AIDS Rumors have caused distortions Inside, p. 7
KANSAN
CLOUDY
High, 90. Low, 70.
Details on p. 2.
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
Vol. 94, No. 8 (USPS 650-640)
Tuesday morning, August 30, 1983
United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Challenger blasts off into the dark sky after a 17-minute weather delay early this morning. The five-man crew's flight is scheduled to end on Labor Day.
Shuttle lights up night during successful liftoff
By United Press International
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The shuttle Challenger blasted off early this morning in a dazzling night launch after a 17-minute weather delay, rocketing America's first black astronaut into space
The flame could be seen as far as 450 miles away
The gleam from the ground-shaking liftoff turned night into day at the space center, and the spaceplane's rocket boosters were a blazing yellow beacon visible for more than 2 minutes as Challenger streaked toward orbit.
For the first night launch of the shuttle program, Challenger carried a crew of five. Among them was Guion Bluford, a 40-year-old Air Force pilot with a doctorate in aerospace engineering, who became the first black U.S. spaceflyer.
"It was daylight almost all the way up." mission commander Richard Truly told ground controllers.
contributes.
Truly and Bluford were joined on the mission by astronaut Daniel Brandenstein, Dale Gardner and William Thornton.
"Everything's looking good." Truly, the only one of the astronauts who has flown in space before, reported 5 minutes into the flight.
The shuttle's three main engines cut off precisely as planned 8 minutes, 44 seconds after
launch. Then the external fuel tank was jettisoned to fall back into the Indian Ocean.
jettisoned to tail back into Earth.
A 2-minute, 25-second fring from the ship's twin orbital engines pushed Challenger into a preliminary orbit around Earth.
President Reagan wished the astronauts well in a message read to them while they waited on board Challenger.
bored chatter.
"Nancy and I send our best wishes for a safe and productive mission. Good luck and may God go with you." Reagan said.
The astronauts boarded Challenger in a driving rainstorm, and for a couple of hours officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had reported that that air clouds would prevent the blastoff.
Bluford, who flew 144 combat missions in Vietnam, was assigned to be the flight engineer to sit behind Truly and Brandenstein and monitor the shuttle's systems during launch.
Thornton, who was added to the flight to further his experiments on space sickness, was to make a little history himself. At 54, he became the oldest astronaut ever in orbit.
Black leaders hailed the decision to send Bluford into space.
"It's very significant," said John Jacobs, president of the National Urban League. "It speaks to the level of capabilities of black Americans.
"I think he will serve as a tremendous role model for young people."
2 Marines die,14 wounded; U.S. officials point to Syria
By United Press International
BEIRUT - Lebanon — Two U.S. Marines of the peace-keeping force were killed and 14 wounded yesterday in mortar and artillery barrages between Lebanese army units and Moslem militiamen. The Marines returned fire and suppressed the attack.
keeper.
President Amin Gemayel held an emergency nine-hour cabinet meeting, and the state National News Agency said 15 Lebanese soldiers were killed and 76 were wounded in street battles with the Shite Moslem militia, Amal, throughout west and south Seirut.
The Reagan administration suggested Syria was to blame for a Shilem Moslem mortar attack and vowed to keep the 1,200-Marie peace-keeping force in Lebanon.
tour wuse one apparently supported by Druze Militia artillery fire from the Syrian-controlled upper Metn area, 12 miles cast of Beirut, in 18 hours of continuous bombardment of inhabited areas and army centers, the private Lebanese Central News Agency said.
central news agency said
Beirut radio said 10 civilians died and 13 were
"We had been receiving fire from a number of positions, in the hills and other areas around Beirut," said Marine spokesman Maj. Robert Jordan.
wounded in the fighting that began Sunday in south Berutil's Shite neighborhoods.
The Marines counter-attacked with heavy weapons for the first time since arriving in Lebanon, using two Cobra helicopter gunships, 155mm Howitzers and 81mm mortars against Shite Moslem positions south of Beirut, Jordan said.
The two Americans killed during a five-hour barrage of mortar fire were the first Marine deaths under fire since the peace-keeping force went to Lebanon following the Israeli invasion of June 1982. One Marine was killed during minesweeping operations last year.
One Marine was killed instantly and the other died later in the hospital.
