Taking off
Alcohol Awareness Week took off yesterday on Wescoe beach with balloons, buttons and free non-alcoholic drinks. The week is designed to inform students about alcohol and its effects.
Eastern exchange
Story, page 3
A faculty exchange program between KU and Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, will begin in the spring. Participants will conduct research and teach.
Cloud crowd
Story, page 8
Today will be partly cloudy with a high temperature in the mid-70s. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, and tomorrow will be cloudy with a 50 percent chance of rain.
Details, page 3
Vol. 97, No. 42 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Tuesday
October 21, 1986
Hopefuls for office pay visits to homes
By KAREN SAMELSON
Brittle leaves and grimacing pumpkins mean that more visitors will be knocking on doors, but not all visitors will be wearing masks.
With only two weeks until the Nov. 4 general election, local candidates are trying to visit as many households as they can.
Unlike trick-or-treaters, candidates running for state offices want residents to recognize their names and faces — and remember them on Election Day.
Both candidates for the 44th District seat in the state House of Representatives, Democratic incumbent Jessie Branson and Republican Chris Miller, have been going door-to-door since the summer.
ABILENE — About 300 people attend the National Greyhound Association's Fall Meet. Members of the organization this weekend expressed would legalize pari-mutuel betting on dog and horse racing.
DECISION'86
Dog racers await pari-mutuel vote
Miller has begun to take time off from his law practice to go out during the day. He said he didn't think it mattered whether he went out in the morning or the evening, because some people always would be gone.
"It's a lot of fun, particularly at Halloween," Branson said.
Branson preferred the early evening, when more people were home. Saturday mornings were best because people had more time to chat, she said.
Setting out on Highland Drive yesterday morning, Miller said,
See CAMPAIGNS, p. 5, col. 1
By BETH COPELAND
ABILENE — Kansas voters may prove to be this town's best friend Nov. 4. That is, if they approve the constitutional amendment that would legalize pari-mutuel wagering.
At the National Greyhound Association's Fall Meet this weekend in Abilene, members of the national lobbying group and of the state's equivalent, the Kansas Breeders Association, discussed the effects of pari-mutuel wagering on the state's economy and on the greyhound industry.
In a state that prohibits gambling. Abilene is home to the NGA, and Dickinson County is dubbed the greybond capital of the world.
Herb "Dutch" Koerner, a greyhound breeder
and an NGA regional committee member, said legalized gambling would aid the state's economy.
"The state as a whole could gain between $35 to $40 million a year from dog racing," he said.
If the pari-mutuel amendment passes, Kansas would join 14 other states in the country with legalized gambling. The proposed amendment would allow the state to put a tax of between 3 percent and 6 percent on wagers.
Koerner joined about 300 dog breeders, racers and enthusiasts at a small track in Abilene to test novice greyhound racers.
Besides racing greyhounds, breeders auctioned the dogs, with an average selling price of $2.676.
Koerner, who has raised greyhounds in Hays for 30 years, said the greyhound industry would blossom if the amendment were approved.
Race track construction has been considered in Abilene, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kan. Koerner said. Race tracks, he said, would create more greyhound farms in the state, fueling an already bustling industry.
See DOGS, p. 5, col. 3
Currently, the state's greyhound owners and breeders spend about $5 million a year for such items as food, transportation, labor, medicine and equipment. This figure does not include the original investment by owners for kenneling, fencing, land and equipment.
City policy may limit smoking
By JOHN BENNER
Staff writer
Discussion yesterday on a city policy decision definitely did not take place in a smoke-filled room.
City commissioners, the city manager and the assistant city manager met at City Hall to draft a policy that would regulate smoking.
Mike Wildden, assistant city manager, said the wording of the proposed city ordinance would take from a week to 10 days to complete and would reach the city commission for a vote in November.
See related story p. 7.7
The commissioners made some tentative decisions on the wording of the proposed ordinance but said the law did not specify where the "where" and "how" of the law
Mayor Sandra Praeger said the proposed ordinance should ask that places for both smokers and non-smokers be furnished whenever possible.
In certain circumstances, beiligings could be legally prohibited.
"The government ensures that people can work in a safe environment." Praeger said during discussion, "Safe is a smoke-free environment."
