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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Kansan
editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of
the editors.
September 7,1979
Dump risk too great
First there was talk of hauling nuclear waste across the Kansas prairies to a resting spot in the state of Washington. That was bad enough, but now there is talk of making the Kansas prairie a nuclear garbage dump itself.
In fact, 18 months from now Kansas may join a select group of states—now totaling six—that have commercial radioactive waste storage sites. That would happen if state and federal officials approve an application by the Rickano Corp. of Lyons to store material waste, including nuclear waste, in the old Carey Salt mines at Lyons.
Officials will probably need at least 18 months to definitively answer all of the questions that accompany talk of a nuclear dump—questions that the public wants and needs to know the answers to.
One of the questions raised is exactly how much radioactive waste will be put in the mines, which are 1,000 feet below the ground.
Rickano vice president James Harvey said the state should disregard the mention of plans to store the nuclear materials in "special nuclear materials"—such as
uranium 235, uranium 233 and platinum. Instead, he says, the application will call for the storage of other low-level materials, including waste water, schools, hospitals, obsolete contaminated equipment and building rubble.
Most of the material, the application states, would have a half-life of 10 years, meaning it would take that long time for the material to decay by a fraction of the waste to decrease by one-half.
However, the 160-page application appears to skirt the issue of the half-life of the other materials, stating only that "most" of the material will have a half-life of 10 years. That question and others must be addressed and adequately answered before this state seriously considers joining that exclusive club of commercial nuclear waste dump states.
It will take more than 18 months, indeed much longer, to convince the people of Kansas that a commercial nuclear trash dumps is worth the risk.
And until the public is so convinced, we spurn the invitation to join those states in this unnecessary and dangerous venture.
Mrs. Carter helps president, country
Rosasym Carter knew little about what the roses of being First Lady would entail when she entered the White House with President Jimmy Carter in January 1977. But she learned about them quickly, sometimes going beyond the traditional name to come to be the most influential First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.
Besides playing the good hostess role at White House activities, Mrs. Carter helped lead the committee on much-heeded adviser, the productive chairman of several committees and an expert witness.
Advising her husband on important issues and decisions also is very important to Mrs. Carter.
MRS. CARTER has done a great deal of traveling by herself, in and out of the country, for her husband. In times of declining public approval at home for President Carter and his administration, Mrs. Carter has been called to reestablish public support and faith.
BUT BESIDES what Mrs. Carter has done at home to help the president, she has taken it upon herself to U.S. relations with foreign countries. She has been an important ambassador—many of her trips have proved important for American policy and a day trip to Latin America. On that mission, she met with high government officials in Buenos Aires and she dealt with them calmly but strongly on touchy issues such as U.S.-Cuba relations, economic policies and
She has had some influence on her husband's decisions and programs. For the last five years she has made of the presidential appointments. In the energy summit at Camp David this summer, she assisted President Carter in overseeing the new program, even helped him write the speech he
She has toured the country, giving speeches about the president's energy and inflation programs. Amist controversy and pessimism, she continues to argue that the president's husband's decisions. She is not easily rattled and says exactly what she thinks. And recently, she has started to campaign for a second term for Carter. In often considered no wonder she is often considered powerful uncleaved official in the country.
John COLUMNIST fischer
presented to the public after the summit ended.
THE FIRST Lady also is involved in several efforts of her own to help the community with the Rights Amendment and maintains a strong interest in programs for the poor and marginalized and several committees and commissions for these programs and has testified before a Senate committee or for better mental health programs.
ROBERT STRAUS, a U.S. ambassador, said of the First Lady: "Her judgement is superb . . . I've been in and out of Washington ever since the Roosevelt era. There's just never been a bad one, with any more impact than Rosalyn."
Senator Jennings Randolph, D-Wa., introduced Erican Rocevelt when she came up here (to Congress to lobby). She had a shrill voice and you have a soft voice. But he is an intelligent man.
President Carter continues to highly regard her opinion and assistance.
"She's a quiet, soft, female who has grace and confidence and who is very tough in an emergency," Carter said. "She listens to only just a few words of it, she lists us to only just a few words of it, and she looks around at me and says that I've got a problem with this or that. She knows enough about the background of our lives to sit for two hours and explain to her."
