The University Daily
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KANSAN
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Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
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Vol. 94, No. 125 (USPS 650-640)
Drafting of beer bill is questioned
Thursday morning, March 29, 1984
By ROB KARWATH Staff Reporter
TOPEKA — The Senate minority leader and two other senators yesterday asked the Kansas attorney general to investigate whether five legislators illegally met in secret to negotiate a bill that would raise the drinking age for 3.2 percent beer.
The letter asked Stephan to determine whether the five legislators met secretly, in violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act and the rules of the Legislature.
State State Sen. Richard Gannon, D-Dooodal,
and Senate Minority Leader Jack Steineger,
D-Kansas City, both signed a letter sent yesterday to Attorney General Robert T.
GANNON ACCUSED the five legislators of privately drafting a bill that would raise the legal drinking age for 3.2 beer in Kansas from 18 to 19. . .
But the five legislators yesterday maintained
that they did not meet secretly. They said they would welcome any investigation.
The Open Meetings Act requires meetings of the Legislature to be open to the media and to the public in almost all cases. All conference committee meetings are supposed to be open.
Gannon is one of three senators on a six-member conference committee working on the drinking-aid bill. The other members are Sens. Paul Hess, R-Wichita; Charlie Angell, R-Plainfield; Robert Vancum, R-Parkland; Park, Bob Miller, R-Russell, and Charles Laird, D-Topoca.
State Sen. Edward Reilly Jr., R-Leavenworth, also sent Stephen a letter yesterday that said he would join the Senate.
The five committee members denied Gannon's charge in remarks made in the committee's first official meeting yesterday. The five traded barbs with Gannon before he stormed out, refusing to take part in what he later labeled "Tonpekazate."
"I AM NOT going to participate in this conference committee until we get some
direction from the attorney general," he said
in a statement. "I am not going to
participate in this afternoon."
The letters to Stephan were written after Hess requested Monday that Gannon sign a conference committee report that would have urged him to send the letter of complaint to bill to raise the drinking age for 3.2 beer to 19.
"I COULDN'T BELIEVE it," Gannon said.
"The conference committee had not met."
Gannon said that he was in the Senate chamber listening to debate on another bill when Hess approached him and asked for his signature on the report.
Gannon said he interpreted Hess' request as an attempt by the Wichita senator and the other members of the conference committee to sneak into a hearing at the state Capitol floors without public discussion required by law.
"He said, 'Hey Rich, do you want to sign this thing?' I looked down and there five wanted signatures."
Gannon said he refused to sign the report and began arguing with Hess. He and Hess walked to
the office of Senate Vice President Angell, just off the Senate floor, where Angell joined the argument, Gannon said.
"I won't say that this is an illegal act, but it is on the verge of being illegal."
"The Speaker was outside in the Senate chamber," Gannon said, referring to State Sen. Ross Doyen, R-Cordonia. "I was concerned that role the Speaker might have played in this election."
Neil Woermann, special assistant to Stephan, met with the attorney general yesterday afternoon. He said Stephan had decided to send Doyen and Speaker of the House Mike Hayden, R-Atwood, a list of questions to determine whether the Open Meetings Act had been violated and whether further investigation was needed.
But Gannon suggested that Stephan begin a full-scale investigation.
"If this is a start, then fine," Gannon said.
See STEPHAN, p. 5, col. 1
Assassins plot executions in San Salvador
By United Press International
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A right-wing death squash said yesterday it would "punish" election commissioners for bungling the campaign for legislation enacted on the army to play a role in counting votes.
Provisional President Alvaro Magana, meanwhile, quoted Salvadoran intelligence officials saying Cuban-trained assassins had plotted to kill presidential candidates and other officials involved in Sunday's election.
In a communique delivered to a San Salvador radio station, the Secret Anti-Communist Army described the five-member Central Elections Commission as playing the game of international communism.
IT WAS THE FIRST criticism by a death squad of the council, which has been blamed by politicians and citizens alike for creating mass displacement that kept thousands of people from voting.
"This disorder organized by the Central Elections Council is treason to the fatherland and the Salvadoran people, which will be investigated by our organization in order to denounce those responsible and punish the guilty," the ESA statement said.
IT ALSO CALLED on the army "to intervene directly" in tabulation of the votes to prevent fraud that could be used by Marxist guerrillas for proparaganda purposes.
Duarte said last week he had been told he was one of the targets. Guerrero also increased his attack on the French team.
