Monday, March 9.1998
The University Daily Kansar
Section A · Page 11
Court keeps college students, beach clean
The Associated Press
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.—Spring Break Court is in session.
Vacationing college students nabbed for misdemeanors like underage drinking and disorderly conduct can expect some immediate justice at this popular spring break destination. And they can avoid a criminal record by giving up a day at the beach for a day cleaning up the beach.
Starting today, instead of processing offenders through normal criminal channels, Bay County judges will hold court at City Hall in this Florida Panhandle resort town. The
plan mirrors a similar program used at Key West for several years
First time offenders can keep their records clean by doing up to eight hours of community service cleaning beaches, parks and roadways.
"They're going to pick up trash on the side of the road they probably threw down there last night," Police Chief J.B. Holloway said. "We hope their friends will see them and decide that they want to behave a little better."
Other options are pleading guilty and paying a $175 fine or pleading innocent and having to return for trial. But the community service option carries a distinct advantage
"If they choose that then they don't have a record." Holloway said. "Mom and Daddy don't have to know about it."
for youthful offenders.
Justice will be swift.
As soon as you leave that courtroom you step onto a work van," Holloway said.
The Spring Break Court, which opens today operate seven days a week until April 4. Panama City Beach usually receives about 500,000 visitors during the four-week spring break period.
City Manager Richard Jackson said that about 60 percent of those who have gone to Spring Break Court in Key West opted for the community service program. He expects about 1,500 people to go through Panama City Beach's spring court.
It is expected to relieve regular court dockets that usually get clogged with spring break violators.
An open letter was being passed out to warn spring visitors what to expect:
"Welcome. We hope you have fun and return home safely. But know this: some things are just plain stupid and dangerous, and if we catch you doing something stupid and dangerous that is illegal, we are going to do our best to stop you in a fair and effective way."
Spring break cleanup in Panama City, Fla.
Jason Benavides/KANBAN
Women's Day focuses on Afghanistan changes
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban army that governs most of Afghanistan dismissed as infidels international campaigners trying to improve the rights of women living under their strict Islamic rule.
Pope John Paul It: decried the suffering of women.
"The Taliban has respect for March 8, which is being called InternationaI Women's Day." Taliban Deputy Information Minister Abdul Rehman Ottagi said
Sunday. "Islam gives full rights to women and we, too, uphold women's dignity."
Afghan women.
The Taliban, which controls 85 percent of Afghanistan including the capital, Kabul, has forced women to quit their jobs, closed schools for girls and forbidden women to appear outside their homes without the all-enveloping garment known as the burqa. Women who travel with an unrelated male can be stoned to death. A seven-woman panel, led by European Union Human Rights Commissioner Emma Bonino, is trying to persuade governments, international groups and prominent individuals to sign an appeal for fewer restrictions on
"We condemn this appeal by Bonino," said Ottaqi. "She and the others are infidels who want to see women shed their vells and bring humiliation to our traditions and our religion."
Binono, who was detained briefly by the Taliban while visiting Kabul last year, said the Taliban misinterpreted the appeal. She said it is not an attack on Islam, but on the Taliban's strict interpretation based on tribal culture and tradition.
Ottaqi said the Taliban will reopen schools for girls and let women work as soon as they can restore peace and security. The Taliban is fighting an opposition alliance for control of the remaining 15 percent of Afghanistan.
Elsewhere on International Women's Day:
—At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II decried the suffering of women in some parts of the world as he took note of Women's Day celebration in many countries.
In Spain, 4,000 women marched through downtown Madrid to protest the domestic violence deaths of 91 women in the country last year.
About 100 Uighur women, members of the Turkish minority in China, staged a sit-in in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul to denounce China's abortion policy and threw dolls into the consulate garden.
Weekend storm cripples travel on Midwest roads
Up to 10 inches of snow falls in Kansas
The Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. — More than a foot of wind-driven snow paralyzed travel across the Midwest yesterday. One traffic death was blamed on the storm.
