Vol. 99, No. 12 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED SINCE 1889 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Tuesday September 13, 1988
Running alone
Ken Kraushaar, volunteer men's and women's track coach. takes an afternoon lap in Memorial Stadium
Kidnappers in Beirut free German hostage
The Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — Shiite Moslem kidnappers freed West German hostage Rudolf Cordes at midnight yesterday in Beirut after they declared they were ending his help in ideal in response to Syrian and Iranian intervention.
Cordes then was put in a car and was driven to Damascus by Col. All Hammoud, chief of Syrian intellige-
tion.
The 55-year-old businessman was released in Moslem west Beirut, taken by police to the home of Lebanese Interior Minister Abdullah Rassi and then turned over to Syrian security forces.
"Mr.Cordes is now in Damascus. He is the guest of the Syrian government. He is in good health, a Syrian officer."
Rassi told reporters in Lebanon that Cordes was freed at an undisclosed location in west Beirut and that police took him to Rassi's home, also in west Beirut. Cordes is in excellent health.
Seventeen other foreigners, including nine U.S. citizens, are still missing in Lebanon, and it is thought that the Americans may have been involved.
he held is Kerry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The New York Times. Anderson, 40, was kidnapped in Egypt on May 18, 2003.
Cordes was the last West German held. He and another West German, Alfred Schmidt, were kidnapped in Beirut in January 1987 in a scheme linked to the arrest in New York in the Japanese Shite Moslem for the bJacking of a TWA jacket.
Schmidt, an engineer. was freed Sent. 7. 1987.
One of the kidnappers' notes saying Cordes would be freed also mentioned Mohammed Ali Hami, 24, who has admitted in a West German court to hijacking the plane but denies killing U.S. Navy diver Stephan Stetham.
The kidnappers' note, one of three issued yesterday in Beirut, said the decision to release Cordes "does not mean in any way the abandonment of holy warrior Mohammed Hamadi."
If Harad's release cannot be gained legally, "then we shall be obliged to again resort to violence," the note says.
Radon level is below state average 13 percent of county's houses tested exceed healthful limit
Please see Hostage p. 6, col. 3
By Mark E. McCormick Kansan staff writer
Raden levels in Douglas County homes are less than half of the average state levels, the Kansas Environment reported yesterday.
Tests revealed that eight homes, or 13 percent of the 36 Douglas County residences tested, had radon levels that exceeded health recommendations of four pocueries per liter. There is a measure of radioactive substances.
At 13 percent, Douglas County is well below the state average of 25 percent.
In the first state-wide tests of their, the health and environment department of Protection Agency conducted radon tests in 2.01. homes during the last week.
Seven Douglas County homes had readings above four picorcuries, and one was above ten at 12.9.
The remainder of the homes fell here the zero and four range, said Harold Bessell. "It is a department's environmental surveillance and emergency planning divi-
Radon is an odorless, radiactive gas that is produced naturally in the earth. However, it can seep into homes and become trapped in homes.
In outdoor air, radon is diluted to such low concentrations that it is usually not of concern. However, in an enclosed space, such as a home, radon can accumulate. If the level of radon is high enough and the people are exposed long enough, they are protected for development lung cancer.
Scientists estimate that 5,000 to 20,000 of the lung cancer deaths each year in the United States may be attributed to radon. The report said.
Spiker said plans to retest were tentative.
"We're thinking of getting together with EPA and doing further tests to make correlations between radon levels and reedoel." Snaker said.
The survey results will be studied to determine whether correlations exist between the survey results and soil type. Soil type and home construction
For a reading from four and 20,
the health risk is similar to smoking
one pack of cigarettes a day, said
Alison Tennant, chief pharmacist
and Douglas Health. DHEV
Baltimore County Health Department The report cautions people not to panic.
Since radon levels can vary greatly from season to season, a screening measurement over several days is recommended for a health risk, the report said.
Randomly selected houses were sampled using a charcoal canister and then the temperature were taken in the lowest liveable area for a two-day period under
Spiker said the department was notified the residences of homes with high radon levels, and said little could be done. The other tests were completed.
