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16 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS IN BRIEF
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2003
STATE
Illinois man pleads guilty to transporting illegal alien
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — An Illinois man pleaded guilty Monday to one count of transporting an illegal alien.
Jaroslaw Brazkowski, 32, admitted he took an illegal alien from Chicago to Olathe to get a Kansas driver's license, U.S. Attorney Eric Melglen announced.
Marie Klucarova, a citizen of the Republic of Slovakia, had answered an advertisement in a magazine that promised help in obtaining a driver's license. She paid $300 and promised to pay another $1,300 after she got the license.
Brazkowski admitted that he had transported others to Olathe to fraudulently obtain Kansas driver's licenses or identification cards to avoid immigration laws, Melgren said.
Brazkowski faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted.
Sentencing was set for September 22.
Men arrested after throwing fireworks at police officers
WICHITA (AP) - Two men are facing drug charges after one of the men tossed a firecracker at a police car.
Police pulled over the car in which the men were riding Thursday after the man sitting in the passenger's seat flicked the firecracker, said Janet Johnson, representative for the Wichita Police Department. It's illegal to possess fireworks in Wichita.
As the car was coming to a stop, one of the officers noticed the passenger throw from the window what later was identified as a bag of cocaine.
Then, a marijuana joint was spotted in the ash tray as the second officer talked to the driver.
The 23-year-old driver ended up with a ticket for the marijuana joint, and the 17-year-old passenger was in the juvenile intake assessment center Monday facing a charge of cocaine possession.
Prairie Village votes to legalize Sunday, holiday liquor sales
PRAIRIE VILLAGE (AP) — The Prairie Village City Council voted Monday to allow liquor sales on Sundays and holidays, following a trend started last fall in Wyandotte County.
Then-Attorney General Carla Stovall sued to block Sunday sales, but in March
State law bans liquor sales on Sunday, but Kansas City, Kan., and Edwardsville opted out of the ban last fall, citing home-rule statutes.
a Wyandotte County judge ruled that the communities had the right to ignore the ban.
Meanwhile, cities are rushing to pass ordinances making Sunday liquor sales legal. Other Kansas communities that have approved Sunday sales ordinances are Lawrence, Merriam, Shawnee, Lansing, Leavenworth, Overland Park and Leawood.
NATION
Wisconsin student charged with killing three gamblers
MADISON, Wis. (AP] — A University of Wisconsin freshman was arrested and charged with killing three men in their sleep, authorities said Monday.
Meng-Ju Wu, 19, was charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
The men were found dead of gunshot wounds on June 26 after a woman looked into a window of a duplex in Verona and saw someone lying in a pool of blood. Jason C. McGuigan, 28; Daniel R. Swanson, 25; and Dustin J. Wilson, 17, were killed.
Wu was arrested late Sunday in New York City, Bernie Coughlin, Verona Police chief, said. Authorities were unsure if Wu was trying to flee the country.
Wu, originally from Taiwan, is a permanent resident alien and was associated with the victims, Coughlin said. He would not discuss a possible motive.
However, a criminal complaint filed Monday in Dane County Circuit Court said Wu befriended McGuigan because he wanted to gamble. The complaint said he told authorities that McGuigan set up an offshore betting account for him and advised him which teams to bet on. It said Wu told authorities he had lost $15,000 gambling in the last three months.
Two convicted murderers escape from New York prison
2013 JUL 18
ELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) — Two inmates convicted of murder escaped from a New York maximum-security prison early Monday, officials said.
Guards at the Elmira Correctional Facility discovered the men, who shared a prison cell, were missing during a routine inmate count at 6:30 a.m., said Jim Flateau, representative for New York's Department of Correctional Services.
Guards later found sheets tied together that led down an outside wall of the 1,856-bed prison,75 miles southwest of Syracuse, Flateau said.State police and the Chemung County Sheriff's Department were aiding in the search.
The inmates were identified as Timothy Vail, 35, who is serving 49 years to life in the 1988 rape and murder of a pregnant secretary, Mary Kopyar; and Timothy Morgan, 26, who is serving 25 years to life for the 1998 murder of cab driver Joseph Boop.
Drowning victim's body found near Lake Michigan beach
ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) The body of the last of seven swimmers who drowned along a rough, three-mile stretch of the Lake Michigan shoreline on the Fourth of July was found Monday.
The swimmers got into trouble during a three-hour period after thunderstorms created strong riptides and an undercurrent.
The seventh body was recovered off Bethany Beach. The other victims disappeared at Warren Dunes State Park and Harbert Beach.
No lifeguards are stationed at beaches. Red flags warning swimmers to stay out of the water were flying on Friday and Saturday, and the sheriff's department
said warnings also were made over a public address system.
tuesday, and the shawn's departure
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Two of the people who drowned had gone into the water to save a 12-year-old boy off Warren Dunes. The boy was rescued.
Mother charged with murder for throwing twins into river
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)—A mother was charged Monday with murder and attempted murder for throwing her twin sons into the Mississippi River on the Fourth of July. One toddler died; the other was rescued.
The mother, Naomi Gaines, 24, also jumped into the river, shouting, "Freedom!" on the way down, according to authorities. She was rescued, taken to a hospital and later arrested.
Gaines was charged with murder in the death of her 14-month-old son, Sincere Understanding Allah, and with attempted murder of his twin brother, Supreme Knowledge Allah, who survived the 75foot fall and was rescued from the water by an onlooker.
The episode unfolded in front thousands of people who were at the Taste of Minnesota food and music festival. Many of the festival-goers were settling near the downtown waterfront for the fireworks show.
Missing player's friends, roommates questioned
WACO, Texas (AP) — In the week since police announced that Patrick Dennehy, Baylor University center, was missing one of his closest friends has been named a "person of interest" and teammates have been questioned.
Chris Turk shared a four-bedroom campus apartment with Dennehy, just a stone's throw from the domed stadium where the California native hoped to play. Turk said Carlton Dotson, a former Baylor player, was staying with them.
Another player, Harvey Thomas, a transfer forward from Fredericksburg, Va., also had stayed there and even had a key. But a few weeks ago, Dennehy changed the locks and told Turk not to let Thomas or anyone else in.
Dennehy, whose SUV had been broken into recently, began locking the dead bolt from the inside, and Turk had to knock on his own door to get in after work.
"They would answer it,looking pretty paranoid and holding guns," Turk said. "They were protecting each other from whatever they were scared of."