THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL. 100,NO.55 (USPS 650-640)
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
FRIDAY NOV.10,1989
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Grissom sent back to state to stand trial
By Derek Schmidt Kansan staff writer
LEAVENWORTH — Richard Grissom Jr. was extradited from Dallas to a Kansas prison yesterday.
A twin-engine plane carrying Grisso touched down at Sherman Army Airfield about 3:35 p.m. yesterday. Prison officials were waiting to take him to the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing.
Grissom, who turned 29 today, had been in the Dallas County Jail since July 7 when he was arrested at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He was charged Aug. 16 with
first-degree murder in the disappearances of three suburban Kansas City women.
Joan Butler, 24, of Overland Park,
and 22-year-old Lena roommates
Theresa Brown and Christine Rusch
have been missing since June and
are presumed dead. None of the
women's bodies has been found.
Wichita police also have questioned Grissom about the death of Terry Maness, 25, who was found in June in her Wichita apartment.
Grissom had been fighting extradi-
See GRISSOM, p. 6
Rising cost of food boosts prices 0.4%
Increase only temporary, analysts say
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Wholesale prices rose 0.4 percent in October as the biggest spurt in food costs in 22 months offset the positive effects from moderating energy prices, the government reported yesterday.
Although the increase in the Labor Department's Producer Price Index was double what economists had been expecting, most of them were worried that inflationary pressures were threatening to get out of hand.
Stacy Kottman, an economist at Georgia State University, said that he looked for wholesale, inflation to return to an annual rate of 4 percent in 1990.
The 0.4 percent October increase was down from a giant 0.9 percent September increase and many economists predicted that the news on inflation would continue to improve in coming months as a slowing economy takes pressure off prices.
Wholesale prices
Percent change in Producer Price Index
for finished goods, seasonally adjusted
"Assuming that food and energy prices remain relatively stable, we expect further moderation in prices," he said. "We don't see any reason for prices to vault upward."
Economists said the September wholesale price report provided support for the decision this week by the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in an effort to spur the economy.
Analysts called the October increase a temporary aberration and not a signal of spiraling food costs ahead.
Monthly charge .Seat. Oct.
Virtually all of the price pressure last month came from a sharp 1.4 percent jump in food costs, reflecting a 18.9 percent surge in vegetable price that analysts blamed on weather problems in California and Florida. Fruit, pork and fish prices also took a jump upward.
-0.5% N D J F M A M J J A S O
Monthly change Sept. Oct.
Finished goods +0.9% +0.4%
Intermediate +0.4% N.C.
Crude goods +1.1% N.C.
Foods -0.6% +1.4%
Knight-Ridder Tribune News/DAVI JAHNTZ
patients
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bureau Fitzgerald Tides News
been pressuring the central bank to lower rates in order to keep the country out of a recession, the Fed has been resisting those moves because of fears that inflationary pressures were still too high.
While the Bush administration has
But many private economists said they believed the Fed's rate reduction this week was appropriate given widespread evidence of economic weakness, particularly in the U.S. manufacturing sector, and reports showing that inflation was moderating.
However, Federal Reserve Board Governor Wayne Angell said yesterday that he believed that inflation needed to be reduced further, calling herate of increase in consumer prices "too high."
Analysts said that Angell's comments indicated that the Fed may be prepared to wait before following this week's interest rate cut with further reductions.
E. Germans freely cross Berlin Wall to the West
The Associated Press
BERLIN — East Germany opened the Berlin Wall and its other borders yesterday, and its cheering citizens crossed to the West for the first time since 1961. Hundreds of people danced on the wall.
The surprise move to open the borders came at a Central Committee meeting yesterday.
Late Wednesday and early yesterday, exultant East Germans coursed through Berlin Wall checkpoints, and many Europeans were Germany at other border crossings.
Near Brandenburg Gate, East Germans raced through streams of police water cannons and were pulled up the wall by the young West Germans at it. Some people used hammers to chip away at the barrier on the bridge, but others still way try to destroy the symbol of East-West division.
The sight of jubilant people prancing and dancing atop the wall, so heavily guarded for years, had been unthinkable only hours earlier.
About 100 East Berliners at the Brandenburg Gate chanted, "Open the gate! Open the gate!"
Hundreds of West Berliners took
advantage of the newly opened borders during the carnival-like atmosphere to head in the opposite direction and catch a glimpse of the other side of the divided city.
"What joy! This is the best thing that has happened in 100 years!" yelled a West Berlin man as he crossed into what had once been forbidden territory.
Hundreds were seen on the Friedrichstrasse subway in West Berlin, and East Germans also were allowed for the first time through Checkpoint Charlie, the famed Friedichstrasse crossing that is run by the Allied military.
Many hugged and kissed strangers, and cars packed with East Germans and others paraded down the streets of West Berlin.
"It's crazy! It's crazy!" shouted one young man as he sat in the back seat of a car with his parents after a brief trip past the once-impenetrable Berlin Wall.
His parents said they just wanted to see the West and then drive back.
All apparent were arriving without visas, although visas technically
Reforms amaze local observers
See WALL. D. 6
By Angela Baughman Kansan staff writer
Shock and amazement were among local reactions to the opening of East German borders yesterday.
