The University Daily
University Theatre Casting policy is scrutinized Inside, p. 3
KANSAN
COLD
High, 10. Low, 5 below details on p. 2.
Vol. 94, No. 80 (USPS 650-640)
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Wednesday morning. January 18, 1984
Shultz says U.S. ready to negotiate arms reductions
By United Press International
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — On the eve of a key meeting with the Soviet foreign minister, Secretary of State George Shultz yesterday appealed to Moscow to resume nuclear arms talks and called for a global ban on chemical weapons.
Anti-nuclear activists sang peace songs outside as the conference was opened yesterday.
"We are ready for negotiations whenever the weather is cool and prepared," Shultz told the East West conference panel.
"We are all aware that the aim and goal of this meeting is of decisive importance for the future of Europe," said Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, the host of the meeting.
PALME OPENED THE meeting in a vast triangular auditorium paned with birchwood walls.
The conference was called to consider measures to prevent war in Europe between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Soviet Foreign Minister Viktor Yushchenko today and see Shultz later at the Soviet Embassy.
The two men have not met since an icy encounter in September in Madrid following the Soviet downing of a South Korean airliner with a plane that plummeted East-West relations to new lows.
IN NOVEMBER, relations worsened when Moscow walked out of the Geneva talks on
STOCKHOLM, Sweden shares a story with Sen
Secretary of State George Shultz
Nancy Kussebaum. R-K, who is
traveling with the Shultz delegation as a congressional adviser The Conference on European Disarmament opened yesterday
See SHULTZ. d. 5, col. 1
City sets limit on price of gas for KU
By SHARON BODIN
Staff Reporter
The Lawrence City Commission last night unanimously passed an ordinance establishing limits on the amount the local natural gas company can charge the University of Kansas.
For Lawrence residential and commercial gas customers, the decision could mean lower gas rates if the University buys more gas at its lower rates.
the ordinance establishes a schedule of maximum rates to be charged to customers by the local gas company.
Service Co. Inc., can keep KU as a continual customer.
The rate schedule, devised by an arbiter chosen by the city, provides a fluctuating rate for KU so that the gas company, Kansas Public
IF KU IS NOT maintained as a customer of KP, the rate of increase in gas prices to residential and commercial gas users is higher, according to a report by the arbiter. Drees Dunin said.
The University is now using fuel oil instead of the more expensive natural gas. KU is an interruptible gas customer, which means that it can switch to gas oil at any time if RFS has shortages.
Louis F. Drees told the commission that he thought KPS's rates were distorted and that they were overstated.
He said that cost-of-service studies were required by almost all cities to prevent rate inequities.
"If rates weren't so high for KU, they probably wouldn't have had to switch to oil in the first place."
MAYOR DAVID LONGHURST asked Drees whether he recommended a cost-of-service study for KPS to make the gas rates more evenly distributed.
Drees said that he thought the study was a good idea and that through time, such a study would enable adjustments in the gas rate schedule to make it more equitable.
Longhurst said, "I think this rate schedule is going to be satisfactory for the coming term."
Commissioner Ernest Angino recommended rate advantages for other large customers, such as
customers, those customers would switch to other fuels.
He said he thought the large interruppable customers were compensating for smaller customers in their area.
Drees said that if the commission did not consider controlling rate increases for large
ANGUINO ALSO WANTED to know what
their mother's bill the city's
tax legislature has passed.
Bill Salome, president of KPS, said that the franchise did not tax the gas company's net revenue.
The customer's bill includes a $3 monthly customer tax plus the cost of the gas per gallon.
Angino said the gas company had told the commission's staff that only consumed gas was taxed and had not mentioned the monthly charge.
Taping TV shows with VCRs legal, High court rules
By United Press International
The high court decision, nearly two years in the making, is a major victory for the $8 billion-a-year recorder industry, freeing the record bearer of millions of dollars in fines and royalties.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 yesterday that Americans are free to use home video recorders to tape television programs.
The justices, acting on a case filed by Walt Disney Productions and Universal Studios against the Sony Corp., rejected an appeals court's finding that tapping TV programs violates copyright laws and that manufacturers of recording devices infringement. Experts estimate some 9 million Americans record TV shows at home.
Kenji Tamiya, president of Sony Corp. of America, told a news conference in New York that the decision was an "important victory for consumers in their fight to be able to use videotape recorders in the privacy of their homes. We are extremely gratified by the
But it was a blow to the movie industry, which immediately vowed to seek new laws to provide royalties for producers and performers.
"THE FUTURE OF creative entertainment for the benefit of the American family is at stake," said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
West Campus PCB leak cleanup complete; warning sign only reminder left of problem
He said that if creative works were not protected by copyright, the works might not be.
THE MOVIE industry immediately called on Congress to revise federal copyright laws to provide producers and performers with royalties for home-recorded shows.
"This technology has also created new opportunities for the entire creative communi-
By TODD NELSON Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Inside the fence that encloses a storage area on West Campus, north of the KANU transmitter, a gray building sits where the University once stored soil and other materials contaminate.
The yellow warning sign hanging on the chain-link fence is the last vestige of the University of Kansas' 11-month, almost $100,000 effort to clean up toxic chemicals that leaked from electrical transformers.
