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NEWS
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quote of the day
If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse. Walk Pleasure.
Walt Disney
fact of the dav
Bellieve it or not, Mickey Mouse was NOT created by Walt Disney. While Walt drew Mickey, it was Ub Iwerks that gave him the idea for a mouse character after he lost his other cartoon, Oswald the Rabbit.
- www.hiddenmickeys.org
most e-mailed
Want to know what people are talking about? Here's a list of the five most e-mailed stories from Kansan.com:
1. Zukerman, Philharmonic to perform
2. New security system in place at residence halls
3. Football team deserves recognition of parade proportions
4. Greening it
5. Blue Christmas
INTERNATIONAL
British Airways jet
crash-lands; 19 injured
LONDON — A British Airways jet from Beijing carrying 152 people crash-landed Thursday, injuring 19 people and causing more than 200 flights to be canceled at Europe's busiest airport.
Investigators will speak to the pilots and study the plane's flight data recorder and maintenance records to determine what caused the crash-landing at Heathrow airport, tearing the plane's underbelly and damaging its wings.
Nothing suggested it was terror-related, Scotland Yard said.
Timothy Crowch, an aviation analyst with 35 years of experience as a commercial pilot, said the landing gear punched through both wings, indicating a "massive vertical impact." That suggests a total loss of engine power may have been the cause, he said.
Robert Cullomore of Aviation Economics, a London-based aviation consultant, said the pilot kept the plane in the air long enough to prevent a disaster.
"If it had landed 200 meters (656 feet) shorter than it did, it may have hit perimeter fence and obviously some other buildings and the car park, clearly we would be dealing with fatalities and obvious damage," Cullemore said.
Associated Press
et cetera
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of The Kansan are 25 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansan business office, 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall, 1435 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045.
The University Daily Kansan (ISSN 0746-9462) is published daily during the school year except Saturday, Sunday, fall break, spring break and exams. Weekly during the summer session excluding holidays. Periodical postage is paid in Lawrence, KS 65044. Annual subscriptions by mail are $120 plus tax. Student subscriptions of are paid through the student activity fee. Postmaster: Send address changes to The University Daily Kansan, 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall, 1435 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045
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NEWS KUJH For more news, turn to KUJH TV on TV
Cablevision Channel 31 in Lawrence.
The student-produced airs at
5:30 p.m.; 7:30 p.m; 9:30 p.m. and
11:30 p.m. every Monday through
Friday. Also, check out KUJH online at
ku.edu.
KJHK is the student voice in radio. Each day there is a talk show, a talk shows and other content made for students, by students, or both. It rolls or rallies, sports to KJHK 90.7 is for you
with
Q&A
Professor Sue Lorenz
By Helen Mubarak
Rachel Anne Seymour/KANSAN
Department: Associate director of the University Honors Program and professor of Honors Tutorial classes.
Of the classes you have taught at the University of Kansas, which one was your favorite and why? My HNRS 190 classes, "Words without Borders: Contemporary International Fiction," have been my most recent favorite courses, because I really enjoy introducing students to writers that they might otherwise miss. And the students always bring new perspectives that I might have missed, too.
Where did you attend college?
Bowling Green State University (BA),
MA)
What was the greatest influence in your decision to teach? The realization that many of my finest teachers didn't know everything, but that they certainly knew more than I did. So it gave me the confidence to focus on teaching effectively what I knew well - and admitting what I didn't know.
guess, is the possibility of connection: approaching students as individuals and hoping they walk away with something of value - as I do.
What do you enjoy most about teaching at the University? Helping new students to thrive and seeing the accomplishments of those who are graduating.
Why did you decide to go into your specific area of expertise? It's hard to pin down what my area is. My academic focus has been English, my career started out in teaching writing, and my primary area now is advising. The common thread, I
Aside from teaching classes, how else are you involved with the University? I coordinate advising in the
Students walked to their first day of classes with a white-winter setting on Thursday. Lawrence received several inches of snow and has a 20 percent chance of snow today according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
favorite KU sport? Tie between basketball and football — even though I've only been following college football for two years.