In the latest of an unprecedented string of events in which East Germany's new leader, Egon Krenz, has tried to pacify massive public unrest, the country's Communist leaders decided to open the Berlin Wall and migrate to neighboring Germany for its citizens. The wall was built in 1961.
Krenz and Guenter Schabowski, a member of the ruling Politburo, also called for free and democratic elections, which have been the main demand of widening opposition.
Two Soviet and East European studies professors concurred that the open borders would probably slow growth in both the East Germans to West Germany.
"That is absolutely amazing," said Heinrich Nissen, Gelting, West Germany, senior. "That comes as a big surprise. If you had told me that was going to happen a month ago, I would have laughed in your face. If you had told me that a year ago, I would have told you you were crazy."
Roy Laird, professor of political science, said he thought that the action would slow down the flood of people during the next week. Open borders might increase the East Germans' hopes for a positive change.
Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz, professor of political science, said, "I think that should decrease the exodus from East Germany substantially. There will be initially a number of professionals and skilled workers who will exit. I think in the long run, people may even start coming back."
More than 50,000 have fled since Saturday when the government granted free travel through Czechoslovakia. About 200,000, or more than 1 percent of East Germany's population, have fled this year.
Nissen said he thought that the turn of events would be devastating for
West Germany, a country comparable in size to Wyoming.
"I think at this point a couple hundred thousand to a million will go over," he said. "I really do not know how they will find jobs for all those people."
Nissen said West Germans wanted East Germany to be liberated but for its citizens to stay in the German Democratic Republic. Continued emigration will result in social unrest in West Germany, he said.
"I's our social standard going to go down the drain?" he said. "It's so unpredictable. It's like a new world is opening. We'll see. It's amazing."
Piekalkiewicz said if free and democratic elections became reality in East Germany, radical changes would take place in the government that could lead to a reunification of the Germanys.
"I think the Communist Party will lose and perhaps lose very badly," he said, referring to a free election.
He said parties, such as Socialist and Christian-Democrat, would probably emerge. With the dominance of a socialist party, reunification is likely.
Plekalkiewicz said he thought that reunification would precipitate the pull-out of the U.S. military from West Germany and of Soviet troops from East Germany. He estimated that with a reunified Germany and a unified Europe, the world could be faced with another superpower, possibly dominated by Germans.
"A new era of international relations is coming into being." he said. "Perhaps it will lead to a more democratic and free world."
Laird said he thought that the actions in East Germany and in Tiananmen Square in China this summer were signals that the tide was reversing for Marxist-Leninist states that have dominated the 20th century.
> The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
No pain . . .
Kelley Hrabe, Great Bend senior, pumps some iron. Hrabe worked out during his physical conditioning class at Robinson Center.
Ex-Colombian president opens literary weekend in Lawrence
By Andres Caveller Kensen staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Last night, former president of Colombia, Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, spoke at the inaugural address of the sixth conference of the Association of North American Colombianists, praising "My Gabriel Garcia Marquez," a Colombian novelist, who was awarded the Literature Nobel Prize in 1982.
Colombia and its literary work will be the subject of an international convention of Colombianists this weekend in Lawrence.
Lopez, president of Colombia between 1974 and 1978, spoke in his native language, Spanish, to a crowd of 100 people, including about 40 members of the association and Colombian literature experts from universities throughout the country.
He also spoke to participants of the Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Studies in conjunction with the convention from Friday to Sunday at the Holiday Inn.
He (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) has been losing the power of imagination and has been gaining the power of investigation. '
- Alfonso Lopez Michelsen former president of Colombia
H,
Lopez, speaking of Garcia Marquez, said, "He is not only a national personality, but an international one.
"In 1968, he was the most read
author of the bestseller in the United
States."
Marquez is the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and several other novels in which he represents his background through images.
Lopez talked about the language proficiency level Marquez used to write and the way he dominated the language.
He finished the speech by analyzing the significance of Marquez's latest book, "The General in his Labyrinth." More than three years of research went into the project.
"great verifier of realities," said it was interesting to remember his background and relate it to his work.
Lopez, who called Marquez a
Lopez said Marquez's novel was realistic despite the criticism it had received in Colombia.
"He has been losing the power of imagination and has been gaining the power of imagination."
Before Lopez spoke, George Woodyard, dean of international studies and programs of the University of Kansas, briefly addressed the crowd, praising the interest in Latin American literature, despite the present problems in Colombia.
Raymond Souza, professor of Spanish and Portuguese and president of the association, said the association was a group of specialists in Colombian literature, history and other fields that had a purpose of creating and disseminating knowledge of
Colombia.
"The idea is that all of us can learn more about Colombia by talking to people in other fields," said Souza, the conference planner. "Those of us who have never visited Colombia are festifying an interest in what Colombia has to offer the world."
the association, founded in 1983, meets annually, alternating between the United States and Colombia. The more than 125 members last met in Cartagena, Colombia.
Souza said that 40 people attended the conference and that 42 papers about literature, culture, history and two about the country's drug war would be presented this weekend.
Besides conducting an annual conference, the association publishes "Journal of Colombian Studies," a journal to share specialized information.
He also said the conference would concentrate on Colombian novelist Hector Rojas Herazo, who wrote the novel "Respirando Verano" (Breathing Summer).
Tempe Stormwater KANSA
Alfonso Lopez Michelsen speaks about Gabriel Garcia Marquez.