THE UNIVERSITY OF HARRY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15. 2009
NEWS
3A
ART
Exhibit to raise awareness of El Salvador
BY DAVID UGARTE
dugarte@kansan.com
Crystal White, 2007 graduate, currently has artwork about Laverne's sister city, EI Papatum, EI Salvador, on display at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries. The artwork, which focuses on the theme of social justice, will be on display throughout April 19.
Matt Bristow/KANSAN
Art in Everyday Life, a new group through Ecumenical Christian Ministries, and the Kansan-Salvadoran Solidarity Action (KSSA) are displaying artwork from El Salvador at the ECM.
The exhibit, The El Salvador Art Show, features drawings from children of El Papaturro, El Salvador, one of Lawrence's sister cities, and art from past El Papaturro volunteers whose work focuses on community, culture, social movements and the history of the Salvadoran civil war, which ended in 1992. The volunteers include University students, graduates and Lawrence residents.
Sarah Birmingham, a member of both KSSA and Art in Everyday Life, said she helped organize the art show, which will be on display for the next two weeks. The exhibit went on display Monday.
"I think it's kind of cool to be able to see something come out of KU students' experiences," Birmingham, 2008 graduate, said. "It's like putting what you could learn in a class into a real-life situation."
Crystal White went on the Alternative Spring Break as a student volunteer to El Salvador in 2006. White, Lubbock, Texas, 2007 graduate, said she listened
to accounts of people in El Papaturro who were refugees during the country's civil war and had returned to their home country to start their lives over. She said she made her art by embroidering the refuges' testimonies through tree branches to reflect her experience in the forests near El Papaturro.
"When they were telling me their stories, it was hard to wrap my mind around it," White said. "These are people's lives, not just stories."
Katherine Logan, administrative assistant and member of Art in Everyday Life, said the exhibit also included pictures from Salvadoran school children that showed their ideas of communities.
Birmingham said that from 2005 to 2008 the ECM held Alternative Spring Break trips to El Salvador with the purpose of social justice. She said the trip and the art show taught how other communities dealt with issues of economic problems and sustainability.
"It's helpful seeing how other communities deal with these issues," Birmingham said. "I think it's really inspiring."
White said that during the trip
to El Salvador she spent five days in the capital, San Salvador, and then went to El Papaturro. She said one of the purposes of the art show was to let people know Lawrence had a sister city in El Salvador.
"I'm excited because it's the first thing we've done as a group." Logan said.
"It's a beautiful, amazing community," White said. "We have a lot of ties with El Salvador that people aren't aware of."
Logan said the goal of the new organization was to hold exhibits for art from non-professional
artists and for art involving social movements.
Edited by Chris Horn
LAWRENCE New mayor and vice mayor named at meeting
Chestnut said the new chancellor and provost would provide an opportunity to link the city and the University.
Rob Chestnut and Mike Amyx were elected mayor and vice mayor of Lawrence at Tuesday's city commission meeting. Both Chestnut and Amyx said the city commission would continue to work with the University.
"It's going to be an interesting year, because we have the new chancellor to be appointed and a new provost to be appointed," Chestnut said. "I think one of the most important things for us is to connect with those people as soon as they get on board and really see what we can do to improve that relationship."
NATIONAL
Amyx said the city would continue to see projects that required cooperation between the city and the University.
"I'm going to continue to be involved obviously with transportation,continue to work with a lot of the projects that we have going on between the University of Kansas students and the city of Lawrence"Amvx said.
The proceedings followed tradition with the current vice mayor becoming mayor, and a member of the previous city commission becoming vice mayor. Former mayor Mike Dever will now serve as a city commissioner.
Mike Bontrager
Women use fake funerals to claim insurance
BY THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — It was quite a send-off for Jim Davis, or so the people paying his funeral bills were led to believe.
They were told Davis was laid to rest at Abbey Memorial Park in Compton after being placed in an ornate, top-of-the-line casket lined with elaborate floral arrangements. Altogether, the bill to bury Davis at the palm-lined cemetery came to nearly $31,000.
was no Jim Davis. He was dreamed up by a group of scam artists, authorites say.
The participants went so far as to file phony death certificates, and bought a $3,354 burial plot
But there was a problem: There
And prosecutors say the coffin that was lowered into the ground was made out of cheap plywood or cardboard, filled with either rocks or butchered meat and animal bones, apparently to convince those who handled it that there was a body inside.
Faye Shilling, 60, and Jean Crump, 67, were indicted last week on federal charges that they scammed insurance companies and funeral-related businesses out
Two other women previously pleaded guilty in the case. The indictment lists just two fabricated deaths, but authorities said there may have been as many as seven.
of as much as $1 million by taking out policies on fictitious people and then staging their funerals.
"The allegations, if true, are quite shocking," federal prosecutor Anthony Montero said Monday after Shilling and Crump pleaded not guilty to fraud. "It does demonstrate an enormous level of deception and a commit-
for "Jim Davis," investigators said. Davis was the only one "buried." The others were supposedly cremated, evidently because that was easier to pull off.
The women were freed on $10,000 bail. In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Shilling said: "I am hurt, just hearing things that I know are not true. Someone is trying to destroy me, but why?"
ment to hide their fraud."
The prosecutor said a small group of mourners attended Davis' graveside service in 2006, but he would not say who they
were. He said he did not know whether a clergyman officiated or anyone gave a eulogy.
The scheme began coming apart several weeks after the funeral, when an insurance investigator began snooping around, the prosecutor said. He said the participants panicked and dug up the coffin, claiming later that they had had Davis' remains cremated and scattered at sea.
GRE $ ^{\mathrm{TM}} $ LSAT $ ^{\mathrm{TM}} $ GMAT $ ^{\mathrm{TM}} $
WALTER S. SUTTON LECTURE SERIES
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR ETHICS IN BUSINESS AND KU NET IMPACT. IN COOPERATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS STUDENT SENATE AND SCHOOL OF HINE ARTS, DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN PRESENT
MONDAY, APRIL 20. 2009 - 7:00 P.M.
SPAHR ENGINEERING AUDITORIUM, EATON HALL
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Sustainable Business: Innovation and Design Inspired by Nature
Daniel Arneman
PHLD, CARBON MANAGER,
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
Asheen Phansey
PRESIDENT, QUAKING ASPEN, LLC
Kevin Stack PRESIDENT AND OWNER NORTHEAST GREEN BUILDING CONSULTING
KU INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR ETHICS IN BUSINESS
The University of Kansas