Commissioner Mike Amyx said he was concerned that smaller businesses would be unable to provide separate designated smoking areas. The commission decided to exempt businesses with less than 500 square feet of space from having to provide equal space for smokers.
Commissioner David Longhurst said he thought regulating smoking in public buildings was appropriate, but he said he had doubts about doing
See SMOKING, p. 5, col. 4
Whooping cough ails 3 students
By COLLEEN SIEBES
Three KU students are among 97 Douglas County residents who have contracted whooping cough as a result of an outbreak in the county.
The number of confirmed cases of whooping cough in the county has more than doubled since Oct. 13, when the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department reported 41 confirmed cases.
Although health department officials say the outbreak may continue for many months, Jody Woods, nurse-practitioner at Watkins Hospital, said an outbreak among KU students was unlikely.
The chance of the disease spreading on campus was low because two of the three KU students who had contracted it were not Lawrence residents and both already were taking antibiotics at the time the whooping cough was diagnosed. Woods said.
was tragetisease. Woods was whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection that begins with symptoms similar to those of the common cold but can lead to other fatal diseases, such as pneumonia and post-infectious encephalitis.
Barbara Mikkelson, head nurse at the city-county health department, said anyone experiencing the
A victim will first experience a runny nose and a minor irritating cough, but within one or two weeks, the cough subsides.
However, the department of health does not recommend that persons over age 7 who have not been vaccinated previously be vaccinated now because of the increased risk of side effects.
preliminary symptoms should consult a physician
Mikkelson said none of the people in Douglas County who had contracted the disease had needed hospitalization.
The disease has not affected anyone severely because 98 percent of the school-aged children in Douglas County have been immunized, she said.
However, a large number of Douglas County residents have contracted a mild case of the disease because the vaccine for pertussis is only 80 percent effective, Mikkelson said.
The city-county health department requires that all children in Douglas County, except those who are exempt because of religious or medical reasons, be immunized before attending public schools.
Because of the outbreak, vaccinations are available at the health department Monday through Friday without appointment.
An outbreak in Shawnee County, which began in July, has killed one Tepeka infant and infected at least 326 people.
Gay discrimination discussed
The first cases of pertussis in Douglas County were traced to children in Lecompton who hadn't been immunized because of religious reasons.
City needs ordinance, officials tell commission
Homosexuals are discriminated against in Lawrence and should be protected by a city ordinance, two Lawrence professionals who deal with gay issues said last night after addressing the city Human Relations Commission.
By SHANE A. HILLS
Robbi Ferron, director of the KU office of affirmative action, and Marcia Epstein, director of Headquarters, a Lawrence crisis center, both said they had ample evidence that homosexuals were discriminated against in Lawrence.
Staff writer
Neither Ferron nor Epstein would reveal names for verification. Because Ferron and Epstein deal with problems on a private basis, they are required to keep confidential the names of the people who request assistance, they said.
"We should not have to make people come forward to testify about this."
A committee has been established by the Human Relations Commission to compile a report about discrimination against homosexuals in Lawrence. Ferron and Epstein are members of the committee.
Ferron said after the meeting. "They don't want to come out in public about it."
The committee is preparing a written report and in November will try to persuade the Human Relations Commission that the Lawrence City Commission should pass an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against individuals based on sexual preference.
Ferron said the University of Kansas already prohibited discrimination against homosexuals. She said four or five complaints had been made to her office since January from students who felt they had been discriminated against because of their sexual preferences.
She cited as an example a complaint in which a KU coach on an athletic team had made a statement that all of the homosexuals on the team.
Epstein said Headquarters had received calls from people who said they had been denied the right to rent an apartment because they were homosexuals.
She said she heard a report that a bar in town had refused to let a gay couple dance together.
Most homosexuals still fear "coming out of the closet," she said, because they may become the subject of ridicule and harassment in the workplace. They also fear losing the opportunity for job promotions, she said.
Epstein said most of Lawrence probably was ignorant about the existence of discrimination against homosexuals in the city.
Tony Vourax/KANSAN
Rider in the sky
Jeff Vickers, 16, a member of the Schwinn No Cents Trick Team, performs a "helicopter," a maneuver done by turning the front tire perpendicular to the bike while in the air. The team had a stunt show Saturday in the parking lot of Southern Hills Mall, 1601 W. 23rd St.