Tuesday, April 7,1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
Stolen violin returned to student
Instrument taken from Murphy Hall found in Nebraska
By Laura Roddy
lroddy@kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
Laleh M-Navai was devastated when she found out her violin had been stolen.
M-Navai, Wichita junior, returned Feb. 22 from a weekend trip and discovered that her instrument, along with her music books, rosin and metronome had been stolen from her locked locker on the fifth floor in the east wing of Murphy Hall.
M-Navai had owned the violin for six years, and it had been handmade for her by a Wichita violin maker. M-Navai said the violin had sentimental value and the loss was more upsetting than if it had been a car.
Another student's violin also was stolen, and the padlocks on other students' lockers were cut, the KU Public Safety Office said.
M-Naval had to borrow a violin from a friend. She said musical instruments could not be easily replaced. Selecting the violin that was stolen had been an eight-month process, she said.
But M-Naval did not have to search for a replacement violin.
A week and a half after it was stolen, Simon McHugh, the maker of M-Navai's violin, found the instrument in Omaha, Neb.
"My mom and grandma got ahold of the maker of my violin," M-Navai said. "I guess he just took the liberty of contacting independent dealers around the U.S."
M-Navai said she was ecstatic to find out her violin had been located it a music shop there.
"I just thought it was a blessing," she said.
The other student's violin also was found at the same location in Omaha.
Sgt. Chris Keny of the KU Public Safety Office said a sergeant went to Omaha to pick up the violins.
"No arrests have been made," he said. "We are still investigating."
Keary said that it was unusual to have located the violins. He said it helped that the maker could identify M-Navai's violin.
M-Navai's violin was returned to her a couple of days before spring break. She said that everything except the violin and bow was missing from the case.
M-Navai said the violin seemed to be in good working condition but that she planned to have McHugh examine it thoroughly. The only change she noticed was that it had been polished, she said.
Laleh M-Navai, Wichita junior, gets ready to play a tune. M-Navai's violin was stolen Feb. 22 from Murphy Hall. It was recovered day before spring break in Omaha, Neb. Photo by Eileen Bakri/KANSAN
Lip-syncher's death not a suicide
Rob Pilatus combined alcohol, medication
The Associated Press
drawal program.
FRANKFURT, Germany — German authorities investigating the death of Rob Pilatus, half of the former pop duo Mili Vanilli, said yesterday they had found no evidence of suicide.
Milli Vanilli's former producer, Frank Farian, said he suspected that Pilatus died accidentally from a deadly combination of alcohol and prescription pills he was taking while in a drug with-
Pilatus, 33, was found dead Friday in a hotel room near Frankfurt.
On Thursday, he had arrived intoxicated and shivering at Farian's studio, the producer said. Farian said he and his partner, Ingrid Segieth, became worried when Pilatus did not answer the phone Friday afternoon and asked the hotel to check the room.
Frankfurt prosecutor Job Tilmann, citing preliminary autopsy results, said that there was no sign of violence and no indication of suicide.
whether alcohol or pills were involved were pending, he added
Chemical tests to determine
Segieth said Pilatus previously had threatened to commit suicide in the United States but notified the media beforehand so that he could be found in time.
Police representative Inolf RuipPERT said a passport was found that showed that Pilatus was born in Munich, Germany, on June 8, 1964. bit; that there was no suicide note.
"He wanted to get attention," Segieth said.
Farian said Pilatus was scheduled to fly to Bombay, India, tomorrow.
Pilatus is to be buried Thursday in Munich.
He and his Milli Vanilli partner, Fabrice Morvan, won a 1989 Grammy for Best New Artist for hits like "Blame it on the Rain" and "All or Nothing."
In late 1990, the performers were stripped of the award when it was revealed that neither actually sang on Milli Vanilli records; the two unduly took credit for voiceovers sung by studio musicians.
The son of a U.S. soldier and a German mother, Pilatus worked as a model and dancer before joining Morvan in 1988 and forming Milli Vanilli.
MTV customizes music channel for Russia
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Will it be Boris and Butt head?
MTV is launching a 24-hour music channel in Russia and is claiming that it will be the first time a western television network has customized a channel for that country.
MTV Russia will be divided between Russian music and programming and shows popularized in the United States with subtitles or Russian translations, organizers said yesterday.
works.
"There is a very large young Russian population, and it is interested in rock and pop music and wants to be plugged into the rest of the world," said Tom Freston, chairman and CEO of MTV Net-
The new network will expand MTV's global reach. MTV already
has editions for Europe, Asia, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Latin America and New Zealand. Freston said that about half of the estimated 600 million television homes in the world soon will have access to MTV.
