2A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS IN BRIEF
WEDNESDAY. AUG. 29, 2001
CAMPUS
Symposium to feature work from prominent metalsmith
The Hallmark Symposium lecture series will start its season featuring metalsmith Pat Flynn at 6 p.m., Monday, Sept. 10, at Spencer Museum of Art.
Flynn specializes in making gold pieces and combines traditional, contemporary, ancient and refined motifs. His work appears in permanent collections at the Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago and the Rhode Island School of Design. The event is free.
The symposium is in its 19th year and is a course offered by the KU Department of Design. The symposium is sponsored by an endowment from Hallmark Cards Inc.
Lois Greene, professor of design and chair of the design department, said some majors in design require students to attend the symposium events.
"What we try to do is give students as broad of range of contemporary design," Greene said. "They might see an enormous range of people working today."
The symposium lecture series runs every other Monday at Spencer. Future series include presentations from graphic, textile and interior designers.
—J.R.Mendoza
STATE
Jury finds Topeka man guilty of murder, burglary and theft
TOPEKA — The sister of a murder victim cried when a Shawnee County jury found the man charged with the crime guilty of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said Timothy Lee Wolf Pennington, 30, killed Gary Whitaker, an acquaintance, during a robbery.
The jury on Monday also found Pennington guilty of burglary of Whitaker's home, misdemeanor criminal damage to a safe in Whitaker's house and attempted misdemeanor theft.
Whitaker, 47, was last seen alive on May 21, 2000. Police found his body under the stairs when they were called five days later by neighbors who said intruders were breaking into Whitaker's two-story house. His throat had been slashed.
Two inmates testified last week that Pennington had told them he killed Whitaker because Whitaker owed him money.
Pennington will be sentenced Sept. 24. He faces a life sentence with eligibility to be paroled after serving at least 25 years on the murder conviction.
Three Topeka sewer workers die in construction accident
TOPEKA—Authorities continue to investigate a construction accident that claimed the lives of three workers in a sewer.
Autopsies were performed yesterday on the victims, who were employees of Emerson Construction. They died while checking a new sewer line in a new subdivision in southwest Topeka. The workers were pulled Monday afternoon from a 23-foot-deep manhole.
Authorities have identified two of the victims as 64-year-old Norman Emerson and 53-year-old Lawrence Salgao. The third victim has not been identified.
Fire Battalion Chief Greg Bailey said at least one of the men was from outside the Topeka area. Bailey said officials have shied away from saying what caused the deaths, adding that anything without the autopsy results "is purely speculative."
NATION&WORLD
Leaders lash out at U.S. for ditching U.N. summit
The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa African officials said yesterday the fight against racism was the real loser following the U.S. decision not to send Secretary of State Colin Powell to a major U.N.conference on conference that starts this week.
Across the continent, government officials and newspaper editorials voiced disappointment at the Bush administration's decision not to send a high-level delegation to the international gathering, which is scheduled to start to begin Friday in Durban, South Africa.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said, "It is a pity. I think this question of racism is such an important question, because no country, not even the United States, has been able to deal effectively with and eradicate racism.
"The United States needs this conference just as much as anybody else."
Nigerian Foreign Minister Dubin Onyia said the absence of the United States would be felt deeply if it decides to boycott the meeting.
"Decisions taken at the conference will be like a toothless bulldog if America is not there." Onvia said.
The Bush administration is still considering whether to send a low-level delegation to the conference after announcing Monday that Powell — a former U.S. military chief who was known worldwide before he became
The State Department said the decision was made in protest against Arab-backed "offensive language" in draft conference documents that accused Israel of implementing racist policies against Palestinians.
the first African-American secretary of state ___would not attend.
The United States has also been reluctant to attend because of demands by African countries for an apology and reparations for slavery.
Observers in Africa said an absence of senior U.S. officials at the conference would signal a lack of interest in combating racism.
Paul Graham, director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said, "A high-level delegation would have signaled the United States' commitment to the global family of nations and to working things out together.
The United States sat out the last two U.N. racism conferences, in 1978 and 1983 because it felt the gatherings were a forum for anti-Semitism.
In Kenya, Gitau Warigi, a columnist for the Sunday Nation newspaper, wrote he was taken aback by what he called Israel's influence over the United States.
"What is this amazing hold that Israel has on United States policy that such a vital issue as the fight against racism can be reduced to a spat over a country the U.S. treats like a spoiled baby?" he wrote.
Consumers rate economy bad'
NEW YORK - Consumer confidence dropped for the second consecutive month in August, a sign of growing concern about a lack of jobs and unemployment.
