14 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY,JUNE 19,2002
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Unwelcome e-mail bothers students; University aims at decreasing it
By Lauren Beatty Kansan staff writer
From spam to scams, harrassing e-mail is out there — and it's tougher than ever to get rid of it.
Jessica Julich, Kansas City, Mo., junior said she received six to seven spam, or unsolicited. e-mails per day on her University of Kansas account. The e-mails Julich received were almost always ads for goods or services.
"It's annoying," she said. "Ninety percent of my e-mail is junk mail. You have to go through and delete it all, and you could miss something important and accidentally delete e-mails from class. I try to go
Jenny Mehmedovic, assistant to the vice chancellor for information services, said the University was trying to cut down on the amount of unsolicited e-mail students recieved.
through and unsubscribe to each one, so for a few days it slows down, but it starts to build up again."
"People can forward it to us, and we will contact the sender to determine if they had a legitimate reason for sending the e-mail," she said. "We will take additional measures if necessary."
She said the University never gave out student e-mail addresses for commercial use but it was still possible for people to extract them from the student directory.
Mehmedovic said people could also receive spam when they registered their e-mails somewhere on the Internet.
"Be aware of what agreements you're getting into when you accept; it may be possible you have agreed to receive these messages," she said.
The Legislature is trying to do something about spam too. In May, the governor signed into law a bill that makes it a violation of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act to send any e-mail that promotes goods or services. Any business that violates this act could face a fine of $500 to $10,000.
Contact Beatty at Ibeatty@kansan.com. This story was edited by Kristin Keeney.
Parents protest Nickelodeon special about gay families
NEW YORK — Nickelodeon is going ahead with a children's special about same-sex parents, despite receiving so many e-mails that the network had to create a separate address to avoid a computer crash.
The half-hour report, produced by Linda Ellerbee and featuring Rosie O'Donnell, includes comments from the Rev. Jerry Falwell — who later joined conservative activists in urging Nickelodeon not to air it.
The network received 100,000 e-mails and phone calls to protest the program, set to air at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday.
The Washington-based Traditional Values Coalition has spearheaded the campaign against "Nick News Special Edition: My Family is Different," sight unseen.
"It is a cover for promoting homosexuality for kids," said Andrea Lafferty, the coalition's executive director.
Nickelodeon said that's not so. Ellerbee, in the show's introduction, says, "The following program is about tolerance ... It is not about sex. It does not tell you what to think."
Ellerbee, who won a Peabody Award for a Nickelodeon special that delicately dissected the Monica Lewinsky scandal for children, said she conceived of this show upon reading that the word "fag" had become the most common schoolyard epithet.
The program is largely a discussion. Although it also features a gay school principal and a gay New York City firefighter who is a father of three, children are the focus.
O'Donnell's public acknowledgment that she was a lesbian put the subject in the news, Ellerbee said. The former talk-show host has adopted three children.
Some children with gay parents talk about feeling uncomfortable about what other kids say in school. Other children
discuss their objection to homosexuality.
discuss their objectives. "It is never a wrong time to talk about hate," Ellerbee said. "It's just not. That's all our show is about. It is not in any way about the homosexual lifestyle. It's not even introducing the subject to most kids. They know. But quite frankly, many of them know it from a hate standpoint without even knowing what they're talking about."
But Lafferty said, "They keep saying it is not about sexuality. It is about sexuality."
"They have been led to believe that Nick is a safe harbor," she said. "Now they've been exposed. The skirt has been lifted and Nick has been exposed."
Falwell agreed to be interviewed and is quoted expressing his opposition to homosexuality on Christian grounds. He also said it's important to respect other points of view and not react with violence.
Nickelodeon's content upset parents because many thought they never had to worry about it, she said.
He said later, in an interview with The Associated Press, that he is sorry Nickelodeon feels the need to "indoctrinate" children into homosexuality.
"Nickelodeon should stay away from endorsing lifestyles that are generally not accepted by the American public," Falwell said. "It turns a children's network into something parents feel a responsibility to edit and carefully filter."
Asked how he reconciled his participation in the show with a call not to air it, Fallow said, "I've often said I would preach in hell if they promised to let me out."
Ellerbee said she was disappointed by Falwell's later comments.
Most of Ellerbee's Nick News programs air at 8:30 p.m. This show had been pushed back a half-hour because of its sensitive subject matter, said Herb Scannell, Nickelodeon's chief executive.
Deal reached in 22-year-old kidnapping case
NEW YORK A couple charged with kidnapping a baby 22 years ago and raising him as their son has reached a plea deal with prosecutors, defense lawyers said Tuesday.
two to six years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree kidnapping, said his lawyer, Raymond Colon.
Judith Smiley, 55, was expected to plead guilty to second-degree kidnapping and first-degree custodial interference for a six-month prison term and five years' probation, according to her attorney, Steven Brill.
The deal calls for Barry Smiley, 56, to get
Brill said that his client — who is confined to a wheelchair — would be sentenced to less jail time than her husband due to her poor health.
The Smileys were about to begin trial on charges they fled with the boy to Albuquerque, N.M., in 1980 after a judge declared their adoption was invalid because the birth mother had not given her full consent. They called the boy Matthew Propp.
The deal calls for Barry Smiley, 56, to get two to six years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree kidnapping.
Propp, now 23, said he loves the Smileys and that he did not want them to go to prison. The Smileys each could have faced up to 25 years behind bars if convicted at trial.
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