President Magana told United Press International in a telephone interview he was advised by Salvadoran intelligence officials about an assassination made up of 17 Salvadoran left-assassinated men.
magana declined to say which candidates or officials were targets and said it was not known what the targets were.
Three days after Sunday's vote, the Central Elections Council could still announce only incomplete "unofficial" results from four of El Salvador's 14 provinces.
The results from Chalatenango, La Paz, San Vicente and Abahuachap province gave Duarte 69,75 percent or 21.2 percent, for d'Auboussain. Guerro ran third with 44,540 votes, or 23.65 percent.
NEWBERRY. S.C. — Rescue workers carry the body of a man killed in an auto parts store when a tornado struck late last night. Tornadoes killed as many as 61 people and injured hundreds more in North and South Carolina, the worst single day of tornadoes since 350 died on Easter weekend in 1974 in Zenia, Ohio, and several other states. See story on p. 2.
Senate seeks $153.5 million for KU
From Staff and Wire Reports
TOPEKA - The Senate yesterday loosened another knot in the tangled Board of Regents budget, which in final form would furnish a 7 percent salary increase for faculty members and restore 10 graduate teaching positions at the University of Kansas.
the Senate as expected, the yarn still won't be completed. The bill will move on to a conference committee that will attempt to iron out the issue by the bill and a House version passed last week.
But if the bill gains final approval today from
KU and $19.4 million for the University of
Medical Center. A final vote is set for
day.
IN KEEPING WITH committee recommendations, the senators yesterday gave initial approval to the $617 million appropriations bill for the state's university system.
The proposal would set aside $153.5 million for
The fiscal 1985 budget approved by the Senate provides $4.7 million more for the state university system than Gov. John Carlin had sought in his proposal.
Included in KU's $153.4 million is $107,000 to
See REGENTS. n. 5. col. 1
Mondale says television ads are deceiving
Hart accuses Mondale of lying about position during national debate
By United Press International
The two front-runners for the Democratic nomination engaged in their most bitter exchange of the 1984 campaign in a nationally televised debate on CBS.
NEW YORK — Walter Mondale blasted Sen. Gary HART yesterday for television ads saying he wanted to "kill American kids," while Hart was criticizing his positions on foreign policy and civil rights.
MONDALE IS FAVORED in New York and a Washington Post-ABC poll showed him leading Hart 44 percent to 32 percent among New Yorkers intending to vote, with 16 percent for Jackson. But that was taken before Hart's win in the Connecticut primary day.
Hart and Mondale used almost every question posed during the one-hour session to take off after each other. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, often the buffer between the two combatants, finally concluded there wasn't much difference in his two rivals.
"This rat-a-tat-tat," he said of the Mondale-
Hair, back and, forth, fire. "it's a kinsin struggle
... the same policy in the same direction, one is just a little bit slower than the other. It jumps from the Middle East to Central America and back again. It never drops to South Africa where America is in disgrace as America's No. 1 trading partner," he said with disgust in his voice as the crowd at Columbia University gave its strongest applause of the debate.
WHILE HART AND Mondale bickered,
Jackson was the calm voice in the trio, carefully
explaining how his policies differed from the
other two.
"Vice President Mondale knows better than to
what he's saying," Hart concluded one to
the other.
time and time again during the session the two front runners took after each other, usually
Mondale unleashed his strongest attack against television ads Hart has run suggesting that the former vice president would send hoops to Central America and to the Persian Gulf.
"I know exactly what I'm saying." Mondale fired back. He never called Hart "Senator," often called him "Garry" or referred to him in the third person as "Gary Hart."
"No one has opposed Reagan policy more than I, and you run ads saying I support Reagan policy and want to kill American kids down there" (in Central America), Mondale said. "Why do you run those ads and say I want to kill kills?"
"ALL MY LIFE. Ive fought for peace."
"I think you ought to pull those alts right away."
Hart fought back first by attacking Mondale campaign statements.
"Why do you question my commitment to arms control and civil rights when you know my commitment is just as strong as yours?" Hart asked. The ads illustrate a point. This country is doing young Americans in every trouble spot in the Third World and expect to solve that problem."
KU sorority members find pins in Girl Scout cookies
By DAVID SWAFFORD Staff Reporter
Last week, the Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis halted distribution of 700,000 boxes of cookies after a suburban St. Louis family had found pins in four boxes they had purchased. Similar incidents have been reported across the country.
