University Daily Kansan, March 5, 1985 Page 5 House leans toward liquor measure By United Press International TOPEKA — the chairman of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee yesterday said it was very likely the full House would adopt a resolution proposing a liquor-by-the-drink constitutional amendment. Rep. Robert H. Miller, R-Wellington, whose committee will conduct hearings on the resolution today, said the House was working with the Senate to measure to liberalize Kansas laws, lower "This week the figures I are hearing are that it is 5 to 7 votes short," Miller said. "When we came into this session the figure was more like 21 votes." The resolution passed the Senate by the two-thirds majority needed for approval of proposals to change the constitution. Backers of the measure say they are still a few votes shy of the 84 votes needed for a two-thirds majority in the House. IF SUCCESSFUL in the House, the resolution would place on the 1986 general election ballot a proposal to remove from the House constitution the current ban on open saloons. Miller said he was one of those who hadn't yet expressed his opinion on the matter, but he might cast his vote in favor of the resolution on March 21, when it is scheduled for debate in the House. The resolution is now before Miller's committee which, he predicted, will probably recommend its passage. The resolution also would call for liquor by the drink to be implemented on a county - Miller's panel had expected to receive a first-hand account yesterday of what occurred in Oklahoma after liquor laws were liberalized there on a county-option basis in September 1984. The scheduled speaker, Oklahoma Sen. Mike Combs was unable to find a convenient flight into Topeka, Miller said. MILLER'S COMMITTEE will conduct hearings on the liquor-by-the-drink resolution at 1:30 p.m. today in the old Supreme Court chambers at the Statehouse. A committee vote on the issue is possible later this week, Miller said. Meanwhile, a Senate committee discussed a bill to raise the minimum drinking age and to make several other changes in state liquor laws. The state is facing a federal mandate to change the minimum age to 21 or lose federal highway funds. THE SUBCOMMITTEE proposal would be a change from the bill the committee is considering during the phase in the age of 50 and at a time when the state was in compliance July 1, 1887. The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee heard a subcommittee report that recommended changing the minimum age from 18 to 21 on Sept. 1, 1986, a month earlier than the federal mandate requires. The committee did not act on the report, pending completion of an attorney general's opinion on portions of the bill. Although the bill would abolish the legal distinction between 3.2 percent beer and 5 percent, or strong, beer, the subcommittee made no recommendation on that point. Subcommittee Chairman Ben Vidricken, R-Salina, said Attorney General Robert Stephan has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of the proposal. The bill would make a number of other changes in liquor laws, including allowing the sale of beer after 1 p.m. Sundays by taverns, grocery stores and liquor stores. It also would require closing time of 1:30 a.m. for private clubs. Loans continued from p.1 education in Washington, said the lack of publicity about the three financial aid programs might have been caused by the lack of information all of the cutback proposals in its stories. "The press picks it up," Davidson said. "The media chooses to report what is significant or what people have indicated they are more interested in." Reagan's entire budget proposal was released to the media, she said. Davidson said students needed to realize that Reagan's proposal was approved, it was not a true one, and that it did not address the Congress probably will not vote on the budget until this fall, she said. The 1985 National Direct Student Loan budget, now $215 million, would be cut to $28 million under the proposal. That $28 million to make additional loans, Davidson said. This year students nationwide are using $413 million from the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which the Reagan proposal would eliminate, she said. The $28 million will be used to pay back defaulted loans and loans to teachers who received them. Repaying the teachers' loans is an incentive to get teachers to work in these areas, Davidson said. Rogers said the cut in the National Direct Student Loan fund would affect the University of Kansas little because the University has not received any government money for the loans in two years. Davidson and Rogers said the President and some members of Congress hoped to eventually go to a one loan, one grant, one study program for colleges and universities. continued from p. 1 members said the petition should be more general and not mention Timmons specifically. Timmons It's possible that the petition will be amended by the Senate, Brown