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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005
CAMPUS
Institute features women in politics
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics is putting a political spin on Women's History Month with a program called "Women In Politics and the Media" at 8 tonight.
Kate Snow, ABC television correspondent and weekend "Good Morning America" anchor, will moderate a discussion between an "all-star" panel of women, Bill Lacy, institute director, said.
Other women on the panel are: Lia Larson, an editor of "Skirting Tradition," a collection of writings by prominent women in politics; Kay Barnes, mayor of Kansas City, Mo.; Becky Norton Dunlap, former White House aide and Virginia politician and Karen McCarthy former five-term U.S. Representative from Minnesota.
presentative from Missouri The free event in The Dole Institute, located west of the Lied Center on West Campus is open to the public.
— Jason Shaad
A minute of silence will occur at 2 p.m. today to remember the victims of genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Campanile tolls to remember Sudan
The event is a joint effort between the Community Committee for Darfur Refugees and the University of Kansas chapter of the United Nations Children's Fund. Members will meet in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall during the minute.
The campanile will toll to signal the beginning and the end of the minute.
The conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has been going on since last spring and is a dispute between rebel groups and the government.
"It's a way to pay our respects but also a way to inform people and get out awareness," Amanda Spikes, Hugotton law student, said.
— Ty Beaver
Judge sentences Peterson to death
BY BRIAN SKOLOFF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. A judge formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death yesterday after family members got into a shouting match and Laci Peterson's mother sobbed and called her son-in-law "an evil murderer."
Sharon Rocha, Laci Peterson's mother, walks out to stand with her husband as he addresses the media outside the courthouse after the formal sentencing of Scott Peterson in Redwood City, Calif., yesterday. The judge formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death yesterday after calling the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, "cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous."
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi allowed only Laci's family members to speak at the hearing after he indicated that he believed the death penalty was warranted.
Peterson's father yelled from the audience as Laci's brother, Brent Rocha, spoke to the court and said, "Laci and Conner are the true victims here."
"What a liar!" Lee Peterson said before the judge admonished him and he walked out of the courtroom. Jackie Peterson, Scott Peterson's mother, also interrupted Rocha but her voice was inaudible.
Delucchi denied a defense request for a new trial before he upheld the jury's recommendation that Peterson be sentenced to death.
Scott Peterson, 32, was invited to make a statement. After several minutes of discussion with his attorneys, he declined.
"The court is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the
defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, is guilty of first-degree murder" and second degree. Delucchi said and added that he found that the killings "were cruel,
Peterson, shackled at the waist and wearing a dark suit, showed no emotion through-
uncaring, heartless and callous."
out the hearing
Sheriff's Lt. Lisa Williams. The infamous lockup overlooks the same bay where Laci Peterson's body was discarded.
body was discarded. Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, sobbed and trembled from a podium as she lashed out at her former son-in-law. Scott Peterson stared back at her without emotion.
not chosen to throw Laci and Conner away, dispose of them like they were just a piece of garbage," she said. "You were wrong; dead wrong."
wrong. Dead. Dabbing at her eyes with tissues, she called him "an evil murderer."
Peterson was convicted in November of first-degree murder in the killing of Laci and second-degree murder for the slaying of her fetus. A jury recommended the death penalty a month later.
Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, tried to get the judge to allow Peterson's parents, Jackie and Lee Peterson, to speak, on the basis that they were related to Conner.
The judge said the hearing was an opportunity for Laci's relatives to speak only. He ordered Scott Peterson to pay $10,000 restitution for funeral expenses and an additional $5,000, though the reason for that amount was unexplained.
NATION
Senate debates using Alaskan oil
WASHINGTON — A sharplydivided Senate is about to decide whether to give oil companies access to an ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge that could be one of the country's biggest oil fields.
Drilling supporters argue that the refuge's oil will reduce U.S. reliance on imports. Opponents say it will hardly make a dent in the more than
120 million barrels of oil the country uses each day.
Repeated attempts to open the refuge to drilling fell short as drilling proponents failed to muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a Senate filibuster by Democrats and a group of moderate Republicans.
The Associated Press
WorldCom verdict: 'a fitting final act'
NEW YORK — Some former employees and investors who lost jobs and billions of dollars
in the collapse of WorldCom said the conviction of former CEO Bernard Ebbers was a fitting final act to the epic accounting scandal.
Ebbers was found guilty Tuesday of fraud, conspiracy and false regulatory filings after a six-week federal trial in Manhattan. He could spend the rest of his life in prison.
"This just proves that when you don't use ethics,when you take your power and misuse it, that there is a price to pay," said Kate Lee,who formed a group of former WorldCom
employees and successfully fought for severance.
- The Associated Press
Controversy arises over AIDS grants
WASHINGTON — Two-thirds of the members serving on an expert medical panel investigating a U.S.-funded AIDS study are receiving grant money from the federal agency at the center of the probe, according to documents and interviews.
The Institute of Medicine said it was aware of the financial tie
with six of the nine members of its expert panel but approved their participation because they have special expertise, receive only a minority of their overall funding from the National Institutes of Health and won their grants competitively.
IOM, the nation's health adviser, said the panel's ultimate conclusions about NIH's controversial AIDS study in Africa wouldn't affect the members' NIH funding, and thus there was no conflict of interest, spokeswoman Christine Stencel said.
The Associated Press
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