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14 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS IN BRIEF
WEDNESDAY,JULY23,2003
STATE
Shawnee votes to approve selling of liquor on Sundays
TOPEKA(AP]— Shawnee County is the latest community in Kansas to permit Sunday liquor sales,and the city of Topeka could take up the issue next month.
County commissioners approved a resolution allowing liquor stores to open from noon to 7 p.m. Sundays, starting Oct.5. The resolution would apply outside Topeka and other cities in the county.
Meanwhile, Topeka City Council member Jeff Preisner said he planned to place a proposed ordinance allowing Sunday sales on the council's agenda in August.
Kansas law bans Sunday sales of packaged liquor, but last year a Wyandotte County District Court judge ruled the law was not uniform, allowing cities and counties to "opt out" of some provisions. His decision permitted Sunday sales in Wyandotte County.
Drug probation ineffective in preserving respect for law
JUNCTION CITY (AP) Sentencing trends in Kansas are not strict enough to prevent most drug offenders from breaking the law again, prosecutors and law enforcement officials say.
Because of prison overcrowding and budget cuts, many drug offenders receive probation instead of prison time. However, some officials are skeptical that probation has an impact on the offenders.
Drug crimes in Kansas are sentenced using a grid that matches the severity of an offense with a punishment. The grid can determine whether drug offenders receive probation or prison, but on inbetween cases, called "border box" cases, a judge decides the punishment, said David Platt, Eighth Judicial District Judge for Geary County.
First-time possession of marijuana is a Class A misdemeanor, which usually results in probation for a convicted offender. A second offense is a Level Four felony, which often leads to another probation sentence. However, subsequent offenses are not charged differently.
Most drug offenses do not carry mandatory prison sentences under Kansas law and marijuana offenses rarely result in prison time.
Pregnant woman's murderer to receive life imprisonment
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP)—A Kansas City, Mo., man who killed a pregnant woman and the father of her three children will serve life in prison instead of
being put to death.
A Wyandotte County jury could not decide Monday whether 29-year-old Christopher M. Trotter should get the death penalty or a life prison term. A judge earlier had told jurors that if they couldn't reach a unanimous decision, he would sentence Trotter to life.
The same jury last week found Trotter guilty of capital murder for killing Traylenea Huff, 28, of Kansas City, Kan., and first-degree murder for killing James Darnell Wallace, 30, who lived with Huff.
The jury concluded that Trotter shot the couple in a May 21, 2001, botched robbery at their home.
Trotter faces life in prison for each murder and will not be eligible for parole for 25 or 50 years, depending on whether the judge rules that the sentences should be concurrent or consecutive.
Prisoner escapes from police during ride to medical facility
DODGE CITY (AP) — A prisoner who escaped after attacking a sheriff's deputy who was taking him to see a doctor during the weekend remained at large yesterday.
The prisoner was riding in the front seat with the deputy at the time of the attack.
Manuel Delavara-Leon, 44, escaped from the deputy's patrol car that stopped at a Dodge City intersection late Saturday afternoon. James Lane, Ford County Undersheriff, said the deputy suffered bumps and bruises in the attack, but did not require treatment. The deputy's name had not been released, Lane said because the incident was under internal investigation.
Delavara-Leon, also known as Jose Ricardo Garcia-Lopez or Salazar, was being held on a parole violation. He had told officers he was sick and needed to
see a doctor, Lane said.
"I can't say that he faked an illness to get out of the jail because I don't know." Lane said. "I guess you could suppose that."
NATIONAL
Study shows fish consumption fights Alzheimer's symptoms
CHICAGO (AP) — Older people who eat fish at least once a week may cut their risk of Alzheimer's by more than half, a study suggests.
The study adds to the evidence that diet may affect a person's chances of developing the mind-robbing disease that affects 4 million Americans.
Researchers found that people 65 and older who had fish once a week had a 60 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's than those who never or rarely ate fish. The meals included tuna sandwiches, fishsticks and shellfish; the amounts eaten were not specified.
"This is very promising, but it's very early and really we need to have a lot more studies," said lead researcher Dr. Martha Clare Morris of Chicago's Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.
The study involved 815 Chicago residents 65 and older. Follow-up tests nearly four years later found that 131 participants had developed Alzheimer's.
The study was published Monday in the Archives of Neurology. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Internet users falling victim to identity, credit card thefts
WASHINGTON (AP] — Stealing identities and credit card numbers with bogus e-mail and Web sites that appeared to come from legitimate companies was an increasing problem on the Internet, federal officials warned Monday.
The Federal Trade Commission said it had brought its first case against this type of scheme, called "spoofing" or "carding." A 17-year-old California boy accused of posing as America Online agreed to settle federal charges by accepting a lifetime ban on sending junk e-mail and paying a $3,500 fine, the FTC said.
The FBI had received increasing numbers of complaints about this kind of scam, said Keith Lourdeau, a section chief with the bureau's Cyber Division.
"Due in part to this growing scam, we are seeing a rise in identity theft, credit card fraud and other Internet frauds," Lourdeau said at a news conference with officials from the FTC and EarthLink. Officialsaid they didn't know how many people have been victimized by the scam.
Americans held by Libya sue government for torture
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Americans who spent nearly four months in a Libyan prison in 1980 could move forward with a lawsuit accusing the Libyan government of torture, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Frey and Price were working for a Libyan company in 1980 when they were arrested and charged with "anti-revolutionary propaganda" for taking pictures of places in and around Tripoli.
At the same time, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth dismissed allegations that Roger Frey and Michael Price were taken hostage because Libyan officials never demanded anything from a third party in exchange for their release.
They were imprisoned for 105 days while awaiting trial and claim they were forced to watch as other prisoners were beaten, then threatened with the same fate unless they confessed to being spies. After their acquittal, they were allowed to leave the country.
POW Lynch returns home; welcomed by family, friends
ELIZABETH, W.Va. (AP) — Former POW Jessica Lynch returned home aboard an Army helicopter yesterday for an expected hero's welcome, nearly four months after she was ambushed by Iraqi forces and later rescued from a hospital.
The helicopter landed in Elizabeth at 1:56 p.m. after flying over Lynch's residence in nearby Palestine, a tiny town in the rolling green hills of West Virginia. The 20-year-old Army supply clerk, severely injured in an ambush in Iraq in March, left Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington at about 10:30 a.m. the hospital said.