An extra-high voltage power line is the main power source for Kansas Power and Light Co. reasoned when they drew up plans to string one through a large area of tallowgrass in the Flint
"And so I'll discuss the options with her and she'll say, I think we should do this or that."
This support from her husband and to, officials has increased her determination and motivation to help the country. America has not seen a First Lady as involved in the government as Mrs. Carter is for more than three decades.
Rosalymn Carter now knows what is expected of the First Lady and she has fulfilled the obligations exceptionally well, on behalf of her husband and the country with their problems.
A transmission line may not be ugly to everyone, but there are cases where a sense of power lines, the National Audubon Society claimed when it applied the pressure that forced KPI to close.
Power line route brings controversy
A transmission line is an ugly sight, a group of Wauaise County ranchers decided when they began to petition KPL, to move their land again—back to the original scenic area.
CONFUSION AND conflict are brewing in the Flint Hills. The normally simple operation of drawing a straight line has turned into a many-factored controversy.
At issue is a rolling 80,000-acre expansion of wavetail tall grass in Waukegan,湖北省州, that is one of three sites in North Park Service area of the National Park Service for a Prairie Reserve.
Last summer, KPL proposed a route for a 345-kilovolt transmission line from the Jeffrey Energy Center north of St. Mary's to a substation near Council Grove. The proposed route diagonally bisected the city and provided part, followed the ridges, which would have made the 110-foot tail, 54-foot wide H-frame toweres visible for miles.
PUBLIC OPINION can kplv to救辉 the route, away from the ridgetops, running alongside K-80, but still within the park and in front of the gate. You routed the line again outside the area.
The fuer that arose over the power line was the legal requirement that requires a year in the Legislature that requires the Kansas Corporation Commission to hold public hearings before proposed approval.
The rereouting of the line was done far from graciously. KPL officials were quick to remind customers that additional $1 million (bringing the total cost to $7.7 million) that would be paid by the customers. But the power line route is only a short distance, and the power line costs about $13,000 per mile to build.
BETWEEN THE time of the second and third proposals, KPL had to acquire easements—at a cost of at least $250 per square mile in the pathway of the second route.
At least $3,600 was paid for the easements, and KPI, officials say the landowners can keep the money, although the line will not be built on that land.
But here the plot thickens. Some of the landowners on the second route, despite their desire to be taken over, *sure emrive* 'licensing' in tactics to get them to sign the easements in the first place, are
lynn
byczynski
petitioning the utility to reroute the line again back to their property.
COLUMNIST
A high-voltage transmission line would spoil their land, making it unacceptable for a Prairie National Park, they think.
THE LANDWONERS' predicament is understandable. "It's like being reborn from a child's bed." But said the tactic is the perfect example of another culzie-cutting off one's nose to the wind.
The ranchers who have opposed the prairie park idea so vehemently have used as their main argument the fact that they know where wild mammals live preserving the natural beauty of the 9a.0d.
By requesting the power line, the ranchers have voided all their self-promotion as caretakers of the land, which has been such an effective argument in the past.
But the entire issue of the Prairie National Park is really only an interesting sidebar in the tale of the transmission line dispute.
THE REAL moral to the story is that, whether or not power lines are ugly, there is a good reason. And the National Audubon Society is proud to ensure that make sure they get that point across.
The 400,000-member organization, which
incidentally, is not only "a private group of birdwatchers," as KPL spokesman Hail Hudson says it is, considering a lawsuit to force the Army Corps of Engineers to take action against the statement before the Corps allows KPL to build the power line across the Kansas River.
KPI, executives are exasperated, which might explain their unprofessional, snide comments about the ubiquitous Society. They claim an environmentalubility would take six to 12 months to prepare. But the power line has to be built before Unit 2A starts. Energy Center goes on line next summer.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL impact statement itself is not the important point. The real issue is forcing the utility to see failure in construction can be built without severe environmental harm.
It is not necessary to clear-cut the right way, as was done near Manhattan earlier this year. It would have been replaced. Nor is it necessary to buildle the slash into streams, another environmental issue.