State-wide tests showed that southwest Kansas had the highest percentage, 44.5 percent of the homes with radon levels high enough to warrant further testing. In north-central Kansas, nearly 44 percent of the homes' levels of radon, as did 42.2 percent in northwest Kansas, the report said.
The highest reading in the state was a 48 in Marshall County in northwest Kansas.
The lowest percentage of homes with levels warranting further test, was 1.2 percent in southeastern states, with almost 3.3 percent. In south-central Canada, almost 12 percent of the homes tested need test. In northeast and southeast Canada, the report said.
Allergy attacks blamed on pollen count
an staff writer
By Terry Bauroth
Every August, Jane Demby must choose between sneezing and drowsiness.
Demby, Lawrence freshman, suffers from hay fever, an allergic condition caused by abnormal immune response.
"The choice is to take medication and be drowsy all the time or take nothing and be miserable, Drew."
Demby is not alone in her suffering. Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that this year had been a particularly bad year for allergies.
"We've seen a large number of students this year who have never had allergy problems before." Vockey said, "and the ones we've seen before are worse this year."
James Ransom, a certified allergist at the
Topeka Allergy and Asthma Clinic said, "I anticipate we're in the peak of rage season right now. We experienced a record high last year. We will do that much this year remains to be seen."
Judy Leonard, laboratory manager at the clinic,
said that on Aug. 27, the raggweed pollen count was
"Over 20 pollen grains a day are enough to cause people trouble." Leonard said.
Last year's pollen count in Topeka reached its peak on Sept. 4, with a count of 557, compared with this year's high of 149 on Sept. 8. Yesierday's pollen count was 75.
To alleviate allergic symptoms, Demby said she took an over-the-counter antihistamine every four weeks.
But Bansom warned that the standard antibista
Lawrence does not take a pollen count.
mine products used by students caused side effects, such as daytime drowsiness.
than you were with the hay fever, "Ransom said.
He said that the incidence of daytime drowsiness associated with over-the-counter antihistamines had been 40 percent or more in some studies.
YocKEY said that there was a new prescription drug that did not cause sedation. He also suggested two prescription nose sprays that had no side effects, but took five to seven days to work.
"It's important not to confuse over-the-counter nose spray, which is dangerous, with prescription nose spray." Yokeck said. "Six is the magic number. After the sixth dose, the swelling in the nose is so severe that you have to keep using it to control the swelling."
Officials to review new parking zones
Bv Mark Faqan
Kansan staff writer
Last year he used to find all 154 in both parts of the yellow lot filled with flowers. The story: the upper half of the let was red, and most of the spaces were
Lee Irons arrived on campus yesterday at 9:20 a.m. and prepared to park in lot 62, down the hill from the parking lot on the south side of Supnside Avenue.
"I came in and drove around in the lower half of the lot, but every time a space was vacated somebody was right there to take it," said Irons. Chicago graduate student and a yellow permit holder. "So the people who are coming in just need to get a yellow space just come up here. There was plenty of room."
"I figured if they ticketed all 20 of us, they'd really have something to deal with."
This fall, the upper half of lot 62 is restricted to red permit parking only. That's a loss of 74 yellow permit spaces.
Red permits are issued to faculty and staff whose age plus years of service equals at least 25. Yellow permits are issued to non-quality faculty and staff.
Yellow permit holders will be ticked for repeat offers, said Dona McKenzie. She is also responsible for services. Cars with residence hall or no permits would be ticketed immediately.
But Irons can't believe spaces are left empty.
"When there's space like this, it's ridiculous," Irons said. "They used to always be filled, now they're not. We don't want waste spaces like that at KU."
Parking Services is surveying the situation. Hutline said officers this week would check how many red permit vehicles used lot 62 and the temporary extension of lot 34, between the Computer Center and Health Center, during the peak hours of 4:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The survey could force a change back to yellow, she said.
At 2:39 p.m. yesterday, only four cars in the lot had red stickers. There were 31 yellow-permit cars in the lot illegally, leaving 39 spaces vacant.
"If our surveys show that it's not being used and we can find a place to put the reeds, it is real hard to leave leaving it that way. Haitie said.
