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Raining
Tomorrow's weather Breezy with a possibility of rain,with a high of 64 and a low of 42.
Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
PULLING
Sports: Junior Andrew Lumpkin is helping the men's tennis team as he battles for his life against cancer.
(USPS 650-640) • VOL.110 NO.111
Inside: Presidential candidates prepare for a Super Tuesday showdown.
TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 2000
SEE PAGE 3A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Many dog owners won't let their dogs swim in Potter Lake because it is polluted with oil from last month's transformer explosion behind Strong Hall. Workers from the department of environment, health and safety began cleaning the lake three weeks ago. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Potter Lake polluted with oil
Water contaminated after recent explosion behind Strong Hall
By Doug Pacey writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Jennifer Booth, St. Charles, Ill.
freshman, walks her dog near Potter
Lake a few times a week.
But Asti, her 6-month-old yellow Labrador, no longer gets to go in the water.
"I used to let my dog swim in there until about a week ago," she said. "Then it was so oily, I stopped. I've talked to other people who walk their dogs there, and pretty much no one lets their dogs swim in there anymore."
Oil from the transformer that explod
ed behind Strong Hall a month ago has seeped into the lake, said Mike Russell, director of the department of environment, health and safety.
"Every time it rains, stuff gets pushed out of the storm drains," he said. "We've been working on this for the past three weeks — every day the weather is decent. We thought we had it last week, but then it rained again and more showed up."
Russell said that he did not know when it would stop.
"I wish it wouldn't do it anymore," he said. "I wish I knew when it would stop, but there are hundreds of feet of storm drains."
Booth told the Kansas Department of Health and Environment that Potter Lake seemed more polluted than usual.
Dan Wells, environmental geologist for KDHE, inspected the lake yesterday morning at Booth's request.
"There does appear to be a sheen of oil on the banks of the lake," he said.
"I used to let my dog swim in there until about a week ago. Then it was so oily, I stopped. I've talked to other people who walk their dogs there and pretty much no one lets their dogs swim in there anymore."
Jennifer Booth
St. Charles, IL freshman
Russell said that a sponge-like absorbent material made of natural and man-made products was used to pick up the oil.
"I'm glad they're doing something about it," Booth said. "But it seems like things have gotten worse in the past week. I'm just worried about it."
State bill would require outside study of issue
By Katrina Hull
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
When Vincent Edward saw the flashing police lights, he didn't know what he had done.
Edwards, Wichita junior, had been driving through an affluent Wichita neighborhood looking at houses with a friend and his sister.
When police handcuffed Edwards and took him to the police station, he still didn't know why.
"You can be doing nothing," Edwards said. "According to the police, I was violating the midnight curfew, although they stopped me at 11-something at night."
Police told him they had seen suspicious behavior in the neighborhood. Edwards was released without charges.
But Edwards, an African American, said that police crossed the line between reasonable suspicion and race-based suspicion that night, a practice known as racial profiling.
Edwards: Was victim of racial profiling in Wichita
The Kansas House
passed a bill that would require the state to study whether racial profiling was a problem in Kansas. The bill is in the Senate Judicial Committee, which hasn't scheduled a hearing yet.
The original proposal by State Rep. David Haley, D-Kansas City, would have required law enforcement officers to record gender, age and race for every traffic stop.
But the House Judicial Committee, citing the expense from more paperwork, reworked the bill to require the state to hire an outside consultant to study racial profiling instead.
“It’s a weaker version,” Haley said. “I knew that given the amount of very conservative members that this was the best compromise we could hope for this year. I
"You can be doing nothing. According to the police, I was violating the midnight curfew although they stopped me at 11 something at night."
Vincent Edwards
Wichita junior
do think it's a stutter step in the right direction."
gatey said that the allegations that recording and studying the data would cost too much — estimates ranged from $250,000 to $1 million — were unfounded.
He said his bill would have required law enforcement to make a simple pigmentation assessment — white or not white — and he didn't know how that could cost $1 million.
"The first successful class action lawsuit against the state would cost exponentially more than this study." Haley said.
Indeed, New Jersey lost $4 million in class action lawsuits for racial profiling, Haley told the Associated Press.
If the study shows that racial profiling is a problem, the state may be able to fix the problem before it escalates into a lawsuit, Haley said.
Sgt. George Wheeler, of the Lawrence police, said profiling, racial or otherwise, was not policy at the Lawrence Police Department.
"We don't do it and haven't done it," Wheeler said. "Each stop must stand or fall on its own merits."
Wheeler said any complaints that someone had been stopped because of his age or race were dealt with on an individual basis.
See EIGHTEEN on page 2A
Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series about racial profiling.
Fast-food chicken franchise may set up shop in Kansas Union
Tomorrow's story will deal with the legal questions, such as does the Fourth Amendment prohibit racial profiling?
By Joel Francis
Special to the Kansan
Mailboxes may be followed by chicken nuggets as more franchises look to sign on at the Kansas Union.
In addition to the new Mailboxes Etc.
David Mucci, director of unions, is considering adding a Chick-Fil-A chicken franchise.
