2A
The Inside Front
Monday November 27, 2000
News
from campus,the state the nation and the world
CAMPUS
Independent counsel to discuss investigation
Independent counsel Robert Ray will give a public presentation on "Comments and Observations on Whitewater and the Handling of Public Corruption Investigation" at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at room 104 in Green Hall.
Ray succeeded Kenneth W. Starr in October 1999 as the Independent counsel. He took on the role of four different investigations into allegations against President Clinton and his wife, New York Senator-elect Hillary Clinton.
Ray will also speak to two law classes during his visit.
His speech is the first sponsored by the Criminal Law Society, a new law student organization.
Anthropology student wins research grant
KU anthropology student Brent Buenger was one of seven students selected nationally to receive a $75,000 grant from the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program.
Buenger, New Hampton, Iowa, doctoral student, is planning to use the three-year, $25,000-a-year grant to fund research on the effects of fire on the preservation of archeological resources and sites. This-spring, he will research in Badlands and Wind Cave national parks in South Dakota and in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. He also will do laboratory experiments at KU as part of his research.
He schedules his research around chemotherapy treatments for melanoma cancer.
Meghan Bainum
NATION
Worker's trust lawsuit takes tobacco to court
NEW YORK — A lawsuit filed with little fanfare three years ago has emerged as the latest flash point in the high-stakes legal battle between the tobacco industry and opponents who claim the industry conspired to conceal the dangers of smoking.
Attorneys will meet today to begin picking jurors for a two-month trial pitting a trust fund for sick asbestos workers against R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and other tobacco giants.
The plaintiff in this case is a trust
representing blue-collar workers and their heirs who were exposed to asbestos. It was formed in 1988 after the nation's largest asbestos products maker, Johns-Manville Corp., went bankrupt amid an avalanche of suits brought by plaintiffs suffering from lung cancer and other ailments linked to asbestos.
The trial is the first out of a backlog of about a dozen tobacco claims filed in federal court in Brooklyn, some file under civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Programs lure physicians into classes with money
BOSTON — Harvard University and the University of California-San Francisco hope to lure doctors back into the classroom by paying them enough to offset the time they spend away from patients.
Each school has committed about $10 million and is applying to major foundations for additional funds. If successful, the moves could mark a radical change in medical education. school officials said.
The programs are designed to counteract the economic pressure felt by doctors who double as professors and have less time to spend with revenue-generating patients, The Boston Sunday Globe reported. Support could range from $20,000 stipends to a quarter of a full professor's salary of around $200,000.
WORLD
Israel bombs Lebanon after roadside attack
KFAR CHOUBA, Lebanon — Israel, still engaged in violence with the Palestinians, faced security problems yesterday in Lebanon, where it rained missiles and machine gun fire in retaliation for a Hezbollah bombing that killed one soldier.
The assault was Israel's first cross-border retaliatory attack since pulling its troops from southern Lebanon in May, ending Israel's 18-year occupation of a border enclave there.
The Israeli army struck back with gunfire after the roadside bombing in Chebaa Farms near the Lebanese border. One civilian was slightly injured on the Lebanese side.
The violence at Chebaa Farms — an uninhabited strip of land in the western foothills of Mount Hermon where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet — occurred against the backdrop of continued Israeli-Palestinian clashes.
Palestinians yesterday as they traveled from a Palestinian-controlled area of the West Bank into an Israeli-controlled part, a military official said.
Israeli soldiers killed four armed
NATO to clear Kosovo boundary of militants
BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia — Yugoslav's army sent tanks and reinforcements near the NATO-patrolled boundary with Kosovo yesterday, one day before Yugoslavia's deadline for NATO to crack down on ethnic Albanian militants whose attacks have inflamed the region.
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has been under international control since last year and many residents want full independence.
In the three-mile buffer zone between central Serbia and Kosovo, attacks by independence-minded militants last week left at least four Serb policemen dead.
Yugoslav authorities set this afternoon as the deadline for NATO to clear the militants from the boundary region.
They have threatened to launch counterattacks after the deadline passes.
Climate conference frustrates negotiators
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dejected negotiators headed home from the U.N. climate conference yesterday admitting to fundamental differences on controlling greenhouse gas emissions.
The divide is this: European and developing countries say the industrialized world must reduce the carbon dioxide from their factories and vehicles according to legally binding guidelines and targets.
A U.S.-led bloc, by contrast, says there are more efficient, cheaper ways to attain the same goal — letting a freewheeling international market replace administrative controls.
The purpose of the Hague conference was to work on meeting the goal set three years ago in Kyoto, Japan, when industrial countries agreed to cut greenhouse gases an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
The deal broke down after U.S. insistence that countries be allowed to count the carbon dioxide absorbed by forests and farmlands toward their emissions-reduction targets.
Thirty-eight countries were given specific targets — 7 percent for the United States, 8 percent for Europe.
The Associated Press
Holiday shoppers please retailers
NEW YORK — The first weekend of the holiday shopping season turned out to be a pleasant surprise for worried retailers: The consumers who crowded malls and used e-commerce sites spent more than expected.
The Associated Press
"Sales looked pretty decent," said Michael P. Niemira, vice president of the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, yesterday as he estimated the weekend's sales would be about 5 to 6 percent higher than last year. "It's a good start to the season. But where it goes from here remains to be seen."