Earlier this week, a cookie distribution was halted in Maine after a woman bit into one with a pin in it. A spokesman of the Waldo County Sheriff's Department said most of the cookies in Maine had apparently been made in Kentucky, and had been shipped to the state by rail.
In another episode of what is evolving into a national concern, two KU sorority members said yesterday that they had found pins in the Girl Scout cookies they recently bought.
"I BIT INTO THE cookie and the pin got caught between my teeth," she said. Distefano said she was not hurt after biting into the Samoa cookie.
Erin Distefano, an Overland Park senior,
said yesterday that she and another Delta
Delta Delta member had each found a pin in a
cookie.
declined to be identified, found a needle in a Girl Scout Thint Mint cookie.
The other Delta Delta Delta member, who
June Preston, cookie chairman for the Sunrise district in the Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council, said that cookies distributed in it were not made by the company that made the cookies distributed in St. Louis.
No other incidents with cookies have been reported to Lawrence or KU police. Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Watkins Hospital have not received such reports, either.
Five bakeries make cookies for the Girl Scouts of America, she said, and each council has the option of choosing which bakery to order from.
"FROM WHAT I have been told," she said,
50 percent of the Girl Scout cookies, are
baked in a microwave.
No similar incidents have been reported within the Mid-Continent Council of the Girl Scouts, Inc., which serves the Kansas City area and several other counties in Missouri.
Little Brown Bakers of Louisville, Ky., baked the cookies distributed in Douglas County.
Also, the Mid-Continent Council does not purchase its cookies from the Little Brown Bookshop.
Sergeant testifies partner hit KU student
By AMY BALDING
Staff Reporter
A Lawrence police sergeant yesterday testified in Douglas County District Court that Lawrence Officer Peggy Cobb hit a KU officer when she lies in the mouth during his arrest in Nov. 1981.
During yesterday's civil court proceedings, Sgt. John Shepard also testified that Cobb struck the student, Juan Carlos Patino, Quito, Ecuador, freshman, in the mouth with her metal knight. But Shepard said he had "no opinion" about whether Cobb had used unreasonable force.
PATINO IS SUING to the Lawrence for $10,000 in actual damage and Cobb for $40,000 in property damage.
Shepard, who helped in Patino's arrest, was called as a witness for the plaintiff.
In his suit, Patino accused Cobb of battery during his arrest for suspicion of drunken driving at 2:45 a.m. Nov. 25, 1981.
Shepard testified yesterday that he and Cobb thought Patino was speeding while driving on West 23rd Street. The officers stopped Patino, but did not obtain a radar reading of the car's speed.
Patino testified that Cobb called him an obscene name and referred to him gerdogatorily
Patino testified that he then told her he was Ecuadorian and got out of the car.
as Iranian after he questioned why he was being stoned.
Shepard said he could not comment on what Cobb had said because he was not close enough.
Shepard said he saw Patino "come violently away from the car." Shepard also said that Patino then said, "Women don't treat men this way where I come from."
WHEN COBB'S ATTORNEY, John Nitcher, asked Patino whether it was possible that Cobb had said "erratic" rather than "Iranian,"
See STUDENT, p. 5, col. 3
Senate rejects resolution for open meetings
By CINDY HOLM
Staff Reporter
The Student Senate last night rejected a resolution that would have required all Senate committees to conduct business in open meetings.
Vickie Thomas, KU's general counsel, said yesterday that the Senate rules required the
The resolution arose in response to the Finance Committee's plan to restrict budget deliberations, which begin tomorrow night, to members of the committee and members of the press.
committee to conduct open meetings in compliance with the Kansas Open Meetings Act.
The open meetings law says that because a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, meetings for the conduct of governmental affairs and the transaction of governmental business shall be open to the public.
Neil Woerman, a special assistant in the Attorney General's office, said he did not know if the Kansas open meetings law applied to the Student Senate or its committees.
He said that during the mid-1970s, former Attorney General Vern Miller issued a ruling against him in 2014.
Senate from the open meetings law
But Attorney General Robert T. Stephan's office has not made a ruling since he
Thomas said, "It's difficult to know because of rulings in the past whether the open meetings law applies, but the Student Senate makes its own statement about complying."
The University of Kansas Senate Code says that all committees mandated by the code must approve a new bill.
And the Student Senate rules say that any organization financed by the Student Activity fee must abide by the open meetings law. The committee and its committees receive activity fee funds.