The dead Marines were identified by the Pentagon as 2nd Lt. Donald Losey, 28, of Winston Salem, N.C., and Sgt. Staff Alexander M. Ortega, 25, of Rochester, N.Y.
president Reagan decided to keep the Marines
See MIDEAST, p. 5, col. 1
Audit lists missing office equipment
Student Senate reports loss of $2,300
By DONNA WOODS Staff Reporter
More than $2,300 in office equipment belonging to the Student Senate has been reported missing by the Senate's administrative assistant
Mark Bossi, the assistant, told KU police last week that an audio-cassette recorder, four file cabinets, four typewriters and other office equipment distributed to various University organizations could not be found. The equipment was owned by the Senate but had been loaned to several student groups.
The Senate learned of the missing property after it conducted an in-house audit over the summer.
Bossi said yesterday that he did not think the equipment had been stolen. Police reports were filed because it would be easier to identify the equipment if it was found later.
"These items haven't disappeared. They just can't be located at the present time," he said.
Jim Denney, director of the KU police department, said he was not sure whether police would investigate the matter. "Investigative leads are slim," he said.
Bossi said it could not be determined which student groups were responsible for the missing property.
Last year, the Senate said more than $11,000 of its property was missing, but it did not file a report with KU police. Staci Feldman, former Senate executive secretary, yesterday estimated that all but $4,000 of that property had been recovered or was declared obsolete and no longer considered missing.
Dan Cunningham, Lenexa law student, said, "it's really a gross situation. Equipment is disappearing without a trace." Cunningham served as the Senate's executive secretary during the summer of 1982 and conducted an audit of Senate property at that time.
Bossi said the shortfall discovered this summer had actually been a problem for several years.
He said that equipment unaccounted for in past years was never taken off the Senate's inventory list. "Reports that needed to be completed weren't," he said.
Inventory to be annual
Loren Busby, chairman of the Senate Finance and Auditing Committee, said that before the summer of 1982, a thorough inventory had not been done for more than five years. From now on, he said, it will be done annually.
3. Since it will be task bounded, Bossi said inaccurate records, equipment transfers and changing account numbers had contributed to inventory problems.
contributed to inventory loss.
He said student groups received equipment and later transferred it to other groups without recording the transaction.
recording the transaction.
For example, if an organization is taken over by an umbrella group, an equipment inventory record should be given to the new controlling organization. However, that is not always the case. Bossi said.
"Those records should be kept," bess said. "But I don't know if they always were."
He said records were not always kept by groups because they may not have known who purchased the equipment for them. He said many groups were financed by more than one source.
See MISSING. p. 5, col. 1
Allies urge Begin to stay on; final decision to come today
By United Press International
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Menachem Begin's closest political allies yesterday begged him not to resign and he agreed to postpone his final decision until today.
There apparently was little hope he would change his mind, but Begin kept Israel in suspense, agreeing to delay his decision until this morning "at the latest," said his spokesman Uri Porat.
"Everyone begged the prime minister to change his mind." Deputy Prime Minister David
See related story page 2
prime minister to reverse his announcement Sunday that he intended to resign.
Levy said after an intense three-hour meeting between Begin, his ministers and coalition partners in the ruling Lukid block. "The appeal was truly emotional and sincere."
"I HOPE THAT everything we said today about the future, about the tests facing the nations, about Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) . . . will indeed have their effect," Levy said.
During the meeting, supporters chanted "Begin, Begin," outside, hoping to persuade the
said.
Communications Minister Mordechai Zippori told the 70-year-old Begin that he could not resign while Israeli soldiers were mired in Lebanon because of a war initiated by Begin's government, Israel Radio said.
"The fact that he promised to consider a couple of arguments he just heard . . . is the best proof the prime minister did not make up his mind already." Porat said in fending off reporters' questions.
In Cairo, Butros Ghali, Egypt's minister of state for foreign affairs, said Begin's resignation was a "purely domestic matter" but expressed hope that a new government would show more flexibility toward Palestinian rights. Egypt is the only Arab nation to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.
Commission considers two more downtown plans
By JOHN HOOGESTEGER
Staff Reporter
vote
Meeting as a committee, the commission reviewed eight new plans submitted by city planner Dean Palos.
The plans, referred to as options, were variations on schemes 1 and 4, which were created earlier this year by the developer for the project, Sizeler Realty Co. Inc., New Orleans.
The Lawrence City Commission returned to work on downtown redevelopment yesterday and ended up adding two plans to the fray.
and chosen up to 10. The commissioners also debated the option of bringing the redevelopment issue to a public vote.
ratios, on orders from a negotiating committee appointed by the City Commission, spent the past week developing "rough footprint" variations of the two schemes.
