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Volume 128 Issue 47
Thursday, November 13, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Kansan.com | The student voice since 1904
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
A Lawrence firefighter blasts water into a fire on 12th and Ohio streets. No one was injured in the blaze, which gutted six apartments on Wednesday.
The Red Cross and KU On Call are working to provide living accommodations and materials for the six residents whose 1224 Ohio St. apartment building caught fire Wednesday morning.
All six residents are accounted for, but will not be allowed to return to their apartments, said James King, fire marshal and division chief of prevention for the City of Lawrence.
Residents safe after apartment building fire
The fire department first received the alarm at 11:57 a.m., and arrived within five minutes. Upon their arrival, the first crew saw smoke from the front of the building, and then the second crew saw smoke from the back. Firefighters were able to enter the apartment, take control of the fire
and call an all clear within about 15 minutes. King said.
"No one was in the apartment at the time of the event," King said.
During the fire, a resident tweeted their pet was in one of the apartments that was on fire.
The pet was returned to its owner unharmed.
"Someone at the scene recognized that tweet, and alerted the crews, and we were able to remove the pet safely from the apartment." King said.
King said there was significant damage to the structure, and an investigation into the cause of the fire is now underway. After the investigation is complete, the fire department will notify the public of its findings.
— Ashley Booker
Gay marriage approved in Douglas County
KELSIE JENNINGS
@kelcjen
Marriage licenses can now be issued to same-sex couples in Sedgwick and Douglas counties after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of same-sex marriage in Kansas by denying a request for a hold on Judge Crabtree's court order from last week.
The decision was placed on the Supreme Court after the defense in the case, Marie v. Moser, requested an emergency application for a stay, or hold, on the court order from Crabtree. The request went to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is the circuit justice for the 10th Circuit, of which Kansas belongs.
"The application for stay presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied. The order heretofore entered by Justice Sotomayor is vacated," reads the order that was released by the Court on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
"The public interest would best be served by this Court adhering to the consistent practice it has followed since it denied the petitions for certiorari on October 6, 2014, and denying the application for a stay pending appeal," said the ACLI in its response.
Crabtree's injunction was a court order for court clerks in Sedgwick and Douglas counties that says they can't deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. This court order was supposed to go into effect on Tuesday, Nov. 11, but was put
on hold when Sotomayor granted the stay.
Edited by Sarah Kramer
After Sotomayor granted the stay to the defense on Monday, she had given the plaintiffs, the American Civil Liberties Union, who filed the lawsuit, Marie v. Moser, until 4 p.m. on Nov. 11 to respond to the stay.
The ACLU responded on Tuesday before the deadline and stated in its response that the hold on the injunction should be denied.
"IT IS ORDERED that the preliminary injunction entered by the United State District Court for the District of Kansas on November 4, 2014, is hereby stayed pending receipt of a response, due on or before Tuesday, November 11, 2014, by 5 p.m. ET, and further order of the undersigned or of the Court," Sotomayor wrote in her order signed on Monday.
Student Senate begins election reform discussions Wednesday
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
MIRANDA DAVIS
@MirandaDavisUDK
Will Admussen, government relations director, and Mitchell Cota, chief of staff, present a bill to the Student Senate Rights Committee to reform parts of the Senate election campaign process. Two of the four bills presented passed in committees Wednesday night.
Election reform, a historically contentious and hotly debated item within Student Senate, began with the first two of four bills passing with ease in committees Wednesday night.
Cota said that election reform is a topic they've been discussing since this summer, but wasn't a top priority at the beginning of the year. He said they didn't want to make it as big of an issue this semester.
Last year's election process began in February and lasted until August of this year due to the number of appeals and complaints filed. The election rules and decisions of the Election Commission also resulted in the disqualification of an entire coalition from the campaign and an additional election this fall.
Will Admussen, government relations director, and Mitchell Cota, chief of staff, presented two bills and will present two additional bills next week in full Senate. The two bills propose edits to the wording of different sections of the election code. Both bills passed unanimously in the committees where they were heard.
Cota said many of the changes are small but can make a big impact.
"We just wanted to tweak the rules, because the rules in general work, there were just some little things that unfortunately had major consequences," Cota said.
Next cycle, there will be bills presented discussing campaign finances and sanctions. Cota said he hopes to put more checks and balances within the system. Admussen had similar
SEE SENATE PAGE 2A
KU student accused of aggravated sexual battery makes first court appearance
Christopher Colvin, a 21-year-old student, made his first court appearance via jail feed Wednesday.
Colvin was charged with one
Colvin is not allowed any type of contact with the victim. If he does
Colvin was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of aggravated sexual battery and kidnapping, according to Douglas County booking records. McKinley said the woman was not physically harmed.
was a victim of nonconsensual sexual contact.
attend class, he is not allowed to talk to her, according to Judge James T. George.
On Wednesday afternoon, Colvin was released from jail on $40,000 bond. Colvin will have his next court appearance on Nov. 17 at 2 p.m.
count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of criminal restraint, according to the Douglas county court record. He is accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate at a Lawrence residence on Nov. 10.
— Calley Taylor and Miranda Davis
Sgt. Trent McKinley, spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department, said officers were contacted Tuesday by a woman who said she
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Joe Pickett, left, and Nick Prueher will host the Found Film Festival, a live show that features VHS videos the hosts found at sales across the nation.
Live film fest comes to Liberty Hall
CODY SCHMITZ
@codv schmitz
Most people born before the new millenium can appreciate the static images and poor sound quality that are so familiar in VHS videos. Today, the medium is almost 40 years old. That hasn't stopped Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, co-creators of the Found Footage Festival, from watching them.
On Sunday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m., Liberty Hall will feature the Found Footage Festival,
CLASSIFIEDS 2B CRYPTOQUIPS 6A
CROSSWORD 6A OPINION 4A
This is the Festival's fifth time in Lawrence and first time at Liberty Hall. Previously the show was staged at the Granada.
a live show hosted by Pickett and Prueher. The comedy show stars the two who guide the audience through a variety of quirky and downright strange videos they have found in garage sales and thrift stores across the nation.
video store employee at Liberty Hall. "The Found Footage Festival is like a series of short experimental films made for humor. It's pretty original and we'll have an audience to support it."
"We're very excited, it's a unique experience," said Graham Young, a projector and
Pickett and Prueher started the stage show in 2004. Pickett has done work for The Onion and Prueher has worked on the Late Show with David Letterman and the Colbert Report.
["There] we found a Mr. T educational video," he said. "We found a Zsa Zsa Gabor exercise video. We found training videos about how to use weed killers. Weird things started showing up, so we started buying these and watching
friends since the sixth grade. Prueher said in about 1991 they started spending a lot of time in thrift stores and garage sales.
The festival dates much further back than 2004, though. Pickett and Pruebe have been
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SEE VHS PAGE 5A
To find your ice scraper.
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