Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1985
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
7
Insurance woes may persist
United Press International
TOPEKA — Insurance Commissioner Fletcher Bell yesterday predicted Kansans would experience the ill effects of problems in the property and casualty insurance industry well into 1986.
Citing their "potentially hazardous financial condition," Bell announced he has suspended or revoked the authority of 15 financially shaky insurance companies to do business in Kansas and has taken other regulatory action against four others.
The 19 property and casualty insurers — the total subjected to action
so far in 1985 --- are not domestic Kansas companies, he said.
The insurance commissioner noted that only six companies required formal regulatory action in each of the years 1983 and 1984.
"The increased number of actions taken by my office on property and casualty insurers is due to several years of poor underwriting results experienced by the property and casualty industry as a whole." Bell said.
He said many of the firms used "cash flow underwriting," in which policies are written at reduced premium amounts in the hope of
making up the difference with investment income.
"However, as investment returns dropped, property and casualty insurers realized the premiums they had collected were not going to be able to generate enough funds to satisfy policyholders' claims," the authority of other factors which have also contributed to the poor operating results of the property and casualty insurance industry."
Bell predicted the public would feel the effects well into 1986, in the form of increased premiums, decreased insurer capacity and occasional company insolvency.
Ex-legislator accused of fraud
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — An Overland Park woman told a state disciplinary panel yesterday that former state Sen. Paul Hess borrowed $100,000 from her mother, lied about the existence of liens on collateral for the loan and misused funds in a conservatorship.
/Bridgitt Buchanan told the panel Hess pleaded with her mother, Ora Gillespie of Tonganoxie, to lend him $100,000 so he could survive financial problems facing him in the summer of 1984.
The accusations were the second round of charges to be leveled at Hess, once one of the most powerful members of the Kansas Legislature. And the charges came without warning at the hearing. The uncontested charges could cost Hess his license to practice law in Kansas.
The three-member hearing panel
of the state Board of Discipline of Attorneys is considering the current complaints, along with a previous complaint filed by a Johnson County couple who testified Hess lost interest in their cases and would not pursue them after accepting retainer fees as their attorney.
The panel took the earlier case under advisement, pending the current hearing. It could decide the complaints have no merit and dismiss all charges against Hess and his wife, Anne Oliver Hess.
In the current complaint, taken to the board by the state disciplinary administrator, Hess and his wife are accused of "fraud, deceit and mistreatment and conduct adversely reflecting on" their fitness to practice law.
Mrs. Hess denies any part in the dealings and fighting the Complainant.
In addition, the complaint charges
Hess "either neglected a legal matter entrusted to him or intentionally failed to seek the lawful objectives of his clients and intentionally damaged his clients in the course of a professional relationship."
If the panel finds there was misconduct on the part of the Hesses, it could recommend no disciplinary action be taken, or recommend to the Kansas Supreme Court that either or both be disbarred, suspended from practicing law or publicly censured. Hess and his wife practiced law in the firm of Oliver, Hess and Hess in Overland Park.
Hess reigned over the important Senate Ways and Means Committee until he moved his residency from Sedgwick County to Johnson County in 1984 and tried unsuccessfully to win the Republican nomination to the Senate from his new district. He lost in the GOP primary last year to Sen. Jack Walker, R-Overland Park.
Plane crash kills two in northeast Wichita
United Press International
WICHTI - At least two people died and one was injured last night when a single-angine Cessna plane clipped a power line and crashed in flames less than two miles from its destination, authorities said.
Visibility was significantly reduced in the area at the time of the crash because of fog and drizzle, authorities said.
The names of the two victims and the survivor were not released. The survivor apparently was not seriously injured.
A spokesman for the Sedgwick County Sheriff's office said the search for a fourth passenger thought to have been aboard the plane continued late into the night in a brushy, remote area of northwest Sedgwick County.
The Sedwick County Sheriff's office received a report from an area resident at 6:50 p.m. that a plane had gone down about two miles east of Jabara Airport in northeast Wichita.
Air traffic controllers at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita confirmed that they lost radar contact with a plane at that time and indicated that the plane was on a flight from Olathe to the Jabara Airport.
After about 30 minutes, searchers found part of the wreckage of the plane in a wooded ravine. One survivor was found a few minutes later.
The man said he thought four persons had been aboard the plane, according to authorities.
At about 8:15 p.m., authorities found the wreckage of the cabin with two bodies inside.
On Campus
The University Forum will feature James Rush, a physician from Universities Field Staff International, at 11:45 a.m. today at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave. Rush will speak about "Post-Colonial Southeast Asia."
The University Placement Center will sponsor a seminar, "Summer Employment in Internships," at 13:30 p.m. today in Room 3, Lippincott Hall.
■ Amnesty International will show the video, "The Hooded Men," at 3:30 p.m. today in the audio-visual room of Lippincott Hall and at 7:30 p.m. in Room 107, Green Hall.
Public Relations Student Society of America will meet at 4:30 p.m. to day in Room 202. Stauffer-Flint Hall.
A meeting for psychology majors to be advised on admission to the graduate school will be at 4:30 p.m. today in Room 3139, Wescoke Hall.
The bishops called the tension that exists between the United States and the Soviet Union a "terrible threat to all humanity." They urged the suspension of all nuclear tests for one year, hailing it as "one step toward a climate of greater hope and trust."
"The number of companies we have initiated action on represents only a small fraction of the total number of property and casualty insurance companies doing business in Kansas," Bell said.
Although 15 firms were subjected to suspension or revocation of their authority to do business in the state, the other four were the target of various regulatory actions, such as administrative hearings, special court cases, and court mandates or required reduction of the volume of business written in Kansas.
tional body said in its letter to Reagan and Gorbachev.
The letter won unanimous approval during opening minutes of the council's semiannual meeting, which has drawn about 100 of the church's active and retired bishops to Wichita.
The council also approved a resolution calling on United Methodists around the world to pray for peace in advance of the Geneva summit, which begins Nov. 19.
On the Record
Bishops urge Reagan to ease world tension
"Aware of our own responsibilities, we have called upon United Methodists around the world to pray for you before and during the summit, and to become actively engaged in the earnest search for global peace and justice," the bishops' letter said.
"Our fervent prayer is that viable ways to a genuine and just peace may be found, and that human and material resources may be turned to the healing of human suffering," the interna-
A student's backpack, valued with its contents at $280, was stolen Monday morning from a table in Watson Library. KU police said.
Diamond earrings, valued at $400, were stolen between 10 p.m. Oct. 29 and 2 p.m. Friday from a student's room in McColum Hall, KU police said yesterday. The earrings had been hidden in a drawer.
In its resolution, the council called on United Methodists to pray daily for the summit and, in a gesture symbolic of hope and peace, to turn on porch lights or to light window candles on the evening of Nov. 19.
WICHITA - The United Methodist Council of Bishops yesterday approved a letter to President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev urging them to ease the tension between their two countries.
United Press International
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