A 250-mile stretch of Interstate 80 across Nebraska was closed for a second day, with other roads closed in Kansas. Snow carried by 40-mph winds cut visibility near'
"It's nasty out. I luckily have chains for the car I drive and without them I wouldn't have gotten here."
store clerk
to zero in places and drifts were reported up to 8 feet high in Des Moines, Iowa.
The snow blew out of the central Rockies on Saturday, closing some roads in Colorado. By yesterday the storm stretched from Kansas to Upper Michigan.
Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa bore the brunt of the storm with 13 inches of snow Sunday in central Iowa, a foot in parts of Nebraska and 9 to 10 inches in Kansas. Winds gusting to more than 40 mph blew cars off slippery roads near Grand Island, Neb., on Saturday.
Stranded motorists filled roadside motels in Kansas, where a woman was killed when her 15-year-old boy lost control of their car on a slippery road.
"It's nasty out," said Chris Robertson, 46, a clerk who managed to get to work at an Omaha
convenience store. "I luckily have chains for the car I drive and without them I wouldn't have gotten here."
Even snowplows got stuck in places, and some Iowa counties pulled their plows off the roads.
"It's drifting back as soon as we get them plowed off." Iowa engineer Harold Jensen said Sunday. "We're saving our plows for the morning."
"Anybody that's crazy enough to go out there is going to get stuck," said Nebraska State Patrol dignitary.
Steve Hamer.
Rain, sleet
and snow also
made travel
hazardous in
parts of Wisconsin.
"I can hardly get out of the parking lot.
"Anybody that's crazy enough to go out there is going to get stuck,"
Steve Harrer Dispatcher
Dispatcher
parking lot. We've plowed it three times," said Rose Fredrickson, a manager at a truck stop in Verona, Wis.
Flight in and out of Des Moines International Airport were canceled for part of the day.
About 45 students from the University of Wisconsin-Stout at Menomonie spent the night snowbound at a truck stop along I-80 west of Omaha, watching movies on television and talking about the weather. They had been headed for Jackson, Wyo., on a ski trip.
"This is my one week of vacation," said Dave Kleber, 23, a friend of one of the Wisconsin students who was along on the bus trip. "I'm doing it. Sitting in the snow."
The storm came 19 weeks after an October blast that devastated much of Nebraska by weighing down and destroying thousands of trees that were still heavy with leaves. That storm caused nearly $42 million in damage and knocked out power to at least 150,000 customers in Omaha and Lincoln.
Taco Bell dog offends Hispanics
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. - A Hispanic civil-rights group wants Taco Bell to quit running commercials that feature a pointy-eared, pint-sized, Spanish-speaking Chihuahua named Dinky.
The fast-food chain uses the dog to hype its products with the signature phrase "Yo quiero Taco Bell," which means "I want Taco Bell."
"I think it is very demeaning," says Gabriel Cazares, a former Clearwater, Fla., mayor who is of Mexican descent. "It is definitely a hate crime that leads to the type of immigrant bashing that Hispanics are now up against."
Cazares is president of the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the country's oldest Hispanic civil rights group. The chapter is urging Hispanics to boycott Taco Bell and to write to its corporate headquarters in Irvine, Calif. A few other chapters have followed suit.
"I think their insensitivity is criminal and the only way we can stop them is to hit them in their pocketbooks," Cazares said.
Taco Bell spokeswoman Laurie Gannon said the company had not received any negative comments about the dog, which has appeared in four commercials so far.
"We don't believe we're portraying the dog in a fashion that is derogatory or insensitive toward Mexicans," she said. "In fact, we think the commercials portray a sort of quasi-Mexican heritage that is cool and hip."
Gannon did Dinky had been a hit for Taco Bell, which does $4.9 billion in sales a year at 4.900 restaurants nationwide.
This is not the first time a corporation has been accused of insensitivity toward Mexicans. In the early 1970s, Frito-Lay used a character called the Frito Bandito to sell its corn chips. The company stopped after protests from Hispanic groups.
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