6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY, NOV.2, 2001
States struggle to reach agreement on Microsoft
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Justice Department and Microsoft lawyers pressed yesterday to finalize a deal to end their four-year antitrust battle, while state attorneys general weighed asking a judge for more time to consider the settlement.
The proposed deal would change how Microsoft packages and sells its flagship Windows operating system and make it easier for consumers to remove certain features and install rival programs from other software makers, according to people who were briefed on the negotiations.
The settlement would impose some restrictions on Microsoft during the next five years and could be extended two more years — until
2008 — if the company violated terms of the deal, the sources said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
A three-person panel would monitor Microsoft's compliance, they added. The current antitrust case is rooted in allegations that Microsoft violated a related 1995 agreement with the Justice Department.
The state attorneys general who also sued Microsoft huddled to reach a consensus, and Justice Department antitrust chief Charles James made personal calls to enlist their support.
If the states don't sign onto the deal, the Justice Department and the company discussed proceeding with the settlement and allowing a judge to decide whether to accept the deal.
The exact language was being finalized.
"It's just dotting the i's and crossing the its," a lawyer involved in the case said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
The markets reacted positively to word of a possible deal, that experts hope will invigorate the sagging technology sector. Microsoft stock surged $3.69 to close at $61.84 per share.
The parties are due in court today to report their progress to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotell, who implored the parties earlier this fall to reach a settlement and avoid a trial to impose penalties against Microsoft.
She appointed a mediator, Eric
Green, to facilitate the negotiations.
A court has already ruled Microsoft operated as an illegal monopoly and improperly thwarted competitors.
But the original penalty imposed in the case that would have required Microsoft to be split into two companies was overturned by a federal appeals court this summer.
The parties could announce a settlement at today's hearing or seek four days to a week to work out details, sources said.
If some states object to the deal, they could use a Tunney Act hearing to try to persuade Kollar-Kotelly to throw out the settlement if it wasn't in the public interest.
States to alter sex-offender laws or lose money
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The federal government has ordered Ohio and 13 other states to make their Megan's laws stronger or risk losing millions in grant money.
Making their laws consistent with the federal Megan's Law is one of 17 requirements for states to receive a federal grant that pays for crime prevention and victims' assistance programs in communities.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance notified the states in June that they would lose 10 percent of their annual grant beginning next year if they did not change their sex-offender registration laws by October. The National Criminal Justice Association, which is working with the states on the problem, said it does
not think any of the 14 met the deadline.
For Ohio, which receives about $19 million a year, the loss would be nearly $2 million.
"It might not seem like a lot, but communities are counting on this money for programs that have proven to be a success," said Domingo Herraiz, director of the Ohio Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Sheriffs and police departments can use the money to pay for task forces, community policing efforts, victims' advocacy projects or treatment programs for drug- and alcohol-addicted offenders.
All 50 states and the federal government have passed some type of sex-offender registration law since 1994 when 7-year-old Megan Kanka
was raped and murdered by a convicted sexual offender who lived near her family's New Jersey home.
States had to require sex offenders to register with local authorities for life.
In some states, sexual offenders are required to register for only a certain length of time and can ask a court to terminate the registration order, which also is against the federal law.
"Some states have faced difficulty because their Legislatures didn't want to change the law. For the most part, that's been the problem," said Cabell Cropper, executive director of the National Criminal Justice Association.
Besides Ohio, the states are Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
"It might not seem like a lot,but communities are counting on this money for programs that have proven to be a success." Domingo Herraiz director of Ohio Department of Criminal Justice Services
Florida bans shark-feeding trips to prevent attacks
The Associated Press
KEY LARGO. Fla. — A Florida commission yesterday banned sharkfeeding expeditions, saying the practice by some boat operators could be altering the animals' natural behavior.
The seven-member Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stressed that no evidence connects the feedings to the recent shark attacks in the state's waters.
They said the ban, which takes effect Jan. 1, is aimed solely at assuring that the sharks do not become
more dangerous.
Opponents of "interactive diving," in which scuba-diving tourists watch dive leaders feed chunks of fish to sharks, say the practice teaches the animals to associate people with food.
Shark dives bring thousands of tourists and millions of dollars to the state.
Scuba boat operators and divers who oppose the ban argued that the practice does not a pose a danger to the public. They have sued to overturn the ban.
"There is no scientific evidence to support the ban," said Erich Ritter, a scientist at the Shark Research Institute in Princeton, N.J.
John Stewart, a representative for the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, said if shark feedings posed a danger to the public, a diver would have been attacked on one of the tours. There have been no such attacks.
"Wouldn't the shark go after the person who is two feet away?" Stewart said.
"There is no scientific evidence to support the ban."
Erich Ritter
Shark Research Institute scientist
Since 1994, the number of Florida shark attacks has exceeded 20 in every year except 1996, according to the International Shark Attack File.
Sleep,dreams focus of research
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — When you're asleep, your mind uses dream time to process information for use when you're awake. Or not.
New research papers from sleep scientists, featured in the November issue of Science magazine reach opposite conclusions.
Robert Stickgold, a professor at the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, produced research he thinks provides compelling evidence that the mind works hard at night.
"The brain is taking information and helping us put it into a form that we can understand," Stickgold said. "Understanding the complexity of the world is one of our brain's most difficult tasks. It needs more than our hours of awake time to get the job done."
job done.
Across the divide is Jerome Siegel, a researcher at the Center for Sleep Research of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Siegel's analysis, which looks into dozens of studies done on dreams and learning, found no evidence that the sleeping mind does anything important.
"Since the beginning, there have been all sorts of theories about what happens when we sleep and dream," Siegel said. "Hundreds of years ago, people said we dreamt to get in contact with our ancestors. The latest theory gaining some acceptance is that our brain is solving problems and helping us learn. There is no evidence of that."
Both scientists pronounced their evidence solid.
"Any college student who takes enough tests knows they have better access to the information in their head after a good night of rest."
In Stickgold's experiment, people
Russ Carter Leonard Institute psychiatrist
experiment, people were given complex problems to solve and tested on their solutions over the next several days. Some of the people were allowed to reach REM sleep (the deepest form of sleep), while others were kept awake.
Stickgold said the people allowed a full night's REM sleep improved more than the sleepless subjects. He said the research suggested that part of the brain uses weak traces of memory to produce dreams while another part assimilates new information, putting it in order and helping the brain understand it.
appeared to be better informed. "There is a great deal of stress involved in depriving someone of REM sleep," he said. "That stress can make someone perform worse.
staff 16. Siegel's sees other explanations for why the people allowed to sleep in Stickgold's experiment appeared to better solve their problems.
can make someone "Any college student who takes enough tests knows they have better access to the information in their head after a good night of rest," said Russ Carter, a psychiatrist at the Leonard Institute in Austin, Texas.
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