How do you spend your free time?
I like to visit with friends at Tellers,
read contemporary fiction, and chill at home with a cat on my lap.
Honors Program run the university nomination process for several national scholarships and serve on university committees.
Do you have a
Can a girl get a snowmobile?
NATIONAL NEWS:
Citizens use 1887 law to investigate late abortions
WICHITA, Kan. — Religious conservatives have dusted off a largely forgotten 1887 state law that allows citizens to launch grand jury investigations, and they are using it to help turn Kansas into one of the nation's biggest abortion battlegrounds.
A grand jury that was impaneled Jan. 8 by way of a citizen petition drive is investigating Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita clinic operator abhorred by anti-abortion activists because he is one of the nation's few physicians who perform late-term abortions. This is the second such citizen investigation of Tiller since 2006.
Phillip Jauregui, counsel for the anti-abortion Life Legal Defense Foundation, said Kansans are invoking the 19th-century law because prosecutors are too soft on abortion.
"This is a right the people of Kansas have given themselves," he said.
Under the Kansas law, enacted during the Gilded Age and the nation's great railroad boom to curb political corruption, the people can force an investigation if they collect signatures from a certain percentage of voters in a county. In small counties, that can be a few hundred signatures; in Wichita's Sedgwick County, about 4,000.
Five other states provide for citizen-petitioned grand juries: Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Dakota, Nebraska and Nevada, according to a Tiller attorney.
One of the most publicized grand juries convened by citizen
"This is a witch hunt — plain and simple," said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, an abortion rights group. "It clearly demonstrates the inherent danger of empowering biased advocacy groups to impanel a grand jury."
But others say the law is a dangerous tool.
Normally, prosecutors decide whether to convene a grand jury to investigate something and bring charges.
petition was formed in Oklahoma after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. The investigation was prompted by suspicions that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols had help in the bombing. But the grand jury found no evidence of a wider conspiracy or a government cover-up.
The new report documents embryos made with ordinary skin cells. But it's not the first time human cloned embryos have been made. In 2005, for example, scientists in Britain reported using embryonic stem cells to produce a cloned embryo. It matured enough to produce stem cells, but none were extracted.
California scientists create cloned embryos of 2 men
NEW YORK — Scientists in California say they have produced embryos that are clones of two men, a potential step toward developing scientifically valuable stem cells.
"I found it difficult to determine what was substantially new," said Doug Melton of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He said the "next big advance will be to create a human embryonic stem cell line" from cloned embryos. "This has yet to be achieved."
So far, no other state appears to have used the process to pursue a social and moral agenda as extensively as Kansas, which is attacking not just abortion, but pornography.
Dr. George Daley of the Harvard institute and Children's Hospital Boston called the new report interesting but agreed that "the real splash" will be when somebody creates stem cell lines from cloned human embryos.
Stem cells weren't produced by the new embryos either, and because of that, experts reacted coolely to the research.
Korean scientist Hwang Woosuk claimed a few years ago that he'd created such cell lines, but that turned out to be a fraud.
"It's only a matter of time before some group succeeds," Dailev said.
Dr. Samuel Wood, a co-author of the new paper and chief
executive of Stemagen Corp. of La Jolla, Calif., said he and his colleagues are now attempting to produce stem cell lines from the embryos.
But critics raise objections. The process "involves creating human lives in the laboratory solely to destroy them for alleged benefit to others," said Richard Doerflinger, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The work was published online Thursday by the journal Stem Cells.
Scientists say stem cells from elonged embryos could provide a valuable tool for studying diseases, screening drugs and, perhaps someday, creating transplant material to treat conditions like diabetes and Parkinson's disease.
Other objections to cloning include concerns about health risks and exploitation if large numbers of women are asked to provide eggs.
