WEDNESDAY, JULY 17.2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 29
Teacher accused of making bomb threat
PHILLIPSBURG (AP) — When a bomb threat turned up at Phillipsburg Junior High School on March 21, authorities didn't just evacuate the school. Surrounding businesses were emptied and traffic on a nearby highway was rerouted for the daw.
Now, a veteran teacher has been accused of making the threat and could lose her job.
Jan Johnson, a fifth-grade teacher with 26 years of experience, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated criminal threat, according to the Phillips County sheriff's office. She made her first appearance in district court Friday afternoon and was released on $25,000 bond.
While bomb threats at schools aren't uncommon, many turn out to be student pranks. If Johnson was convicted, the hoax would take on a new level of seriousness, Phillipsburg Superintendent Bill Grimes said.
Grimes said he was not aware of any disciplinary issues with Johnson, either during her years at the junior high or local elementary school.
On the morning of March 21, a teacher — not Johnson — told Principal Rick Riffel there was a handwritten note in the girls' locker room that said, "Bomb in the building. Get out now."
The 220 students and staff were evacuated to a church, and traffic on U.S. 36 was rerouted. Nearby businesses were emptied, parents were alerted by radio of an emergency at the school and a Capitol Police officer and his bomb-sniffing dog were flown in from Topeka.
No bomb was found.
Officials haven't revealed what led their investigation to Johnson.
Newspaper sued for libel by politician it opposed
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) A criminal libel case began with a prosecutor accusing a gadfly publisher and editor of printing lies in their tabloid newspaper — and the consequence could be jail time.
Last year, Wyandotte County prosecutors charged Observer Publications Inc., publisher David Carson, and editor Edward H. Powers Jr, with 10 counts of criminal libel. If convicted, each defendant could face up to a year in jail.
Special prosecutor David Farris of Atchison County, Kan., told the sixmember jury on Monday that the editor and the publisher of The New Observer "knowingly, willfully and with reckless
disregard for the truth published lies."
The New Observer, a free publication opposed the re-election of Wyandotte County District Attorney Nick Tomasic and Unified Government Mayor Carol Marinovich. The Unified Government governs all of Wyandotte County and its largest city, Kansas City, Kan.
Most of the charges focus on claims in The New Observer that Marinovich and her husband, Wyandotte County District Court Judge Ernest Johnson, live in neighboring Johnson County.
Attorneys for the defendants couched the argument in terms of politics and the freedom to express opposing opinions.
Milestone nears for state
TOPEKA (AP) — When Kansas marks the 150th anniversary of its organization as a territory, official events will present an unvarnished look at a turbulent, sometimes bloody chapter of the state's history.
Plans for the 2004 observance are being made by a panel chaired by Judge Deanell R. Tacha, chief judge of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The nine-member Kansas Territorial Sesquicentennial Commission, appointed by Gov. Bill Graves in December, has met twice so far.
The state was organized as Kansas Territory on May 30,1854,touching off a sevenyear armed struggle between pro-slavery elements and abolitionists for control of
"I was afraid that nobody out there cared about the sesquicentennial," Tacha said recently. "There can be extreme value in such events, because we are able to reflect on our sense of place and our sense of who we are as a people — even though the word sesquicentennial is going to be tough to pronounce."
the future state. Kansas joined the union in 1861.
Tacha said commissioners envision a yearlong series of events throughout 2004, including educational events that relate to the eventual displacement of more than two dozen Indian groups who lived in Kansas at the time the territory was opened to Euro-American settlement.
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Web Authoring: CGI Scripts Prerequisites: Web Authoring: Foundations, Web Authoring: Introduction, Web Authoring: Intermediate, Web Authoring: Forms, UNIX and Web Authoring: Perl. Requires registration for all. Mon., July 22,
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SPSS Graphics Output and Graphics: Getting Published Prerequisite:
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Web Authoring: Cascading Style Sheets Intermediate Prerequisites: Web Authoring: Foundations, Web Authoring: Introduction, Web Authoring: Intermediate and Web Authoring: Cascading Style Sheets Introduction. Requires registration for all. Wed., July 24, 9 a.m.-Noon, Budig PC Lab
Web-Database Integration Prerequisites: Web Authoring: Foundations, Web Authoring: Introduction, Web Authoring: Intermediate, Web Authoring: Forms, UNIX, Web Authoring: Perl and Web Authoring: CGI Scripts. Requires registration for all. Thurs., July 25, 1-4:30 p.m., Budig PC Lab
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