The weekend's weather
Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy.
HIGH LOW 73 46
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Sunday: Warm and dry.
Kansan Weekend Edition
Friday November 5,1999
Section:
A
Vol. 110 • No. 56
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Homosexual hate crimes experienced in Lawrence
By Erina R. Barcomb writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
The Lawrence community is learning that hate crimes can happen anywhere.
Both White and his friend are straight.
The Monday forum took place just days after Eric White, Wichita junior, and a friend were allegedly assaulted for being gay.
This week, the second conviction came in the murder trial for Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was beaten to death, and the Freedom Forum had a panel discussion at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St., about hate crimes targeting gays in Lawrence.
"I felt fairly helpless in the whole situation," White said. "I was under the impression if I got the story out there, people would see that is not just a gay problem but a societal problem."
"As I walked by, they said 'There are a couple of faggots,'" he said. "We couldn't believe their comments."
White said his friend made a sarcastic remark that suggested the friends were gay.
White said that when he spoke at the discussion, he relayed what happened early Friday morning in downtown Lawrence when he and his friend came across five men while walking down Eighth Street toward Massachusetts Street.
"Whether they took that as us being smart-asses or if we were gay, they found it reason enough," he said.
White said he asked the men if they had homophobic issues. He said then his friend was punched but managed to get to Teller's, 746 Massachusetts St., to call the police.
White said he was taken to some bushes where he was held down and beaten, but he too made it to Teller's. Once he made it inside, he said, an employee locked the door.
"I've been left wondering whether they're wondering if we were gay, or whether they just wanted to challenge our manhood," White said.
White said the police discouraged him
See DISCUSSION on page 5A
slightly slouched, in an inconspicuous van. A fedora pulled low above his brow shadows his eyes, and the collar of his trenchcoat hides the wire running down from his ear.
down from my ear.
He's the slimy private investigator we know from old movies. And he's the image that real private investigators want to debunk.
Everybody thinks I sit in a van.
"Everybody thinks I sit in a van all day and watch people have affairs," said Cecilia Wood, a licensed private investigator and owner of Lawrence-based Wood Investigative Services.
investigative Services. For Wood and others, investigation is a legitimate business.And the business is information.
It's information such as addresses, employment, criminal records, credit history and lifestyle that landlords, attorneys, bail bondsmen and even former lovers will pay at least $50 an hour to obtain.
And it's information that keeps 392 licensed investigators working in Kansas, said Sandy Meier, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's Private Detective Licensing Unit.
Wood defies all of the image stereotypes associated with private investigators with her blond hair, blue eyes and easy laugh. She started her own business after spending years as a probation
company. The majority of the cases that Wood works are for either insurance companies or attorneys, but she said that she does occasional work for individuals. One benefit of working for herself is being able to turn down cases that make her uncomfortable, she said.
"If I get asked to do a job that I don't feel is right, I'll turn it down," Wood said. "I won't do anything to hurt anyone. I won't cross that line for money." He said investigators tended to
She said investigators tended to specialize and share work with other investigators.She mentioned Steve Hicks of Hicks Information. Hicks doesn't fit the P.I. stereo
Hicks
said he
w a s
drawn to
the field
while enrolled
in a library pro-
gram at Emporia
State University.
Nothing is informa-
tive."Everybo
"Everything is information," he said. "Everybody needs information. I realized there were particular segments of Lawrence society that needed particular kinds of information, and I knew where to get it, format it and make it accessible. Information like that has a value."
ike tnar nas a value. Hicks Information, which also is located in Lawrence, provides rent screening, pre-employment
Tonight
- Machinal at 8 p.m. at the Inge Theater in Murphy Hall
All-Brahms Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center
Jesse Jackson 5 at 9 p.m. at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.
Tim Mahoney and the Meenies at 10 p.m.
at the Jazzhaus, 926 1/2 Massachusetts
St.
Border Band from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Pat's Blue Rib'N Barbecue, 1618 W. 23rd St.
Tomorrow
- Machinal at 8 p.m. at the Inge Theater in Muroh Hall
- Guided by Voices, Those Bastard Souls at 9 p.m. at the Bottlecase
- Common Ground at 110 p.m. at the Jazzhaus
**Doctoral Recital:** Sabin Levi, organ, at 7:30 p.m. at Bales Organ Recital Hall
Dr. Zhevegas at 7 p.m. at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St.
Sunday
Index
News . . . . . . . . . . 3A
Game times . . . . . . . 1B
Horoscopes . . . . . . . 2B
Coupons . . . . . . . 3B
Movie Listings . . . . 5A
Classifieds . . . . . . 5B
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.
The evolution debate
The debate wears on
The Bachelor not eligible for success
Theologian Jonathan Wells provides a balance to the evolution debate by criticizing Darwinist theory. Still, he says that Board of Education should not have removed evolution as a science requirement.
See page 3A
See page 6A
Kansan movie critic Brandon Walsh says this remake is agonizingly slow and predictable, reaffirming that most classics shouldn't
be updated.
...
Rowing for redemption
The Jayhawks are looking for a win against the Wildcats at the Sunflower
Showdown Regatta in Manhattan.
See page 6B
Game practice or practice game?
1
The California East All-Stars are coming to town to test the Jayhawk men's basketball team. Coach Roy Williams calls it a 'glorified practice.' Some of his players think it's real enough for them.
See page 1B