The Associated Press
The Conference Board said yesterday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 114.3 last month from 116.3 in July. The index is at its lowest level since April.
Stocks fell sharply after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 116 points to 10,266 in afternoon trading.
The index, based on a monthly survey of some 5,000 U.S. households, is considered a key indicator because consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the nation's economic activity. The index compares results to its base year, 1985, when it stood at 100.
The August decline reflects lower optimism about the economy, with 14.9 percent of consumers rating business conditions as "bad," up slightly from 14.6 percent in July.
The board also said 15.9 percent of those surveyed said jobs were "hard to get," up from 14.1 percent in July. The number who said jobs were "plentiful" fell from 35.6 to 33.4 percent.
However, the board also said there was an improved outlook among consumers for the next six to nine months. That optimism, bolstered by low interest rates and tax rebates, may be enough to keep consumers spending.
Layoffs have driven the nation's unemployment rate from a 30-year-low of 3.9 percent last October to 4.5 percent in July.
"You're seeing a convergence where people are saying things are not as good as they were before, but they also don't look as bad as we thought they were or as bad as we thought they could be," said Gerald Cohen, senior economist with Merrill Lynch.
Health insurers encourage use of cheaper medicines
NATION
Insurers are writing letters to consumers and doctors, asking them to reconsider their prescription choices and to call their attention to cheaper alternatives. They are also planning to substantially increase the co-payment for new drugs and medicines for which effective alternatives exist at lower cost
NEW YORK — Pharmaceutical makers spend billions of dollars a year to advertise their name brands, and to counter that clout, some health insurers are more aggressively trying to switch patients to cheaper medicines.
Prescription drug costs rose 16.3 percent last year and are expected to grow nearly 20 percent both this year and in 2002, according to Segal Co., a New York-based employee benefits consulting firm.
Pharmacy costs are climbing for many reasons, among them an influx of new treatments and an aging population that uses more drugs. But health insurers also point to the expensive marketing campaigns that pharmaceutical companies use to tout their drugs.
Health insurers say marketing creates a demand for drugs that have less expensive equivalents. The problem, health executives say, is that most doctors and consumers with employer-provided insurance don't realize the real cost of drugs.
Man arrested in connection with deaths of fire fighters
HOPLAND, Calif. - A man was arrested on suspicion of murder yesterday in the deaths of two pilots, whose fire-fighting planes collided over a blaze that may have started at an illegal drug lab in the woods.
Frank Brady, 50, of Redwood City was jailed without bail. A second, unidentified suspect also was arrested.
The two planes collided Monday near Hopland, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, while dumping fire retardant on the 250-acre wildfire. The crash killed retired Navy veteran Larry Groff, 55, and Lars Stratte, 45.
Murder charges filed in connection with a wildfire are extremely rare.
"We are investigating whether this fire was started as a result of a drug lab operation," Bob Ceriani of California Department of Forestry told The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa.
The cause of the collision was under investigation.
The blaze has destroyed at least 12 structures and threatened more than a dozen others. It was 60 percent contained yesterday.
ON THE RECORD
A 21-year-old KU student backed from a parking stall and struck another vehicle at 8:20 a.m. Monday in the 1900 block of Ellis, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. The other driver used her horn, but the student continued reversing. No damages were sustained to the student's vehicle. The other vehicle's left front fender was damaged.
A KU Public Safety Officer was dispatched to Robinson Center at noon Monday for a medical emergency, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. A 22-year-old KU student was alert when the officer arrived. When Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical arrived, they concluded he had suffered a seizure. The student went to Watkins Memorial Health Center.
A 22-year-old KU student reported criminal damage to her vehicle in the East Joseph R. Pearson parking lot between 1:15 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. Monday, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. The vehicle was keyed on both sides. The damage totaled $2,000.
A 20-year-old KU student's car window was broken between 5:00 p.m. Friday and 5:27 a.m. Sunday in the 1400 block of Tennessee, Lawrence Police said. The cost of damages was $200.
ON CAMPUS
The Office of Student Financial Aid is awarding federal work-study funds for the 2001-2002 academic year. Apply online at wwwku.edu/~osfa, visit the office at 50 Strong Hall or call 864-4700.
An 18-year-old KU student reported criminal damage to her vehicle in the northwest college parking garage between 3:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. The vehicle's right rear passenger door was keyed. The damage totaled $500.
Queers and Allies will meet at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Parloors in the Kansas Union. Call John Roth at 218-4530.
ET CETERA
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