TODAY'S WEATHER: Hazy, hot and humid with a high of 80. SPORTS: Editors grade Kansas athletic teams.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
TALK TO US: Contact Leita Walker, Jay Krail or Kyle Ramsey at (785) 864-4810 or editor@kanas.com
KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY MAY 8,2002
WWW.KANSAN.COM
ISSUE 147 VOLUME 112
Bars make preparations for stop day
By Erica Hood Special to the Kansan
Molly LaMere, Papillion, Neb., senior, says she will be visiting many of Lawrence's downtown bars on stop day Friday.
Stop day is supposed to be a day for University of Kansas students to prepare for their finals, but many of the University's 19,651 undergraduates use the free day to party instead.
"The end of the semester is so stressful so stop day gives us a chance to relax before we have to take final," LaMere said.
LaMere can walk in and out of any bar she chooses because she is 21, but her underage friends may not be able to party with her this weekend. Bar owners and the Kansas Alcoholic Beverage Control agency are taking extra measures to make sure underage drinking is under control.
"You have to be careful when going out on stop day if you're underage because security seems to be higher than normal," LaMere said.
Employees at Abe and Jake's Landing, 8 E. Sixth St., will take precautionary measures to prevent underage students from drinking at their bar on stop day, manager James Radina said.
Two workers will be at the door to check each ID. Then the ID will be placed in a video drop box that takes a picture of it.
The ABC will send extra officers to Lawrence on stop day to monitor underage drinking. Agent Pete Bodyk said.
If the door workers think an ID is fake, they can swipe it through a police scanner or ask for a second form of identification, Radina said.
"ABC have been to all downtown bars more this year so there's been a drop off in the amount of underage students trying to get into Abe and Jake's." Radina said.
The ABC also sends officers to bars to check IDs of random, underage-looking customers.
Contact Hood at editor@kansan.com. This story was edited by Kristi Henderson.
The agency usually sends one or two officers to randomly selected bars on most weekends, but up to six will be in Lawrence the weekend before finals, Bodyk said.
Last year LaMere went to a friend's house on stop day to hang out with her friends because she was not 21 yet.
"I guess it's better that underage students have to be more careful now," LaMere said, "but I'm just glad I'm 21 and can enjoy my stop day anywhere I want."
"We are able to send more officers to Lawrence because our headquarters is located in Topeka, which is so close," Bodyk said.
The ABC provides training to bar owners to help them detect underage patrons more easily. Bodyk said.
"They check IDs at the door, but pretty much anyone in that fraternity can get in no matter what age they are," Waugh said.
In addition to bar-hopping, some students attend fraternity parties. Adam Waugh, Topeka junior, just turned 21. He said he would attend a fraternity party Friday.
"It is up to them if they want to let people under 21 into the bar," Bodyk said. "It is their responsibility to make sure they don't drink."
STORY BY
RACHEL KEESEE
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY
KYLE RAMSEY AND
KIMBERLY THOMPSON
like many KU seniors, Lindsey Hafner thought she should get a credit card and begin using it before she graduated this May.
The only problem was, someone already had ruined her credit.
"I have a 14-page credit report that's all delinquent," the Great Bend senior said.
Not just one person, but two people had stolen Hafner's identity. They spent more than $7,000 in her name
at stores in Topeka and Lawrence.
"It was really eerie," Hafner said. "A receipt that one of the girls had signed looked like she had almost studied my signature. She has used addresses from when I lived in a dorm. They know so much about me, and I know nothing about them. And the worst part is not knowing how they got the information."
It's easy for people to get a credit card using someone else's personal
information, police say. What's hard is clearing your credit when identity thieves strike. It can take years, victims say, and even then they never know if their credit is safe.
"To prove to people it's not you takes some doing," said Valerie Renault, public information officer for the University of Kansas Bureau of Child Research.
SEE IDENTITY ON PAGE 6A
Group asks city to revisit housing ordinance
By Lauren Beatty
By Lauren Beatty Kansan staff writer
A Lawrence rental-property ordinance that went into effect in February came under attack last night, as landlords and tenants continued to threaten legal action unless the city changed its codes.
Chris Miller, attorney for the Citizen's Rights Committee, a group of local landlords and tenants, told city commissioners that he wanted them to revisit the issue of City Ordinance 7326 or the committee would sue the city.
The ordinance requires all rental homes in single-family residential zoning districts to be inspected for compliance to housing and safety codes.
"We would like to see that issue revisited, instead of go to court," he said. "But we do intend to go forward."
The Citizens Rights Committee claims the ordinance violates constitutional rights provided in the fourth amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches of property.
"This commission has made it clear that we are concerned with the safety of citizens, and we will uphold the ordinance," she said.
Mayor Sue Hack said the commission had no plans to revisit the issue.
Hack said the attorney general had previously made it clear to the city commission that what they were doing was legal.
"I'm comfortable the courts will uphold that." she said.
The rental registration ordinance went into effect Feb. 1. On Feb. 13, the committee told the city commission its intention to bring the matter to court.
The city legally had 120 days to respond. Last night's meeting served as another warning to the city. The city now has 36 days left, and a claim has been filed.
Ten landlords and five tenants are listed on the claim as plaintiffs. In the claim, the landlords seek lost income, lost property value and punitive damages. The tenants seek reimbursement for additional rent obligations.
Contact Beatty at beaty@kansan.com.
This story was edited by Sarah Smash.
ROTC Marine Amber Jones, Joplin, Mo., sophomore, will be the first woman to attend the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif. Jones' training starts in June and will last about three weeks.
Female will be training center's first
By Mike Gilligan Kansan staff writer
One student will try to accomplish something this summer that no other woman has ever done.
Amber Jones, Joplin, Mo., sophomore, is a Marine in the ROTC program at the University of Kansas. This summer she will attend mountain warfare training in Bridgeport, Calif. Jones will leave in June and her training will last about three weeks. No woman has ever finished the training.
Jones, one of only two female marines at KU, said she was not nervous about being the only female at the training.
"We're all going to be doing the same
thing," she said. "We're all going to be together so it shouldn't be that big of a deal."
Jones's advisor and Marine Corps Capt. Bill Howell said he spoke with people from the mountain warfare training division and told them Jones would be a good candidate.
"It originally met with some hesitance because there has never been a female midshipman attending the training before," he said. "But you can never under-estimate someone's heart."
Chris Stark, Springfield, Mo., senior and a Marine in the KU ROTC program, attended the training in the summer of 2000. He said the training was extremely physically demanding.
"I lost about 20 pounds during the
three weeks," he said.
Stark said the training included a lot of rock-climbing, rappelling and even catching rabbits for food.
Jones said she had been doing extra workouts to prepare for the training.
She said about 20 to 25 people would be in the training group.
Howell said Jones being accepted into the program was the start of something good.
"Someone always has to kind of break that door open, get their foot through the door and leave it open for everybody else," he said.
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Contact Gilligan at mgilligan@kansen.com. This story was edited by Justin Hening.
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