This decision is now the starting place for the Congress to seriously examine the marketplace which is in radical and revisionary change, so that as new technologies enter
PCBs can cause severe skin irritation and are
suspected of being carcinogens, cancer-causing substances. The danger depends on the concern
THE SIGN ANNOUNCING the presence of the "toxic environmental contaminant" no longer serves a purpose. Don Beem, the official and assistant director of refrigeration and electrical systems, said yesterday.
SeeVIDEO, p. 5, col. 3
All the PCB contaminated material had been removed and disposed of by last month, he said.
The University, however, continues to use the same type of transformer that leaked PCBs, even though the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to phase them out.
"They're perfectly good transformers," he
said. "There's nothing wrong with them as long as they're not leaking."
KU still uses some of the transformers that were in service at the time the violations were discovered, said Rodger Oroke, director of support services for facilities operations.
The University, however, has replaced many of the transformers containing PCBs.
IN JANUARY 1983, EPA inspector Ruben McCullers discovered the soil contamination and
Oroke said the University now had a "clean bill of health" and was in compliance with EPA toxic waste regulations.
The commission made several changes to the original document before the approving it 4-1, 2009.
Town Center can now negotiate with department store officials interested in leasing space in the proposed downtown mall. The decision comes months of deliberation over developer contract.
See DUMP, p. 5, col. 4
Richard Zinn, Town Center attorney, listed three reasons why the city should bear the cost of the market study, but later conceded to Town Center's paying half.
If Town Center was required to pay half the cost of a market study, Zinn said, and the city dropped it as a developer. Town Center would still be obligated to pay for the study.
City approves Town Center as developer
"ann reminded the commissioners that Sizeler was not asked to bear the cost of a market study. He said also that the study was for the city's 30 days notice agreement could be dropped on 30 days notice.
IN THOSE CHANGES, the commission added a statement saying that Town Center had to pay half the cost of a market study for the downtown area, and the expenses to drop Town Center as the official developer.
New contract states city, developer split costs of market study
The Lawrence City Commission last night approved a preliminary contract with Town Center Venture Corp. that makes the company the city's official developer for downtown.
By SHARON BODIN Staff Reporter
City Manager Buford Watson said the study would cost about $2,500.
ZINN SAID THAT the developer would be willing to pay half the cost if the amendment were added to the contract. If Town Center paid the $1,250, and was dropped by the city as the developer, the city would reimburse Town Center.
The commission approved an addition to the contract saying that it would last for 12 months, which would make it effective past City Commission elections in September.
Shontz wanted to change wording in the contract to refer to description costs to the public.
The commission changed the area described in the contract to include the property encompassed by Nixth and Seventh streets and by the alley east of Massachusetts to Kentucky.
Shontz also proposed limits on the percentage of bonds the city could grant for the development. The change said that the city did not have to pay for the development entirely with industrial revenue bonds.
"I think signifying this agreement is a very small step, but I think it is a crucial step." Longhurst
Commissioner Nancy Shontz said she wanted an amendment to change the description of the building.
INDUSTRIAL REVENUE BONDS let businesses borrow money at lower interest rates because lenders are exempt from paying federal income tax on the interest the bonds earn.
The commission unanimously approved the amendment to limit the percentage of HRBs
Watson said that the city was racing against a development being built on Kansas Highway 10 and several shopping centers planned for Topeka.
Soviets barred from county but not Lawrence
Bv LORI DODGE
Staff Reporter
"FROM A PRACTICAL perspective, that strikes me as being ludicrous," said Longhurst, who brought national attention to Lawrence last May when he sent letters to President Reagan and Soviet President Yuri Andropov asking them to meet here to discuss world issues.
Because of rules set down by the State Department in Washington, D.C., Lawrence is open for visits from Soviet officials and journalists, but Douglas County is closed.
Soviet officials are welcome to visit Lawrence and will be here without traveling Broughton Douglas County.
County Commissioner Nancy Hiebert and Mayor David Longhurst said that they didn't know the county was prohibited to Soviet officials or that Lawrence was open.
In November, the State Department issued a revised list of cities and regions closed to Soviet officials. While the overall percentage of closed areas in the United States fell from 24 percent to 20 percent, a number of counties in Kansas remain out of bounds.
Greg David, a State Department spokesman, said the out-of-bounds areas were closed for security reasons or simply because the State Department did not have jurisdiction closed to American officials in the Soviet Union.
He would not speculate on why Lawrence, a
city in a closed county, was open.
ALLAN HANSON, professor of anthropology and member of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, said that to arbitrarily close an area to the Soviets was retaliatory and
Longhurst echoed that thought.
"That's like saying if I can't play with your wagon, you can't play with my truck."
"The sad thing is, that's exactly what you don't want to do," he said. "That's not the way you overcome misunderstanding and animosity." "That's like saving if I can't play with your
The November reduction of total areas closed was in response to reductions the Soviets made in response to the invasion.
He said the State Department would like to abolish the restrictions, but only on a mutual basis.
THE SOVIETS FIRST placed restrictions on American travel in the Soviet Union in 1941. Davies said the United States tried for 10 years to block American travel, but in 1941 introduced its own travel controls.
In November the State Department opened up nine cities previously prohibited to Soviet travel. Topeka was the only city in Kansas on that list. Now closed, however, are Silicon Valley, a highly technological region in California, and Houston, Denver, Dallas, Seattle and Las Vegas.
The list of cities now open to Soviet officials include Cleveland; Indianapolis; Phoenix, Ariz.; Louisville, Ky.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Memphis, Tenn.
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