MTV Russia will begin airing in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the end of this year and then gradually will spread across the country.
Some of MTV's programming, sold in syndication to Russian TV networks, already has been shown there. And although other western networks, such as CNN, beam their
"There is a very large young Russian population,and it is interested in rock and pop music and wants to be plugged into the rest of the world."
MTV is working with Biz Enterprises, which produces Ukrainian and Belorussian music programming.
signals in Russia, Freston said none has created a network specifically for that market.
Tom Freston
CEO of MTV Networks
"We want to be not only the music channel but the lifestyle channel," said Boris Zosimov, chairman of Biz Enterprises.
Zosimov has not decided whether reruns of *Beavis* & Butt-head will be part of the mix. Freston said the cartoon had been a hit in some unusual places, like Taiwan and Argentina, but had not translated well elsewhere.
"I know that for the first two or three months, nobody will understand what's going on," Zosimov said.
U.S. Treasury to cash in with new $20 bill look
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The $20 bill — the largest denomination most Americans use in their daily business — is getting a new look.
Like the $100 and $50 notes before it, the $20 is being updated with anti-counterfeiting features, including an enlarged, off-center portrait.
Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president and hero of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, will retain his spot on the front of the double-sawbucks — so named because the Roman numeral XX on 19th century versions of the bills looked like two sawhorses. The White House still will be portrayed on the back
The Treasury Department said yesterday that Secretary Robert Rubin and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan would reveal the new design on May 20, but the bills will not show up in a automated teller machines and cash drawers before the fall.
In the meantime, the Treasury Department is preparing a public education effort to
When exposed to ultraviolet light, the $20s' thread will glow green The *thread* glows yellow in the $50s and red in the $100s.
Like the $50s, but not the $100s, the $20s will feature a large dark numeral on a light background on the bill's back. Eventually, the $100s also will incorporate the feature, designed to ease bill identification for people with low vision.
The $20s also will have a numeral on the front printed in color-shifting ink, as do the other new bills. The ink looks green when viewed straight on and black when viewed from an angle.
"In a way, it's a tribute to the job the Secret Service does that people don't give a thought to the bills they receive. But one of the things we'll be stressing is that people should take a couple of moments to authenticate bills. It's impossible to replicate all of the security features."
The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve conducted public education campaigns
Howard Schloss Assistant Treasury Secretary
persuade Americans to stop and look at money they receive before tucking it into their wallets.
Even the most sophisticated anti-counterfeiting features don't work if cash handlers don't check for them. After the introductions of the new $100 note in March 1996 and the new $50 last October, bankers said some businesses were stuck with bogus bills simply because employees weren't familiar with the new designs.
"In a way, it's a tribute to the job the Secret Service does that people don't give a thought to the bills they receive," said Howard Schloss, assistant treasury secretary. "But one of the things we'll be stressing is that people should take a couple of moments to authenticate bills. It's impossible to replicate all of the security features."
An embedded polymer security thread also will be seen when looking through the bill.
Like the portraits of Benjamin Franklin on the new $100s and Ulysses S. Grant on the new $50s, Jackson's will be surrounded by fine, hard-to-duplicate concentric lines. And, like the $100s and $50s, a watermark in the shape of the portrait, only smaller, will be visible when the bill is held up to a light.
with the introduction of the $50s and $100s, but the effort on the $20s will be broader and more intense, reflecting their wider use. They are the bill most often dispensed by ATMs.
At the end of December,
there were 4.4 billion $20s in circulation compared with
960 million $50s and 2.9 billion $100s. Because two-thirds of the $100s circulate overseas,
the Treasury Department focused its public education effort in countries such as Russia where U.S. currency widely is used.
The focus of the campaign for the $20s will be domestic and will include training seminars, videos and CD-ROMs for cash-handlers and millions of brochures and other printed material.
Bankers will use the material to walk their tellers and cash-handling people through the new notes, feature by feature, said Kawika Daguio, payments system expert with the American Bankers Association.
"But to a great extent ... it (counterfeit detection) is a kind of intuition, fostered by a lot of experience, and that just takes time," he said.
Also, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is working with change machine users to ensure a smooth transition. That wasn't an issue with the $50s and $100s.
"Some machines are easy to reprogram. You say, 'Read this,' and it reads the new bill. The metro (subway) system here in Washington is like that," said James C. Benfield, executive director of The Coin Coalition, a lobby group for coin-operated industries. "But with some machines, it's not so simple. You need a new computer chip ... so there may be a bit of a lag."
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1997-98
50th Anniversary
HUMANITIES
LECTURE
SERIES
Chancellor Robert Hemenway
"Humanities and American Politics"
April 7,8:00 pm The Lied Center