4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY TRAIL KANSAN
》 DEVELOPMENT
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007
ECM board considers demolition
BY SARAH NEFF sneff@kansan.com
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Shiyi Zhang, Tianjin, China, graduate student, and Josh Rome, Hays senior, stand with the Rev Thad Holcombe, campus pastor at Ecumenical Christian Ministries. Developers of the Oread Inn want to buy and demolish the ECM building, 1204 Oread Ave. Rome and Zhang live in the apartments in the building.
The same company that plans to tear down the Crossing and build a luxury hotel in its place has set it sights on the building that houses the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 12th Street and Oread Avenue.
The ECM board met last night and discussed the possibility of allowing the demolition of the existing building. They brainstormed alternative methods to get the repairs accomplished without having to give up the building. Some of the ideas included sharing the space with another group or renting the building out for events such as weddings and conferences. However some of the major repairs would have to be made before the ECM could be rented out.
Rev. Thad Holcombe, campus pastor at the ECM, said he had heard rumors from students that the ECM was in debt. He said that the rumors were not true, however the building did need some repairs.
A proposal to tear down the ECM building was given to the board in August. The new building would reduce the area available to the ministry from 18,000 square feet to about 7,000 square feet. The new building would be part of the Oread Circle development.
The current building still has its original light fixtures, table and chairs. Holcombe said he had seen several art students come to draw the unique spiral staircase that leads to the top floor.
The ECM owns the building, so
they have the final say in whether or not to sell. Some of the board members said that saying yes might help the ECM on the surface, but it could also hurt the ECM while its tenants and programs were displaced during the demolition and construction. The board also mentioned that the building itself was a sacred space to many students.
Every Thursday, students gather at the ECM for Veggie Lunch Seven students live in the basement of the building.
Dini Richards, Salina gradu.
ate and building committee chair, said the needed repairs added up to $736,000. Some of the most pertinent repairs include upgrades to the heating and cooling system, remodeling the kitchen and making the building more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The University architect came to the building and said it was structurally sound.
"The ideal is to keep the building and try to keep doing what we are doing," Richards said. "If we can't then we will try to come as
close to possible as that."
Bob Thompson, 63-year-old Spring Hill resident, volunteers his time to do maintenance for the ECM.
"There's got to be a better way than tearing down and starting over," Thompson said.
The contractor has given the ECM until the end of this year to make a decision.
Edited by Luke Morris
HOLLYWOOD
Writers strike halts sitcoms,
networks to use re-runs
LOS ANGELES — Production of the hit show "Desperate Housewives" and at least six sitcoms filmed before live audiences will be halted as a result of the writers strike — developments that raised the stakes Tuesday in the walkout targeting movie studios and TV networks.
Producer Alexandra Cunningham said "Desperate Housewives"
will stop production on Wednesday after running out of scripts. Shows that have already been completed won't last until Christmas, she said.
"It's unfortunate. We want to get back to work," Cunningham said.
Sitcoms that will stop the cameras include "Back to You," starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, which will not return from a planned hiatus, said Chris Alexander, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television.
Star Julia Louis-Dreyfus said production also stopped on her CBS show, "The New Adventures of Old Christmas."
In addition, "Til Death," which airs on Fox, and "Rules of Engagement," "Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory," all on CBS, will also end filming, according to people familiar with production of the shows who were not authorized to be quoted and requested anonymity.
Network officials referred calls to the individual companies
producing each show.
It was not immediately clear how many of the programs might already be finished.
The sitcoms are typically written the same week they are filmed, with jokes being sharpened by writers even on the day of production.
The disclosures came during the second day of the strike by the Writers Guild of America against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Associated Press
U. S. GOVERNMENT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Senate committee prepared to advance Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the nation's 81st attorney general after two key Democrats pledged to support him because he promised to enforce a law against controlled drowning if Congress passed one. President George W. Bush nominated Mukasey for the position in September.
Nomination reaches Senate
BY LAURIE KELLMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
The retired federal judge was expected to win confirmation easily by the end of next week, but not without significant floor discussion inspired by his refusal to say that waterboarding amounts to illegal torture.
WASHINGTON — Michael Mukasey's nomination as the nation's next attorney general was sent to the full Senate on Tuesday as a vehicle for the broader, and more bitter, debate over the legality of the Bush administration's interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects.
Within hours of the Judiciary
Committee's 11-8 endorsement of the nomination Tuesday. Mukasey's name was invoked in the same sentence as "torture" in a campaign appeal on behalf of Democrats.
read a letter sent out by Friends for Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader who had announced earlier in the day he would vote against confirmation.
"We appreciate the vote of senators on the Judiciary Committee to forward the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to the full Senate," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "Judge Mukasey has clearly demonstrated that he will be an exceptional attorney general at this critical time."
Mukasey's comments on torture ranked senators of both parties, but the nominee averted a rebellion by promising to enforce any law Congress passes outlawing the practice — or quit the post if President Bush ignores his legal advice.
Officials in both parties predicted Tuesday that Mukasey would win more than the 60 votes required to head off a fillbuster. But before any more votes are cast on the matter, a full-blown floor debate was expected about waterboarding, a brutal interrogation method that creates the sensation of drowning and which is banned by domestic law and international treaties.
That was good enough for all nine Republicans and two Democrats on the 19-member Senate Judiciary Committee who voted to send the nomination to the full Senate for confirmation.
Those policies don't govern the CIA's use of the practice, however, and the Bush administration has sidestepped questions about whether it has allowed the agency's employees to use it against terror detainees.
DANA PERINO White House press secretary
"Judge Mukasey has clearly demonstrated that he will be an exceptional attorney general at this critical time."
At Senate confirmation hearings last month, Mukasey frustrated senators of both parties by refusing to say whether he considers waterboarding a form of torture, as claimed by a coalition of military officials, doctors and humans rights groups.
"Unsaid, of course, is the fact that any such prohibition would have to be enacted over the veto of this president," said Judicary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
But 'some on the panel called Mukasev's anpeal disingenuous.
Mukasey's assurances won enough support to survive a vote by the committee that looked uncertain only a few days earlier. Ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said the burden for outlawing the practice rests with Congress anyway.
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one of eight Democrats who voted against the nomination.
A d d e d
Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-
Mass.:
"He said that he opposes torture and would tell the president in no uncertain terms that any technique he concluded amounted to torture is illegal," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "I don't believe that he would bow to any kind of pressure even from the president, if he thought that there were a problem."
"We are supposed to find comfort in the representations by a nominee
If lawmakers were unified on the unsavouriness of waterboarding, Democrats were divided on whether it disqualified Mukasey.
But Republicans argued that Mukasey, a retired federal judge and one-time journalist, was qualified for the job and that he had answered the waterboarding question as fully as possible given that he has not been privy to classified interrogation techniques.
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to be the highest law enforcement officer in the country that he will in fact enforce the laws that we pass in the future? Can our standards really have sunk so low?
Like all four of the Senate's Democratic presidential hopefuls and eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, Reid declared that the waterboarding issue disqualified Mukasey. He did not rule out a Democratic-driven filibuster, but officials said they knew of no specific plans to launch one.
"There may be people disappointed in Mukasey being reported out of the committee," Reid said. "That's why there will be a really heavy vote against him here on the floor."
At least two Democrats won't be among them. Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California voted with Judiciary Committee Republicans to send Mukasey's nomination to the floor.
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