6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2003
NASA: We will continue space exploration Kline seeks to am
The Associated Press
HUTCHINSON Jim Lovell, commander of the near-fatal Apollo 13 mission, said Monday that NASA would recover from the space shuttle Columbia tragedy and continue on with space exploration.
"The benefits of what we get from space far outweigh the occasional disaster we have." Lovell told reporters at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, two days after the breakup of Columbia killed seven astronauts.
The 1970 voyage of Apollo 13 was to have included a moon landing, but had to be aborted
after an oxygen tank ruptured aboard the spacecraft. Lovell, who modified the lunar module into a lifeboat and successfully piloted the craft back to earth, was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo 13.
Lovell, who was in Hutchinson Monday to speak at a Chamber of Commerce dinner, said all astronauts understood that space flight was risky business.
"The hearts and prayers of all astronauts go to the families of the seven pioneers who lost their lives on Columbia," he said.
As in the previous disasters, NASA will emerge stronger from the tragedy, he said. The greatest tribute to the astronauts who
died would be to find the problem and go on from there, he said.
Lovell said funding the space program had been controversial since it started, and its budget has always been a balancing act. But he said NASA had never sacrificed safety for expedition or because of a lack of funds.
"Tragedies occur, and in the future there may be more tragedies. ... The benefits we get from the program are worth the efforts that we do, and certainly everyone involved with the program is very much dedicated to what they do," Lovell said.
The former astronaut said he expected to see more consortium
projects like the international space station.
"We will be active in space. We will get over this tragedy," he said. "We will look ahead. We will find what went wrong, fix it and we will charge."
Like the Apollo 13 mission and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, the Columbia shuttle disaster made people realize how risky space flights are and generated tremendous interest, he said.
"It is human nature. ... This was the 113th shuttle flight _ maybe the number had something to do with it. I don't know." he said. "Complacency occurs in all of us."
Stations fight repeals on tax exemptions
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — A House committee studying whether to repeal dozens of exemptions from the state sales tax heard opposition yesterday from broadcasters and advertising agencies.
The hearing was the first of several planned by the House Taxation Committee on dozens of bills to repeal about 70 exemptions from the 5.3 percent tax.
Committee Chairman John Edmonds, R-Great Bend, said enactment of the bills would
yield about $3.5 billion a year. The state will face a projected $750 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year.
First on the committee's agenda were proposals to repeal exemptions on sales of services by advertisers, TV and radio stations, and on noncommercial broadcasters' purchases of services and equipment. Those exemptions cost the state an estimated $4 million a year.
Gary McNair, general manager of KSNT in Topeka, said one-third of the TV station's business is from national advertisers.
His station would pass along the added cost to advertisers, who would then take their business elsewhere, McNair said.
Some stations in western Kansas that are already struggling to survive might be forced out of business, McNair said.
Broadcasters would be willing to pay the tax if people would be willing to pay for their signals. McNair said.
National advertisers could reach Kansans by advertising in Missouri or Oklahoma, and avoid the tax, said Michelle Stubbelfield, president of the
Topeka Advertising Federation.
Three other states — Florida, Arizona and Iowa — had sales taxes on advertisers and broadcasters repealed, said Marlee Carpenter, lobbyist for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Edmonds asked each critic of the bill to name other taxes they thought ought to be repealed or to suggest where money could be cut from the state budget.
Carpenter told him: "When you tax business, that's less money out there for the local economy to grow and expand."
Kline seeks to amend sexual predator law
The Associated Press
TOPEKA - Attorney General Phill Kline wants legislators to amend a 1994 law to block the release of convicted criminals the state believes are sexual predators but have not yet been named as such in court.
Current law allows the state to hold violent sexual predators in the custody of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services indefinitely for treatment after they have completed their original prison sentences.
To hold an inmate, the state must ask a jury to declare that person a sexual predator. A district court must hold a trial on the issue within 60 days of initially finding there is enough evidence to consider the question; if a trial is not held within 60 days, the inmate must be released from custody.
Kline said without a change to remove that time limit from the law,14 individuals would be released from prison without completing treatment.
"We consider this issue very, very serious and are taking all action that we can to prevent the further release of sexual predators." Kline said.
Kline said it was never the Legislature's intent to put restrictions on how quickly a trial must occur to declare an
individual a sexual predator, and that it was a civil, not criminal, procedure. He cited a Kansas Supreme Court ruling last year in the case of Edgar J. Searcy.
Searcy was 40 days away from his release from prison in April 2000 when the state filed a petition to have him declared a sexual predator. In May, Searcy decided not to challenge the state's contention that there was enough evidence to warrant a trial.
From that point, a trial had to begin within 60 days. But a judge didn't schedule a trial until August 2000, after the deadline, and the trial didn't occur for another six months. In February 2001, a jury in Barton County declared Searcy a violent sexual predator, based upon his prison time in Florida and Kansas for child sex offenses.
But Searcy appealed, and the state Supreme Court freed him, citing the 60-day deadline.
Kline said in most cases, court continuances delayed the trial and were agreed upon by both parties. The Supreme Court said no delays were acceptable and the 60-day limit was the same as the defendant's right to a speedy trial.
Kline said he had visited with legislators about introducing a bill to change the law and expected it to happen within the week.
GALLERY
Reception
Mark Fossard
7:00-9:00 pm
Kansas Union Gallery
kansas union, level 4
SUA committee meetings
5:00, 6:00, 7:00 pm
Kansas Union
CHECK THE SUA OFFICE FOR
specific meeting rooms.
open to all!
sex and the city
the complete first season
7:00 pm
Woodnuff Auditorium
kansas union, level 5
ALL TICKETS FOR MOVIES are $2.00 at
THE HAWK SHOP, LEVEL 4 KANSAS UNION OR
FREE WITH AN SUA MOVIE CARD.
questions about these or other
sua events?
call the sua office at 864-509
Red Lyon Tavern
A touch of Irish in
downtown Lawrence
944 Mass. 832-8228
--publisher of The New York Times and chairman of the New York Times Company, will speak at:
Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr.,
1:30 p.m.
Friday, February 7
in Woodruff Auditorium
Kansas Union.
Mr. Sulzberger, who has shaped and implemented innovative print, broadcast and online media initiatives, will receive the William Allen White Foundation's 2003 national citation at this ceremony. He will be a guest of the KU William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Willam Allen White Foundation.
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