and Kcaid said. They said they were willing to compromise on the petition to ensure its passage as long said they didn't want students to be represented by someone convicted of sexual crimes. as the intent of the petition was not changed. Brown, a member of Douglas County Rape Victim Support Services, told the committee that the support service had sent letters to several KU officials, including Johnson, Gottfried and Chancellor Gene A. Budig, requesting action against Timmons, but had not received any replies. THE SOURCES SAID Ruhe and Geissler sought a liability-free, 25-percent interest in the reshaped company; $100,000 each in annual consulting fees for two years; and sales commissions for one year if they could divest UPI of its radio service, business wire or domestic newspaperservice. They said Nogales and a keycreditor found the demands "unsaleable" toother creditors. WASHINGTON — The chief owners of United Press International announced yesterday they had fired Luis Nogales as president and said they were willing to yield majority control of the wire service to help ensure its financial survival. UPI president dismissed from troubled company Ray Wechler, a top financial consultant to Nogales, also was fired. Three other top executives were fired. By United Press International But sources close to the five departing officers said the firings appeared linked to Nogales' objections to the financial demands of Geissler and co-owner Douglas Rule in return for agreeing to yield their 90-percent ownership of UPI stock. Bill Geissler, an executive vice president and co-owner of UPI, declined to elaborate on the ousters of Wechsler and who had been president since September. When asked about those alleged demands, Geissler said. "To isolate a set of numbers from a process of discussion is out of context. We obviously entertained discussions on details of this alternative. It would not be productive to comment on specifics, but rest assured our decision will be conditioned on achieving our primary purpose: the strengthening of the UPI service." "We're just asking that he not represent us at the University," Brown told committee NOGAILS, REACHED IN California, said the impasse came while he was packaging a plan under which several of the company's major creditors were asked to convert debts to equity interests in UPI, in much the way the Chrysler Corp. He denied that a rift over the owner's alleged demands led to Nogales's firing, but declined to discuss details of the dismissal. handled its massive liabilities in the 1970s to help engineer a turnaround. UPI sources placed the company's debts at about $17 million. In January, the company announced that the austerity plan was working and reported a fourth quarter 1984 operating profit of $1.1 million, its first in more than a decade. But it did sources said that "operating profit" has risen from an interest-balanced interest payments on the debts. Although the committee did not make any changes in the petition, some committee RUHE AND GEISSLER, who acquired the company debt-free in 1982, had pledged up to $10 million to shore up UPI's finances from the sale of their Chicago UHF television station, channel 66. However, ranking officials said any significant profits from the sale would not be received for at least two years. Last fall, Nogales persuaded 2,000 UPI employees to absorb temporary 25 percent pay cuts, now being restored in phases, in the wake of a labor dispute at halting monthly losses up to $2 million. Nogales said, "The whole process has been in the last week or so to achieve the recapitalization for UPI that would make it attractive for investors, for employees. "That was the whole purpose. We were unable to achieve an agreement that management felt it could sell to different constituencies." Nogales declined to discuss specifics, and said he no longer has "any authority...to involve myself in those negotiations." He stressed the negotiation with the full consent of the owners as a means to recapitulate this company." Nogales said he was dismissed Sunday evening, while at the home of John Nickoll, president of the Foothill Capital Corp. Foothill is a Los Angeles lender to which sources said UPI owed $5 million to $7 million. The Foothill debts are at interest rates well above market levels, company officials have acknowledged. Nogales said he had been "trying to press" Nickell for continued support of UPI and had been preparing a counterproposal when he received a phone call from Rogers where Nickel requested that he "told him we could continue to negotiate. He said he wasn't interested." ARE YOU GOING TO SOUTH PADRE ISLAND OVER SPRING BREAK? IF SO, STOP BY THE VIKING CONDOMINIUMS AT 4800 GULF BOULEVARD AND FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN EARN $500! JAZZ FESTIVAL SPECIAL RATES FOR STUDENTS 276 L, Michigan (proposal with over 245 clabs) 841 0510 --- Creative Writers and Editors. 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