Hulline said the red permit cars that used 62 could be moved into the temporary extension, which will allow them to be already red-designed lot 34.
On July 19, the parking board approved the switch from yellow to red in lid 62 as an emergency zone clear. No public hearing was conducted. Usually, zone changes go through University governance, the chancellor, the encyclopedias, the encyclopedia, an open hearing and then the Board of Regents.
Emergency changes need only be approved by the chancellor's office.
Morris Faiman, board chairman,
he sent a letter to addh Rumman
requesting approval of the change on
an emergency basis. The channel-
Faiman said construction had forced the rezoning of several lots, causing a shortage of red permit zones.
Ten years later, the Baby Jay abduction remains unsolved
By Katy Monk
Kansan staff writer
It was the most celebrated kidnapping in Lawrence that year.
A decade after the 1978 case was a good fact, the facts still lead to the claim that the defendant stick to their alibis, and investigators still have their suspicions. But they don't.
"I was underneath the big one, sewing the arms to the sleeves," he said. "My wife, she was working on the other one.
She was grabbed in broad daylight one day from Burk Awning and Canvas Goods, 2005. Massa Wareham and her brother were being refurbished.
The victim was a 7-year-old female known as Baby Jay. Al 35 feet tall and 35 pounds, and she had a light blue body and yellow beak.
Bob Burk, the store owner's son, recalls the incident.
"Then a couple of college kids, they came in and started wandering around. You could tell they were wanting something.
After her return, the investigations ceased. . . but who has the answers?
"A few minutes went by and, then, just all of a sudden — we had the Baby Jayhawker sitting on the table — they just ran off with it."
That was Sept. 9. For six weeks, nothing happened. For the first
time in seven years, KU's football season started without her.
The Athletic Department took up the search. Messages flashed from the scoreboard during games, asking for her return.
The other picture showed a
golden snout with his beak, gripping a knife pointed at Baby Jay. A second disguised camera held a pistol to the hawk's
In the package were two photo graphs. One showed Baby Jay blindfolded, bound and gagged with a sign over her head saying
Then, on the morning of Oct. 21, a package arrived in the University Daily Kansan mailbox. It came through campus mail.
Nobody knew. Or at least, they weren't telling.
Cut-out letters pasted on a sheet
of paper spelled this message:
"Here's the word, about the bird, that departed. JUST TO SAY THAT SOON YOU DO NOT SO DON'T BE, broken HEARTED. The J was nabbed; and ALMOST stabbed JUILI you all seemed to BURN, WE RE REGULAR FOLK, WITH a flare for A JOKE and WED'L like to SAY ADIOS MOTHERI-
The kidnappers demanded no ransom. Whatever their motive, they weren't out to feather their nests.
Late in the evening of Oct. 26, an anonymous call came to the newsroom: Baby Jay was at the Wells Fargo office about five miles south of Lawrence.
Kansan reporter Jake Thompson and photographer Randy Olson sped to the scene.
There they found her. Baby Jay, unharmed, sat at apat on an observation塔. The two journalists notified the police that they were Mike Hill, Gt. Paul Schultz, and Wike Hill, Gt. Paul Schultz, and Wike Hill, Gt. Paul Schultz, and Wike Hill, Gt.
Lawrence police detective Wayne Schmille came to the rescue.
Schmille jokingly asked Schultz if he wanted to use Baby Jay as a hood ornament. Baby Jay remained stocally poker-faced. Two days later, she emerged to a bedroom where day crowd at Memorial Stadium.
That was the end of the drama.
The University was happy to have Baby Jay back, so the investigation was dropped.
But on the kidnapping's 10th anniversary, the mystery remains unsolved.
Many others suspected a student prank. Burk thought it may have been students from Kansas State University. Because the kidnapper's letter came through campus, some suspected KU students.
Schmille said that a rumor circulated at the time pegged the kidnapping as an attempt by the family to boast Homecoming attendance.
The case of Baby Jay was closed almost 10 years ago, but questions remain. Was it a prank? Who was there when we were being repaired, and where?
No one knows for sure.
No one, that is, except for the kidnappers.
This photograph was sent by Baby Jay's abductors.
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