The committee decided that Palos should develop options to Scheme 4 after the City Commission failed to accept Scheme 4 earlier this month. The commissioners voted against that time.
the pain at the market
PALOS' PLANS DEALT with 12 problems that
The commission decided to meet as a committee of the whole after Robert Stephan, Kansas attorney general, ruled that the negotiating committee should hold its meeting in public to be in accordance with the Kansas open-meetings act.
Other main concerns were the cost of the project and the rerouting of New Hampshire Street. The committee also wanted to limit disturbance to the East Lawrence neighborhood.
the negotiating committee identified in Scheme 4. Primary among the concerns was saving the recently renovated Barrand Eagan and Co-building at New Hampshire and Ninth streets
Mayor David Longhurst said he wanted to save the building only as long as it did not significantly increase the cost of redevelopment.
After reviewing the eight options during yesterday's meeting, the commission decided further investigation was needed into options 3 and 4.
Both options 3 and 4 are variations on Scheme 4. They maintain the essential characteristics of the plan, which calls for building a mall behind Massachusetts Street between Seventh and Ninth streets that would include two department
center.
THE CHANGES CALL for putting a plaza on Massachusetts that would connect the street to the mall. The new plans also use a different configuration for rerucing New Hampshire Street to the east, close to Rhode Island Street.
stores as anchors with smaller shops in the center.
Option 3 retains the idea of a pedestrian walkway, while option 4 pushes the shops closer to Massachusetts and requires that three
'The public is looking to us to make the right decision . . . .'
— Howard Hill
City Commissioner
existing stores be built into the mall, instead of building around them.
building around them.
The commission decided to send the two options to Sizeler to determine whether they were feasible and to ask if the developer detected any problems. Also, the commission directed the city staff to look into the cost of the new plans to see how they compared with Scheme 4.
Commissioner Mike Amyx suggested that the idea of downtown redevelopment be offered as a public referendum. Amyx and Longhurst were the two who voted against accepting Scheme 4.
"IT GETS US off dead center." Amyx said. "A referendum puts a lot of things in motion. The actual shape of the project doesn't matter. We need to ask people if they wish to spend money to have general improvements made in the downtown area.
Commissioner Howard Hill expressed his concern for having a vote without a specific plan.
town area.
"If we sit back a year we can have 22 options and we can all pick three or four we like. I still have some reservations, but my one vote shouldn't affect the project if the people want it. I think we should have a vote in February."
1. Thus, other commissioners did not reject the vote of a referendum, but said they thought the vote should be taken with a specific plan in mind. Commissioner Howard Hill expressed his
comfortable with, 'he said Commissioner Nancy Shontz said she didn't think the public would pass any referendum without a specific plan.
concern of having a vote "in the House"
"The public is looking to us to make the right decision and to come up with a plan we all feel comfortable with." he said.
By ANA DEL CORRAL
Kansas farmers likely to receive emergency aid
Staff Reporter
Kansas farmers seriously affected by the drought probably will receive some type of federal aid, the deputy director of the Kansas Board of Emergency Preparedness said yesterday.
Mahon Weed, the deputy director, said that the federal government would give emergency aid to farmers in Kansas counties who could show that they had incurred losses of more than 30 percent in their total crop income.
Mike Swenson, press secretary to Gov. John Carlin, said the governor was fairly positive that Kansas had sustained enough damage from the drought to qualify for the $1 billion program.
Several people familiar with farming problems in the state agreed that it would not be difficult to prove the extent of crop damage.
Weed said that the state's corn crop was "pretty much dead."
His letter, however, is just a preliminary step in the state's official request for aid, because the situation cannot be accurately assessed until this year's crops have been harvested. Corn is usually harvested in September and milo and soybeans in October.
prior insurance deal
IN A LETTER sent last week to Secretary of Agriculture John Block, Carlin told about the extensive damage to Kansas crops.
Weed said the aid probably would come in the form of long-term, low income households with about 5 percent
"Normally, these loans are used to pay off the money they borrowed, to get their crops in, to keep their farms going and to replant," he said.
But Jack Lindquist, Douglas County Extension agricultural agent, said some farmers could not afford to pay the interest on loans, even if it was lower than current interest rates.
matter here. "They are the least discussed people in America because they are a minority," he said."
AFTER THE HARVESTS, county extension agents will survey the damage and send reports to the Agriculture Department in Washington, D.C.
See DROUGHT, p. 5, col. 3
1