6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
GAMBLING NEWS
7 A
MONDAY,APRIL 28,2003
Athletestake time out for worship
By Cal Creek
creek@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Every Sunday night some student athletes from the University of Kansas take time out of their schedules to profess and discuss their Christian faith.
Daniel Coke, Moore Haven, Fla., senior and strong safety for the Kansas football team, leads the organization Champions for Christ.
"Before Jesus came into my life, my life was all about athletics," Coke said. "Now everything else is centered around Christ and it's been great because of that."
About 10 student athletes attend the meetings each Sunday at 8 p.m. at Hadi Audio-
rium in Wagnon Student Athlete Center.
Coke usually gives a short 25-minute sermon. Then the group prays together and discusses practical biblical principles like family, worship, character and leadership.
Jesse Brinson, Houston junior and walk-on linebacker for the football team, said it was important for athletes to develop good morals and principles because of their prominent role in society.
"Athletes can reach out and influence a lot of people," Brinson said. "A lot of kids look up to athletes."
He said if kids saw an athlete committing a crime or acting irresponsibly, they might think it was appropriate to behave that way
Brinson said athletes should be victorious not only on the field but also off the field in their day-to-day lives.
themselves.
Brinson spends seven to 10 hours each week helping Coke prepare the meetings and services.
Both men identified several professional athletes who had taken Christ into their lives as sources of admiration.
Coke admired professional baseball and football player, Deion Sanders, who, while at the top of his game with a plethora of money and success, looked to Christianity to satify an emptiness in his life.
Brinson said he admired former NBA forward A.C. Green and former NFL defensive back
Darrell Green.
Coke said the Sunday meetings gave athletes a chance to think about things outside of their lives.
"Typical athletes worship themselves," Coke said. "It's all wrong."
Brinson said he appreciated the principles needed to be a Christian. He said his life improved when he applied these principles to other aspects of his life.
Coke said student athletes were welcome to attend the meetings.
"Show up on Sunday nights at 8 o'clock at Hadl Auditorium," Coke said, "and expect to meet God."
Edited by Christy Dendurent
Military official takes illegal bonuses
The Associated Press
TOPEKA—A report from the Pentagon found that a high-ranking official in the Kansas National Guard improperly backdated pay raises for himself and for friends, a newspaper and radio station reported.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported the Pentagon's findings in yesterday's edition. The report itself was released last week, after an investigation that ended in November, and obtained by Topeka radio station WIBW.
The investigation found that Col, Joe Rose, who reports directly to Kansas Adjutant Gen. Greg
Gardner, improperly influenced the backdating of his own promotion by nearly a year, giving himself an immediate bonus of at least several thousand dollars. The promotion was approved on Oct. 1, 2001.
The colonel also was found to have improperly moved some personnel into desired positions within the Kansas National Guard. The investigation showed he backdated some of their pay raises as well.
Rose, 54, has refused to comment. He has appealed the findings and remains head of the National Guard's human resources office.
The Pentagon said its inquiry
substantiated five of six allegations made by current and former employees of the Kansas National Guard.
The report had been heavily edited before its release to the public and contained more than 1,700 instances of blacked-out information.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius reappointed Gardner as adjutant general after taking office in January. Gardner said he didn't know about Rose's alleged wrongdoings until the investigation began in May 2002.
The investigation into Rose's behavior stemmed from an anonymous complaint filed with mill-
tary officials last spring. Col. Neil Buthorne, the Kansas National Guard's inspector general, found evidence to substantiate allegations of impropriety against Rose, all taking place on Gardner's watch.
According to the investigation. Rose has a history of erroneously promoting military personnel and backdating their pay raises including his own.
The investigative report shows Gardner approved a personnel action form authorizing Rose's promotion on the Guard's pay scale. The form, however, did not have an effective date at the time Gardner signed it.
Poisoning may have lead to cattle deaths
The Associated Press
The patrol was investigating yesterday's find with the Colfax County Sheriff's office, the state Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska.
RIGHLAND, Neb. — The carcasses of 250 cattle were found dead of apparent poisoning on a ranch north of Richland in northeast Nebraska, the state patrol said.
The cattle were yearlings owned by Jack Barta of Fremont who said he received word of the
poisonings about 9:30 a.m. CDT on a voice mail from Brian Kluck who operates the feedlot.
Barta said he had contracted with Kluck in November to feed the cattle which were to be moved to a ranch in Cherry County.
Organic phosphate may have poisoned the cattle because about 30 that survived were responding to a drug used to combat nerve gas in soldiers, Barta said. The chemical is commonly used as an insecticide.
No new cattle had been introduced to the lot in more than a
week, Barta said.
The chemical could have come in a sack of mislabeled minerals or someone intentionally put it in the cattle's feed. Barta said. The chemical was apparently in the first load of feed put out Saturday morning.
The dead yearlings were found in the first three of about 10 feedlots and the rest of his cattle will be moved, Barta said.
Kluck did not return a telephone message left last night by The Associated Press.
A dispatcher with the Colfax County Sheriff's office who
declined to give her name said she had no information to release.
The preliminary conclusion by University of Nebraska representatives was that the cattle died from some type of poisoning, possibly from a pesticide. The type of poison won't be known until tests can be conducted by the University of Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.
If the state patrol determines the animals were accidentally poisoned, the Department of Agriculture will take over the investigation.
Scott Reynolds/Kansan
Steel erectors Glen Smith and Gary Ray adjust a steel beam from the World Trade Center that will be on display at the Dole Institute. The dedication ceremony for the beams will be July 20.
Pieces of WTC in Dole Institute
By Jessica Palimenio jpalimenio@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Pieces of the World Trade Center tragedy have been brought close to home.
Two steel beams from the wreckage were installed Friday as part of an exhibit in the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy.
The city of New York made 2-foot lengths of steel available, but Sen. Robert Dole contacted Mayor Michael Bloomberg and was able to get two 10-foot lengths to put on display.
Steel erectors from Ewell Construction positioned the beams, weighing more than one ton each, on top of the metal bases and welded them in place permanently. The workers measured with a precision laser leveling tool to ensure the glass display cases fit over the beams.
Among the rust, twisted metal and flame-retardant foam still attached to the beams, there are serial numbers. Steve Scannell, assistant director of design and construction management, hoped
"It really brings home the emotion and reality of what happened in New York."
Steve Scannell Assistant director of design and construction management
the numbers would help identify the exact location of the beams within the World Trade Center.
"It really brings home the emotion and reality of what happened in New York," Scannell said.
When the exhibit is complete it will also contain Dole's World War II uniform and his bloody dog tags from when he was wounded in his upper right back while in Italy.
Richard Norton Smith director of the Dole Institute, said he hoped the display and building would act as a "classroom in American democracy."
The exhibit will be open to the public when the building is dedicated on July 20.
— Edited by Anne Mantey
7