Creatures other than landowners be taken into account when the line is built—the great blue hernes that nest and the bald that winter on the Kansas River, for example.
Furthermore, the aesthetics and recreational values of the river, one of only three navigable rivers in the state, must also be taken into account.
RON KLATASKE, regional representative of the Audubon Society in Manhattan, has suggested some alternative "parameters" for the transmission line.
He recommended routing the line straight south of the Jeffrey Energy Center to a point where it would link up with an existing pipeline, which was moving the Wabusaun County area for 30 miles.
Such a "utility corridor" would minimize the need for clearing new right-of-ways and would limit the visual impact of transmissions to those who happen to think power lines are ugly.
KPL officials don't like *klakaste* the idea, because they fear that a large storm could do too much damage to the power system if the lines were in close proximity.
The decision should have been a balancing act for KPL, the Audubon Society, the landowners, and especially the Kansas Corporation Commission. But the ad-dedication blocks have all been passed, and the activation on the power line have been made.
There are, of course, counter-arguments, but the first is that the hitter is batting for that stretch, or the fact that the four miles between the existing lines and the proposed route would make little difference.
Unless KPL changes its plans again out of good will, the ultimate balancing may have to be done by the courts.
Plain language bill deserves support
A bill coming before the Kansas Legislature in 1980 has the potential to relieve a few headaches for consumers — especially if the governor is ignorant about the prosec of the legal world.
The bill, known in legislative slang as the Plain Language Bill, is the project of State Rep. Harold Dyck (R-Heston). It would require that any contract involving a concessionary public service house, be written in simplified language and use paragraphed sections and subheads.
The idea behind Dyck's bill is a good one. It makes no sense to laboriously describe the duties of a buyer and a seller in a context where the seller understands the terms of the sale.
In a community where apartments are big business, such a change in the bill not only makes sense, but practically guarantees more political support.
Dyck's bill does not go far enough, however. If purchase contracts can have extra words whittled out, why not apartment and house rental contracts?
The idea of simplifying official language
melissa COLUMNIST thompson
isn't new to anyone, except maybe the people who persist in using "dime" and "quarter" words.
State insurance commissioner Fletcher Bell has tried for some time to simplify language used in insurance documents.
Malcolm Forbes, editor-in-chief and president of Forbes magazine, has counseled businessmen in a series of advertisements for his book *Language in business letters*. The ads only give Forbes a good name as a businessman's adviser, but they give people sound advice about stringing nouns, subjects, and predicates together in a coherent fashion.
The idea is basic: If you want people to get your message, use words they will understand.
Only one group of professionals who would
In fact, adverse reaction from state legal interests was one of the reasons Dyck's bill didn't succeed in the last legislative session.
be affected by a language change seems to have spoken against Dyck's bill. They are lawyers, whose business it is to interpret and write contracts and official documents.
There is merit in the legal profession's objections. Any change in language would undoubtedly create some ambiguities between an existing state statute, which constitutes contract language, and any contrary statement according to the provisions of Dyck's bill.
civil contract disputes would also be affected by a change in language. The civil courts in Kansas might be rid of a lot of their knowledge and understanding. They might also be snowed under by new cases if revised contracts more amiguirges than they resolved.
Any effective simplification of contract language would have to be thorough, deliberate and standard. It would have to be flexible in order to minimize shock waves in the legal world.
As Dyck explained recently, "We have enough education and intelligence that we can come up with language that says what "we mean."
The biggest challenge would be finding simple words that can communicate ideas, but that can also be used in a variety of standard contract forms.
These difficulties shouldn't prevent legislators from trying.
If Dyce's bill does pass the scrutiny of the Kansas Legislature, however, it will be some time before the effects are noticeable. The law would make it public and professional support it can generate between 1900 and 1980. At such an age, the proposed law's life, voter opinion is crux.
Write Dye. Speculate on the law's value to you now and later, when you become a consumer with a vengeance.
And if the idea appeals to you, write the officials whom you hold accountable.
Not all court decisions in law books
BvCARLCAHILJ.
Police inconsistent during dispute
As one who sat at the KU Committee on South Africa's information table on August 31, I would like to clarify what happened in a situation where a tie tried to eject us from the KwaKunju Union.
