WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 12, 2001
NEWS
Monopoly scheme benefits hospital
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — A man accused of stealing millions in a McDonald's contest scheme apparently gave a $1 million gift to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, CNN reported yesterday.
Jerome "Jerry" Jacobson sent the Memphis, Tenn., hospital the winning game piece nearly six years ago.
St. Jude spokesman George Shadroui said the "Instant Winner" game piece arrived in a plain white envelope with a Dallas postmark and no return address.
McDonald's verified the $1 million game piece from its Monopoly contest, waived contest rules that required such pieces be redeemed only by winners and agreed to pay St. Jude $50,000 a year for 20 years.
JACOB
Shadrouli said the hospital had been receiving
the payments since 1996.
the payments made to Jacobson, 58, was among 21 people indicted Monday in the alleged conspiracy. Federal prosecutors charged the ring's members with mail fraud.
courors charged the Hogans. The indictment alleges that since the late 1980s Jacobson, director of security for Simon Marketing Inc., embezzled more than $20 million worth of winning McDonald's game pieces from his employer. McDonald's had contracted with Simon to run its Monopoly games.
to TURKEY MOSCOW. Jacobson distributed the winning game pieces to accomplices who redeemed them or recruited others to redeem them for prizes, some worth as much
as a $1 million, the insurance said.
According to CNN, both prosecution and defense sources confirmed that Jacobson was behind the contribution.
as $1 million, the indictment said.
Jacobson was in Dallas on Nov. 24,1995,the date the envelope containing the winning card was postmarked.
Prosecution sources said they would argue Jacobson mailed the game piece to St. Jude only after he had failed to recruit a cohort to cash it in before the contest deadline expired, the network reported.
McDonald's spokesman Walt Riker said the company stands by its gift and has no plans to stop the payments.
State Fair ticket sales hindered by hepatitis A outbreak
The Associated Prce
HUTCHINSON — News reports about an outbreak of hepatitis A is partly to blame for lagging ticket sales for concerts at the Kansas State Fair, an entertainment promoter said.
Gil Cunningham of TBA Entertainment told the State Fair Board Monday that he thought booking a well-known country music act would have produced more sales.
At least 63 people in Reno County
Aiming to ease any fears, Gov. Bill Graves told students at Hutchinson Community College that he would eat a corn dog, called a Pronto Pup, when he visits the fair this week.
have contracted hepatitis A since last fall, with new cases continuing to pop up before the fair opened last week. Reno County officials had launched a vaccination effort weeks ago to halt the outbreak.
While mentioning the publicity about hepatitis, Cunningham also said that other state fairs were experiencing similar problems with concert ticket sales.
"Country music sales right now are
soft, and it looks like we've bottomed out on country music," Cunningham said. "We're looking at doing something different — other entertainment that would draw people in."
He said that reflected an overall slowdown in country music's popularity at fairs.
"I still think we need to do concerts, but I think we need to do something different," he said. "I'm not saying things look bad for next year. I just think we need to be more proactive."
Fair entertainment promoters always have trouble deciding whether to go for a sell-out with top acts or to play it safe with mid-level
performers, Cunningham said.
The Kansas fair had considered booking pop stars Destiny's Child, but the price tag was too high.
The group is set to play the Utah State Fair but has sold just over 2,000 tickets as of last week, Cunningham said.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
Only five acts have sold out in the history of the Kansas fair, with Garth Brooks doing it twice. The others are country legend Willie Nelson, boyband 'N Sync and pop star Britney Spears.
Tropical depression drenches Florida, moves on
Flood watches still in effect, but stormexpected to continue moving away from peninsula
The Associated Press
MIAMI — A large storm system off southwest Florida in the Gulf of Mexico strengthened into a tropical depression yesterday but was moving
slowly away from the peninsula, lessening the threat of heavy rains.
threat of heavy rains. Flood watches, however, remained in effect for 22 counties.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the center of tropical depression eight was located near 25.5 north latitude, 84.2 west longitude, about 170 miles west-northwest of Key West.
The depression's maximum sustained winds were near 30 mph.
Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Felix
formed.
Its center was located near 19.6 north latitude, 48.2 west longitude, about 890 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean Sea.
Conditions were not ideal for Felix to strengthen and it was not expected to threaten any land areas, said Richard Pasch, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Kevorkian fights for second trial
Infamous "Dr. Death" serving 10- to 25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder
The Associated Press
DETROIT — A state appeals court panel heard arguments yesterday on whether assisted suicide proponent Jack Kevorkian deserves a new trial on his second-degree murder conviction.
ckovkian, 73, who says he has assisted in more than 130 deaths, was convicted in March 1999.
Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for the 1998 injection death of a terminally ill Oakland County man. Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease, was shown on CBS' "60 Minutes" getting a lethal dose of potassium chloride from Kevorkian.
Shortly before numerous courts and other government and office buildings in Detroit were evacuated after terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, attorney Mayer Morganroth argued on behalf of Kevorkian, who was not present at the hearing.
"The trial that he had was not a fair trial," said Morganroth, Kevorkian's attorney. "I don't think (his conviction) would have occurred had he had effective counsel."
But Oakland County assistant prosecutor Anica Letica argued Kevorkian "knew exactly what he was doing" when he represented himself, with attorney David Gorosh advising him. She said the conviction should stand.
"He didn't want to be cross-examined, but he did want to tell the jury his side." Letica said. "Kevorkian wanted a public forum for public acceptance of euthanasia. It's ludicrous to blame ineffective counsel."
It was unknown when the three-judge panel would make a decision.
Morganroth also contended that the autopsy never proved that Youk died as a direct result of the lethal injection given by Kevorkian — an argument disputed by Letica and Whitbeck.
"This case is not complicated," Letica said. "You inject somebody with poison, it's murder. He did it. He videotaped it. He sent it to 60 Minutes. We don't have to dust for fingerprints because he videotaped himself committing murder."
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