WEDNESDAY,JUNE25,2003
NEWS IN BRIEF
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 15
INCOME
Study finds rural workers earning less than urbanites
The Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. — Rural workers in a six-state area of the Midwest earned less than half of what those employed in urban counties made, according to a study released yesterday.
The study, conducted by small farm advocate Center for Rural Affairs in Walthill, Neb., said the gap between rural and urban incomes had widened.
It looked at income by county in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. The study found the workers in rural counties made about 48 percent of what their metro-area counterparts made in 2000. That compared with the 58 percent rural workers earned to metro workers' earnings in 1990.
The report was the third in a series the Center for Rural Affairs has compiled on economic conditions in the six-state region since 1970. Statistics for the report are compiled from U.S. Census and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data.
The latest report also showed that agricultural-based counties lost nearly 9 percent of their population from 1990 to 2000, compared with a 7 percent population gain for the entire six-state region.
Rural workers in a six-state area of the Midwest earned less than half of what those employed in urban counties made, according to a study released by the Center for Rural Affairs. The center said the gap between rural and urban incomes has widened.
"Federal rural development policy should be regionally based rather than nationally based so as to address the unique issues, challenges and opportunities in the agriculturally-based communities of this six-state region," the report suggests.
Rural America needs more targeted aid for economic development, including tax incentives for small business and individual development accounts report analysts said.
"To continue doing the same thing will only lead to another generation of higher poverty and lower income," said Jon Bailey, the group's director of rural research and analysis.
"More people are moving to urban areas for jobs and opportunities. The past three years I have been working to address the issue of out-migration," Hagel said.
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New Jersey to spend $22 million to bolster child welfare agency
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) Under a settlement with a children's rights group, New Jersey must immediately spend an extra $22.3 million to bolster its child welfare agency and allow an independent panel to oversee major reforms, the group said yesterday.
New York-based Children's Rights Inc. sued in 1999 to force changes at the troubled Division of Youth and Family Services, which handles cases of neglected and abused children and the state's foster care system.
The division came under intense pressure for reform in January, when the decomposed body of 7-year-old Faheem Williams was discovered in a storage bin in a home in Newark. His twin brother, Raheem, and their 4-year-old half brother, Tyrone Hill, were found alive but emaciated in an adjoining basement room.
The settlement, reached Monday and
confirmed yesterday by Children's Rights, requires the state to provide $22.35 million to hire new employees for the agency and provide work space and equipment. The state also must spend $1.5 million more to recruit foster parents.
Officers were sent to the residence about noon Monday after receiving reports of gunshots, police said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man accused of killing two of his teenage stepsons surrendered early yesterday after a 13-hour standoff at a home.
Man surrenders after allegedly killing two teenage stepsons
They found an 18-year-old lying in the driveway with gunshot wounds. A 15-year-old boy was found in the house after the man surrendered, officials said. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
The man who surrendered had not been charged by late morning.
Police said they did not know the motive for the killings.
During the standoff, tear gas was fired
into the house, and the man stepped outside armed with a rifle, threatening officers, police said. He retreated inside and a second round of tear gas later brought him back out of the house to surrender.
The teenagers' mother arrived home from Chicago, where her sister died Sunday of cancer, to find police surrounding her home, said Rev. John Harris of Mount Zion Baptist Church.
"She was in a state of shock," Harris said.
WORLD
Dormitory collapses in Turkey kills at least five students
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — A student dormitory at an Islamic school exploded and collapsed in central Turkey early Friday, killing at least five students and trapping five others.
Rescuers managed to pull 16 students out of the rubble after the explosion in Kayseri, some 480 miles southeast of Istanbul. The Anatolia news agency said 13 students were being treated for injuries.
"Unfortunately there are five deaths," Mayor Mehmet Ozhaseki told private CNN-Turk television. "Five others have not been reached yet."
Ozhaseki said a gas canister had likely exploded in the kitchen, causing the building's collapse around 2:30 a.m.
"Everyone was sleeping. Then they started screaming," an injured student told NTV at the hospital.
Officials said the students were staying at the dormitory while taking a course on how to read and recite the Quran.
Animal rights activists spray CEO with fake blood, feathers
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Animal rights activists in Germany sprayed fake blood and threw chicken feathers on the chief of YUM! Brands, owner of the world's largest chicken restaurant chain, KFC, as he opened a new restaurant Monday in the city of Garbsen, Germany.
The protest targeting YUM! Brands' David Novak was aimed at raising attention to what activists from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called KFC's cruelty to chickens during the raising, transport and slaughter of the animals, said Juergen Faulmann, who said he organized the protest for the German branch of the organization.
The company called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted.
"They've crossed the line from simply expressing their views to corporate attacks and personal violence," said YUM! Brands representative Jonathan Blum.
Police in Garbsen, near the central German city of Hanover, said they were searching for suspects. Faulmann said two activists had been involved in the incident and both had fled.
Final SARS travel advisory lifted in China capital
BEIJING (AP)—The World Health Organization lifted a warning against travel to China's capital because of SARS yesterday, the last remaining place on its list.
The decision was based on factors including the number of current SARS cases, quality of surveillance and the effectiveness of prevention measures, said Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the western Pacific region.
Beijing was the last remaining place under a WHO travel advisory because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome that surfaced in southern China in November.
Toronto and Taiwan remain on a list of places with recent local transmissions of the disease, but travel advisories against them have been lifted. Beijing was also removed from the WHO list of places with recent local SARS transmissions.
The disease has killed more than 800 people, and infected more than 8,400.
American accused of spying held by Indonesian military
William Nessen, a freelance journalist from New York who says he is in Acheh as a reporter, has been with the rebels since Indonesia launched its latest offensive against the Free Acheh Movement separatists on May 19.
NISAM, Indonesia (AP)]—An American traveling with rebels in Acheh province surrendered yesterday to Indonesia's military, which has threatened to prosecute him for allegedly spying.
The military has repeatedly demanded he leave the rebels, and have questioned whether Nessen, whose wife is Achenese, is really a journalist.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the U.S. Embassy have urged President Megawati Sukarnoputri to help Nessen leave Acheh safely.
Nessen was met by a U.S. Embassy official and a senior officer from the Indonesian military when he gave himself up in Paya Dua village in the north of the province.
Acheh military operation commander Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono said Nessen would be interrogated before being handed over to police in Banda Acheh.