And third, that students needed permission from the Events Committee in order to take donations.
N. Y. Times Special Features
CHEAPAKE, Va.—Our legal system is built on judicial precedents. Because of this, there is an elaborate method of reporting the outcome of lawsuits in America.
To the Editor:
To cite a case, a lawyer gives the judge a resume of the circumstances and the
The incident did not result from "contamination over rules governing solicitation of bounty." Mr. Roper said rather inconsistent reasons mentioned by the police why I could not maintain the
First, they said it was a rule that students may only leaflet outdoors, not in University buildings.
Second, that the Union is separate from the University, and not subject to University rules allowing leafleting and tables without prior permission.
Although we have been taking donations for the past eight months, I told the police that we would cease accepting them until the matter was clarified. That was the last donation because the donor can be removed and it was no longer a bone of contention.
But the police made it clear that the table had to in any event and warned us "for later time" to move. At that moment the United States director intervened and we said they could.
Anyone who reads the University's
"Policies, Rules, and Regulations" affecting free speech can see that leafleting and tables are permitted in public areas of University buildings—including the Union—without prior permission. These rights were retreated and spelled out at an open Events Committee last spring, with union management in attendance.
It is unfortunate that the peripheral and incidental matter of donations should distract attention from the issue of central concern: the administration's disregard for the safety of those students, the harrassment of those students, faculty and employees who are convinced that KU should not be making money from ex-servicemen and racism in South Africa. Laked Ohio.
Lawrence graduate student
Indeed, many of the state supreme courts—among them California, Oklahoma, Delaware and Virginia—not only refuse to decide decisions but also prohibit their citation.
decision, and the volume and page numbering. While the books contain many of the details of state supreme court, they do—to the surprise of many attorneys—include
"It FINDELTY opens the way for abuse," said a Virginia Beach, Va., lawyer who asked not to be identified. He knew about the practice because the Virginia Supreme Court would not publish two of his cases and he wouldn't be able. Nor would the court permit the case to be cited. "It doesn't give the appearance of justice," he added.
I share his dismay because of a longstanding legal battle. Since February 1975, I have been in court with the city of Montreal to impose fines on water line to city water lines made of asbestos. Cheapeake has a law that not only requires homeowners to connect to city water lines but makes it a crime to drink water from a private well, punishable by up to a year in prison.
In 1978, shortly after a television network reported on my long fight, I received an unmarked envelope from Oklahoma City containing a copy of a 1977 decision of the
WHEN THE time came for legal briefs to be filed with the trial judge, my attorney called with bad news. "I can't find Cherry et al." I had to say so. "I've looked all over the law library for it."
I went to the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg,VA, funded by the federal government. I received contributions from the $0 states) "to improve the quality of justice," to find out how our district is handling the cases not publishing some decisions. I learned that this is often in lawsuits that got to be a problem.
Okahama Supreme Court: H.D. Cherry yrs.
C. of City Bethany, case No. 50144. It
possessed my position that I shouldn't have
to connect up. I gave the case to my attorney.
But in California, at least, the practice was well known among members of the bar. Not so in Virginia, where few lawyers (and just a few trial judges) know about it. It is not uncommon to see a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, if he could justify the practice. "You are talking about our memorandum opinions," he said. "The facts are not published, he said, because 'the facts are so involved, or the lawyer doesn't properly present the case, or it may appear what happens to be a contractual obligation.'" Unpublished opinions, he added.
are of "rear origin" in Virginia and occur "very infrequently."
EVEN $0, in refusing to publish certain cases, state supreme courts are taking from the legal profession its most basic tool—necessary.
In all 50 states there are probably 200 to 300 lawyers who like me, obey law, be forcing force on others, and who may have to because their lawyers can't find Cherry vs. City of Bethany the way they want.
Carl Cahill is an advertising consultant..
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(10/28/1964) Published at the University of Kansas daily August 7 through August 13 and Monday through Tuesday, September 1 through September 4. Kaplan builds a second-class student palace at Launeys. Kaplan invests $72 million in Draught County and $12 million in Beverly Hills, $72 a year in Draught County and $12 for each student. Kaplan is also a $24 million member, paid through the student劵 invoices. Kaplan is
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