Wednesday
February 5, 2003
Vol.113. Issue No.90
Today's weather
33°
Tonight: 22°
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN Jayhawks take on Buffaloes tonight aim for third Big 12 victory p.1B
Tell us your news
Contact Kristi Henderson, Jenna Goepfert or Justin Henning at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
Employee takes down shoplifter
By Erin Ohm
eohm@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Kent Politsch saved the Kansas Union Bookstore $184 Monday when he chased down a shoplifter and detained him until officers from the KU Public Safety Office arrived and arrested the man.
The suspect, Michael Aldridge, who is not a KU student, left the Kansas Union Bookstore at 10 a.m. and alerted store employees when he set off the alarm system.
Aldridge took off running, Politsch, the technology sales supervisor of KU Bookstores, said, and he heard Aldridge run by his open office door with a cashier running and calling after him to stop.
"I just kind of reacted," Politsch said. "I thought I could catch him."
Politisch pursued Aldridge across Mississippi Street behind the Union and saw him go into the tunnel that connects the southeast Memorial Stadium lot, to the Union.
Politsch said when he opened the door to the tunnel it was silent.
He found Aldridge hiding behind a vending machine in the tunnel.
"It was like every bad cops movie you've ever seen," he said.
Politsch said he asked Aldridge to go back to into the bookstore and settle the situation, but Aldridge resisted and swung at him.
"Then I pushed him against the wall and hooked his leg and got him down on the ground," Politsch said.
He said a witness to the scuffle told them to "cut it out", thinking that the two were getting in a fight. Polititsch explained that he was a bookstore employee and was chasing Aldridge because he had taken several things from the store. The witness then called 911.
He said the alarm system was about five or six months old, and the bookstore had formed a security team to address store security issues.
KU Bookstores director Mike Reid said this was the first time the bookstore had detained someone for shoplifting during the current academic year.
He said the store was focusing on secu- rity because of tough economic times.
"We are working toward a position for someone whose responsibility will be store security." Reid said.
Aldridge was released from Douglas County jail today on local charges but was taken to Johnson County jail in Olathe and is being held with a bail of $800 on a charge of criminal trespass in Shawnee.
Working the farm
Professor studies ant-fungus relationship
Edited by Jason Elliott
By Amy Potter
apotter@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
Bv Amv Potter
When most people see an ant crawling across the floor, their first reaction is to kill the pesky creature. But for Cameron Currie, killing ants and other
insects has never been an option.
"Even before my Ph.D. I had an appreciation for the importance of insects," Currie said. Currie an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology, studied the Attine ants of Panama and discovered a rare, fourway symbiotic relationship. Symbiosis is a close association of two or more animal or plant species that are dependent on one another.
Currie, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology, studied the Attine ants of Panama and discovered a rare, fourway symbiotic relationship. Symbiosis is a close association of two or more animal or plant species that are dependent on one another.
dependent on one another.
He found this particular type of leaf cutter ant not only maintained fungus farms to produce food for their colonies, but also grew bacteria on their bodies to ward off an unwanted parasite that fed on their fungi.
The ants, the two types of fungi, the bacteria and the parasite together create a complex symbiotic relationship.
Currie said his research on ants could apply to human treatment of disease because it would help in understanding how to avoid making antibiotics resistant to pathogens.
Currie's lab at KU consists of 200 ant colonies that have anywhere from 10 ants to
5,000 ants, he said.
Ulrich Mueller,
associate professor
at the University of
Texas, is active in
assisting Currie in the
collection of ants in
Panama.
"It's almost a pathological obsession to go after them. It takes more than a little diligence," Mueller said.
The gardens in Panama, where
Photos by Eric Bream/Kansan
TOP: Professor Cameron Currie looks at a pair of petri dishes used in his research on ants and complex symbiotic relationships. Currie said the research could help in the comprehension of pathogens' evolutionary resistance to antibiotics in humans.
ABOVE: Ants in one of the 200 colonies housed in Cameron Currie's Haworth Hall laboratory develop a positive coexistence with fungi and bacteria which fend off parasites. Currie said symbiotic relationships usually involved only two entities, making this bond a special one.