SAN ANTONIO — A methamphetamine dealer who gunned down a deputy during a traffic stop in Southern California. A man in Arizona who killed his ex-girlfriend's parents and brother and snatched his children. A man who suffocated his baby daughter and left her body in a toolbag on an expressway overpass near Chicago.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008
Three criminals avoid death penalty in Mexico
Ordinarily, these would be death penalty cases. But these men fled to Mexico, thereby escaping the possibility of execution.
The reason: Mexico refuses to send anyone back to the United States unless the U.S. gives assurances it won't seek the death penalty — a 30-year-old policy that rankles some American prosecutors and enrages victims' families.
"We find it extremely disturbing that the Mexican government would dictate to us, in Arizona, how we would enforce our laws at the same time they are complaining about our immigration laws," said Barnett Lotstein, special assistant to the
prosecutor in Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix.
"Even in the most egregious cases, the Mexican authorities say, 'No way,' and that's not justice. That's an interference of Mexican authorities in our judicial process in Arizona."
It may be about to happen again: A Marine accused of murdering a pregnant comrade in North Carolina and burning her remains in his backyard is believed to have fled to Mexico. Prosecutors said they have not decided whether to seek the death penalty. But if the Marine is captured in Mexico, capital punishment will be off the table.
Mexico routinely returns fugitives to the U.S. to face justice. But under a 1978 treaty with the U.S., Mexico, which has no death penalty, will not extradite anyone facing possible execution. To get their hands on a fugitive, U.S. prosecutors must agree to seek no more than life in prison.
Other countries, including France and Canada, also demand such "death assurances." But the problem is more common with Mexico, since it is often a quick drive from the crime scene for a large portion of the United States.
Fugitives trying to escape the long arm of the law have been making a run for the border ever since frontier days, a practice romanticized in countless Hollywood Westerns.
"If you can get to Mexico — if you have the means — it's a way of escaping the death penalty," said Issac Unah, a University of North Carolina political science professor.
The Justice Department said death assurances from foreign countries are fairly common, but it had no immediate numbers. State Department officials said Mexico extradited 83 suspects to the U.S. in 2006. Most were wanted on drug or murder charges.
Associated Press
on campus
University faculty and staff may take part in the social event T.G.I.F. at 4 p.m. in the Adams Alumni Center.
Cosmic bowling, presented by Student Union Activities, will begin at 10 p.m. at the Jaybowl on level 1 of the Kansas Union.
on the record
The Kansas African Studies Center Open House will begin at 3:30 p.m. in 10 and 11 Bailey Hall.
The seminar DVD Presentation - "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon" will begin at 7:30 p.m. in 1001 Malott Hall.
A 25 year-old female was arrested by Lawrence police for Interfering with the duties of a law enforcement officer and urinating in public.
KU1info daily KU info
A 19 year-old female student reported criminal damage to her Toyota Sienna on University property. Damage was estimated at $500.
Welcome back to campus, everyone! There are only 40 class days left until spring break.
LAWRENCE City Commission allows free parking in garage
Students returning home from break may find it easier to find a parking spot on Massachusetts Street. The City Commission voted unanimously last week to allow free parking for a year on the top level of the parking garage located at Ninth and New Hampshire Streets.
"We think free parking will be helpful to employers and employees downtown," City Manager Dave Corliss said at the meeting.
The commissioners approved the proposal, but only as a temporary experiment that will last a year. The city will assess how much revenue was lost at the end of the year and decide whether the idea should be permanent. However, most of the commissioners thought the loss in revenue would barely be noticed.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to strike Palestinian militants "without compromise, without concessions and without mercy." His forces carried out stepped-up attacks, but Olmert gave no hint that a large-scale offensive was near.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel pummeled Gaza Thursday with air and ground fire as Palestinian rockets slammed into southern Israel, endangering recently restarted peace negotiations.
The Israeli attacks killed a militant leader and one of his female relatives along with five others in Gaza.
Associated Press
The widening violence has clouded Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, resumed after a Mideast conference in November sponsored by President Bush.
INTERNATIONAL
Israel attacks Gaza;
Olmert to strike back
Associated Press
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