The solid sales followed months of sluggish business for many retailers, but the Thanksgiving weekend receipts were the result of hard work by merchants. Faced with an overall drop in consumer spending, retailers began discounting earlier than usual and focused more on what they expected would be the hot items.
Sears and Roebuck and Co., for example, is holding its "Best Prices of the Season" campaign in early December. instead of after the holidays.
A combination of stock market volatility, high interest rates and rising fuel prices have made consumers cut back on things they don't really need. Analysts say the unresolved presidential election also has contributed to shoppers' uncertainty.
Retailers are nervous about consumers like David Penner, a 58-year-old teacher from Andover. Mass., who plans to cut his holiday budget because he is spending $100,000 in home
renovations.
Retailers also want Eleanor Jaick, 55, of Florham Park, N.J., who was just browsing Saturday at New Jersey's Short Hills Mall, to get excited about this year's chunky sweaters and leather coats.
However, Jaick lamented, "There's nothing out there to buy in fashion."
Online business was strong during the weekend. Yahoo! Shopping saw twice as many transactions on Friday as a year ago, while Kmart's newly launched Bluelight.com got an unexpected surprise with a 50 percent to 60 percent gain for the weekend, compared to last weekend.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, while seen as a barometer of consumers' willingness to spend for the holiday, isn't necessarily a good indicator of how retailers will perform for the entire season.
In the past few years, that Friday has accounted for less than 10 percent of holiday sales, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The week after Christmas is becoming more important.
"I expect a pattern to continue similar to the last couple of years," said Terry Lundgren, president of Federated Department Stores Inc., foreseeing a lull for the next couple of weeks and then another jump closer to Christmas.
Internet retailers see the next week or so as critical. Although online traffic jumped 27 percent on Friday compared to the rest of the week, the momentum needs to continue.
ON THE RECORD
An outside light fixture was damaged between 12 o'clock a.m. and 5 p.m. Nov. 17 in the east parking garage, the KU Public Safety Office said. Dungage was estimated at $800.
A vehicle hit another vehicle at 10:22 p.m.
Nov. 19 in the west Gertrude Sellars Pearson-
Corbin Hall parking lot, the KU Public Safety
Office said. No damages were listed.
Someone attempted to pry open a KU student's door, leaving pry marks on the doorjamb between midnight Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 1900 block of Stewart Avenue, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated at $10.
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is on display from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Central Court in the Spencer Museum of Art. Call Graham Clark at 864.4710
Alcoholics Anonymous will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave. Call Thad Holcombe at 843-4933.
Compulsive Eating Anonymous will meet at 3 p.m. today at Watkins Memorial Health Center. Call 312-1521.
KU running and Jogging Club will meet at 4:30
p.m. today at the oak tree by the east entrance
to Robinson Center, Call Michael Roessler at
Student Union Activities forums committee will meet at 5 p.m. today at Alcune A in the Kansas Union, Call Patrick Waters at 864-2428.
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship will prey at 5:15 p.m. today at Danforth Chapel. Call Daniel Wong at 312-3172.
Ale Albors at 312-8798
KU Women's Ultimate Frisbee will practice from 5:30 to 7:30 tonight at Shank Complex. Call
The art and design department will have a Hallmark Symposium presentation from 6 to 8 tonight at the auditorium in the Spencer Museum of Art. Call Kristina Mitchell at 864-4710.
Student Union Activities recreation committee will meet at 6 p.m. today at Alcove B in the Kansas Union. Call Patrick Lafferty at 864-2427.
KU Bahai'i Club will meet at 7 tonight at the Regionalist Room in the Kansas Union. Call Justin Herrmann at 830-8912.
Black Student Union will meet at 7:30 tonight at the Pioneer Room in the Burge Area. Call Courtney Bates or Cassandra Young at 864-3984.
KU Environ will meet at 7:30 tonight in the.
Krona Union, Call亭站 312.1996
Sons and Daughters of Vietnam Veterans will present "University Under Fire" featuring "Multiculturalism and Western Civ"; Some Issues from 7:30 to 8 tonight on cable channel 19. Call Leonard Magruder at 843-3737.
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student union activities
The University of Kansas *785-844-SHOW
www.university.edu
What's on this WEEK SUA
College Bowl - Jan 27, 2001. To participate, sign up at the SUA Office by Stop Day.
Registration is $25 per team of 5.
SUA 12th Annual Angel Tree Stop by the Kansas Union lobby from Nov 27 to December 11 and help a child have better holidays.
The Cell
Nov 28 - Dec 2, 9:30 p.m.
II Mostro
Nov 28 - Dec 2, 7 p.m.
Nov 1 & 2, midnight.
All movies at Woodruff Auditorium. 5th floor of the Kansas Union. Tickets/Movie passes sold half an hour before movie times, in front of Woodruff.
The SUA Box Office is located at the 4th floor of the Kansas Union. Please call 864-SHOW for more information.
It's Your Cup of Tea.
As "the living room of campus", the Kansas Union is a very social place. With weekly events, such as Afternoon tea, every Thursday from 3-5, and the Brown Bag Classics, Wednesdays at 12:30, there are several opportunities to gather with friends, professors and other members of your university community. Come join us! After all...
It's Your Union. The Kansas & Burge Unions www.jayhawks.com