Publisher to receive award at ceremony
By Eddie Yang
eyang@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The William Allen White Foundation at the University of Kansas will award the publisher of The New York Times and chairman of the New York Times Co., Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., with the 2003 national citation this week.
Sulzberger will give the annual William Allen White Day public address at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Malcolm Gibson, assistant professor of journalism and general manager of The University Daily Kansan, said Sulzberger Jr. was well deserving of the award.
Sulzberger
"The New York Times is the best newspaper in the world," Gibson said. "And in 10 years he has made great changes and improvements to it."
Sulzberger became the chairman of The New York Times Co. in 1997 and he has been The New York Times publisher since 1992. As the company's senior executive he has helped shape the focus of the newspaper to not only improve its print sections, but to also incorporate multimedia elements into its content.
"Sulzberger Jr. sees the digital age as important to The New York Times as when they started printing on paper," Gibson said.
A panel of White Foundation trustees chose Sulzberger Jr. to receive the award. The award has been presented annually since 1950 to journalists who exemplify the ideals of William Allen White, an influential Kansas editor and publisher. Sulzberger's father, Arthur O. Sulzberger, received the citation in 1974.
Mary Wallace, associate dean of journalism, said Sulzberger would take time to meet with journalism students during his visit.
He will meet with students for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. at the Centennial room in the Kansas Union.
He will also be meeting with combined editing and reporting classes at 9:30 a.m.at room 206 in Stauffer-Flint Hall.
— Edited by Leah Shaffer
Graffiti may lead to fines, jail time
By Cate Batchelder
cbatchelder@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Tony Jones realizes he can't paint the town gray.
As community services work coordinator for Douglas County, his job may require him to clean off or paint over Lawrence's graffiti, but Jones said it wasn't his responsibility to correct it.
"I don't think we can legislate moral values to people, and that's what this is," Jones said.
Graffiti's turnover is fast. Jones and his crew make sure of that. Wherever graffiti lies, they come painting. Together they crisscross the alleys, painting blotches of "institutional gray."
"Maybe that's a good thing because it does look like the same color of gray that are on prison bars," Jones said. "Maybe these individuals who do graffiti will someday get to really enjoy that color."
Nate Vormehr, former graffiti writer, was briefly in prison in early February 2001. Police caught him writing graffiti at the catwalks under the I-70 bridge over the Kansas River. He spent the following summer painting over graffiti covering the catwalks.
Jones' painting crew consists of himself and individuals who have gone through the court system for misdemeanors or felonies. They have opted out of paying fines by doing community service work. The $5 they make an hour goes toward paying their fines.
In tomorrow's paper, part four of the five-part series will explain the city's code of graffiti removal and property owners adherence to it.
Since Jones began his position five years ago, the number of people caught writing graffiti is difficult to determine because some of the workers were convicted of destructing property, which could mean writing graffiti or breaking a window. He knows of only one worker
Of the 22,000 community service work hours Jones deals out every year, he said, 50 to 75 hours are spent painting over graffiti. He'd like to spend more.
"It was a young kid, he was scared to death, and he just had a pen in his pocket," Jones said. "Allegedly, it was his first time. Hopefully, one less graffiti artist."
that was a graffiti writer.
Instead, Jones mostly deals with individuals who have misdemeanors for shoplifting or driving under the influence.
Business owners and private property owners who see the Community Corrections ad on local television can call Jones' office at the Lawrence Police Department to have graffiti removed.
Sue Vance, manager of Children's
Book Shop, 937 Massachusetts St., called Jones to have his workers paint over graffiti on the back of the shop. The new gray paint stood out against the brick, but Jones didn't have color options to match the shops' existing walls. The paint is donated from local companies such as Kmart and is mixed together, which Jones said produced the institutional gray and other bland colors.
"We aren't out in the business of doing home repair," he said. "Based on limited options, we go in and cover up graffiti. End of story."
Jones said the office did this as a goodwill effort. He and his crew are not professional painters but try to paint with at
SEE GRAFFITI ON PAGE 8A
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