIA Director Michael Hayden publicly confirmed for the first time the names of three suspected al-Qaida terrorists who were subjected to a harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding, and why.
Hayden said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — the purported mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States — and Abu Zubayah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were subject to the interrogations in 2002 and 2003.
Waterboarding induces a feeling of imminent drowning. The subject is restrained with mouth covered and water poured over the face.
Mukasey recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he could only render an opinion on whether waterboarding is torture if he knew the circumstances of each situation.
Congress may restrict the CIA to using only interrogation techniques that are approved by the military, which do not include waterboarding and other harsh measures. Hayden said the CIA will comply with whatever rules are laid down, but warned that such restrictions will endanger the country.
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