"They have sent in a representative and submitted architectural plans," he said.
Barry White, the Chick-Fil-A representative working with Mucci, said he could not comment without University approval. A representative for Chick-Fil-A who would not reveal her name said that although no
date had been set, they were looking at a 2000 opening.
Chick-Fil-A has a location in Topeka.
"I love it," said Kristi Henderson, Topeka freshman. "The chicken salad sandwich and the waffle fries and the lemonade are great."
But even if the new store is added, the University of Kansas will be behind many other Big 12 Conference schools in number of union franchises.
The Kansas State University student union has 10 concept stores in its union, including Taco Bell and Burger King. The University has five.
Mucci said that the University of Kansas intended to be more selective in the businesses it allowed in the Union. Students ultimately have to subsidize the franchises that don't make money, he said.
"A school like K-State has all those services, but at this point the stores are not paying their own way." Mucci said.
Jack Connaughton, associate director of the Kansas State union, said every store in his union was making money.
"It early in the game, and some of the shops have just opened up," Connaughton said. "It appears we are doing OK in every one of our areas."
Each semester, KU students pay $22.50 in union fees and an $18.50 renovation fee. K-State students pay a $30 union operating fee
and $25 to pay off the union renovation bond
each semester.
"We receive probably one of the lowest student fees for a union in the Big 12," Mucci said. "That's good, but it requires that everything we put in generate money."
Some students don't seem to mind that the Union lacks name-brand variety.
"I'm satisfied with what we have," said Leah Gibbs, Santa Fe, N.M., junior. "If we have to eliminate some of the nonfranchise services to put in more stores, that would be fine. I wouldn't want to pay more to have them here."
Businesses must have enough sales to bring a profit to the Union, or must be popular enough to warrant a subsidy, Mucci said.
"The trick is to find the ones that are not net losers," Mucci said. "A store like Taco Bell might have marginal profits, but when it keeps people in the building, maybe that's a plus."
Though still in the honeymoon stage, the marriage between the Union and Mailboxes Etc. seems blissful.
"Mailboxes Etc. makes sense because we get rent, and they provide a service people need, which draws people to the building." Mucci said. "As you put these things together, each benefits each other as businesses, services and community draws."
Mardi Gras mania reaches Kansas
By Mandy Sampson Special to the Kansan
Some students said Mardi Gras, which ends today, was a great way to get away for the weekend. Even the long drive didn't get most students' spirits down.
It's time again for the annual homage to the shameless indulgence known as Mardi Gras in New Orleans. And, once again, University of Kansas students have flocked there in large numbers.
even in the crowd of people, Garry said that his group found other KU students that it didn't know.
"We drove 14 hours straight through the night," said Michael Garry, a Leawood junior who has gone to the festival the past two years.
"We start singing 'Rock Chalk Jayhawk' with them on Bourbon
Most people associate Mardi Gras, which means fat Tuesday in French, with a few days of reckless partying. The celebration is always scheduled 47 days before Easter.
Mardi Gras is traditionally characterized by parades that roll through town every day for the final two weeks of the season. Those who build the ornamented floats ride in full costume and throw strands of plastic beads to eager patrons who line the streets.
Street," he said.
Beads are worn at all times and are acquired by catching them from passing floats, by negotiation or trade, he said.
"There seems like there are 2 million people down there trying to catch beads," Garry said.
"The women down there will do almost anything to get beads — even if it means taking off their shirts," said Aaron Shriver, a McPherson graduate student who went to New Orleans this year.
Along with the parades, partial nudity and flashing, though not encouraged by police, have become part of the French Quarter scene.
But Katie Rodgers, Tulsa, Okla,
junior, who also went this year,
said men did things that were just
as humiliating.
"It's mainly an attention thing for the women who raise their shirts," Rodgers said. "But I think it's more degrading to the men who ask them to do it."
Although police often ignore women lifting their shirts and men dropping their pants in the French Quarter to get beads, police in other parts of town will arrest violators.
Local law enforcement allows alcoholic beverages to be carried around the streets as long as they are in cans or plastic cups, Garry said.
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Student injured after being hit by automobile
Chris Maxwell, Prairie Village senior, said Preno was on his way to Robinson Center when he was hit. Maxwell said he heard the car screech and saw the tail end of Preno's accident.
A University of Kansas student was hit by a car at about 5:35 p.m. yesterday on 15th Street.
Dede Preno, Prairie Village senior, was hit by a red Neon while crossing 15th Street near Jayhawker Towers but did not appear to be seriously hurt.
"I saw him somersault off the windshield, and it looked like he landed on his head." Maxwell said. "He didn't seem to be badly hurt. He was alert and awake and doing fine."
Andrew Lonas, Lawrence junior, said he was driving the Neon west on 15th Street in slow traffic when a man ran in front of him.
Sgt. Rose Rozmiarek of the KU Public Safety Office said police had not decided whether to issue any citations because they had not yet interviewed the victim. She said there was not a crosswalk at the site of the accident.
Jim O'Malley