8A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
STATE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10,2002
Heating bills for Kansas residents likely to drop
The Associated Press
WICHITA - It could be good winter for Kansas Gas Service's 635,000 Kansas customers, whose heating bills are likely to drop by as much as 20 percent.
The utility says it has locked in lower natural gas prices with fixed-price contracts. That's particularly good news because the U.S. Energy Department expects consumers nationwide to face higher heating costs this winter.
Steve Johnson, manager of communityaffairs for Kansas Gas
Service, said the forecast for lower bills assumes that customers will use about the same amount of natural gas that they did last year.
Meanwhile, Aquila, which serves about 100,000 customers across Kansas, says its bills for October will be about 21 percent higher than last October.
"Forecasting a percentage, it's too difficult to do not knowing how cold the weather's going to be," Minter said.
The difference in forecasts for the two utilities is a result of their
Last December and January, Kansas Gas Service asked for permission to do what's called a "swap," which has the effect of fixing the price of natural gas, Springe said.
approach to buying natural gas, said David Springe, chief economist for the Citizens Utility Ratepayer Board.
"We allowed them to do this, so they have locked in very low prices given the timing of when they did this," he said. "They're not going to go up with the market."
Kansas Gas Service says it has locked in lower natural gas prices with fixed-price contracts.
Aquila also is working to lock in rates for more of its supply. The utility has asked for permission to charge $1 per customer per month to implement a program where it would buy "call options"
and other financial instruments to set an upper cap on natural gas prices, Spring said.
Aquila customers are somewhat insulated from the wholesale market since the utility bought about 50 percent to 60 percent of its current natural gas supply at a fixed price, Minter said.
Aquila will buy about 40 percent to 50 percent of its normal usage supply on the open market, he said.
Kansas Gas Service bought about 90 percent of its natural gas
for a normal winter volume at a fixed price.
A significant cold snap could force Kansas Gas Service to go to the open market if it depletes its normal supply. Then bills could rise toward the end of winter, Johnson said.
rosemary Foreman, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Corporation Commission, stressed that the market moves on normal market forecasts.
She said it's difficult to predict this early what the winter might bring.
Republican advertising features hip-hop rhythms
The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK — Between P. Diddy's hip-hop rhythms, Brandy's slow grooves and a rate-record segment called "Pump It or Dump It," urban radio listeners are hearing advertisements urging them to vote Republican.
"Lots of people are sort of puzzled by it," said John Altevogt, a Kansas Republican activist who arranged the ad campaign. "For my mind, the puzzle element should come from why we haven't been in these areas before instead of why we are there now."
In one of the advertisements, a black man tells listeners that his white co-workers became wealthy investing in their company's 401-k plans in the 1980s while Democrats including the Rev. Jesse Jackson encouraged him to spurn wealth. Other advertisements tout Republican-backed school voucher programs and tax plans.
Altevogt bought the commercial time through his advocacy group, Council for a Better Government.
Arkansas is one of 12 states the group is targeting in a $1.5 million effort to reach demographic groups that haven't traditionally voted for the party of Lincoln, he said.
"It is a minority outreach program designed to make it so it is not an oddity for Republicans to reach out to people of color, blue
collar workers, Hispanics, the whole nine yards," Altevogt said.
The group's advertisements also are running in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and North Dakota.
Through polling and demographic studies, he said the group determined Arkansas was a "swing area" where its efforts could make a difference.
However, the head of the Arkansas Democratic Party labeled the advertising "race-baiting."
"Instead of doing things to help the African-American community, they design advertisements that are downright disgusting and play them on African-American radio," Michael Cook said.
At Little Rock's predominantly black Philander Smith College, many students said the Republican advertisements have gotten their attention.
"It does make a difference. Some of the things they say are positive. It changes your opinions a little," said Chaffa Key, 19.
But Marcus Brand, 20, said the advertisements haven't changed his thinking.
"I vote Democrat because Democrats seem to go for the minorities and Republicans seem to for the higher classes and the rich," he said.
voucher programs touted in the radio spots would take money from public schools, said Arrysen Davis, 20.
"I listen to the advertisements, but they will not change my vote. I attended public schools and I really feel (Republicans) do not care about public schools," she said.
The Republican school
Black voters swayed by the Altevogt's efforts could make a difference in Arkansas' U.S. Senate race, one of the closest in the country, said Anthony Hulen, spokesman for Republican incumbent Sen. Tim Hutchinson.
Hulen said he was surprised when he first heard the advertisements.
"It shows that there is a voice for change out there. There is a political stereotype that black voters are Democrats," he said. "This is going to be a very close race and every vote will mean so much."
Rev. Jesse C. Turner, director of the Pine Bluff-based Interested Citizens for Voter Registration Inc., believes Altevogt's strategy can work.
"The Democratic Party is deeply ingrained into the minds of African-American voters in Arkansas. It is so ingrained that you have ministers and pastors and other people who always promote Democratic candidates regardless of their records," he said.
Workers to hoist statue today
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Construction workers spent yesterday trying to fix problems keeping a statue of a Kansa Indian from atop the Statehouse.
The statue, "Ad Astra," remained in repose on a flatbed truck on the Capitol grounds. Workers had turned it on its side so that working on its base would be easier.
The crew expected a crane to hoist the statue into place again Thursday morning. The statue first rose to the dome Monday, as hundreds of spectators watched, but came down again a few hours later.
Winds are a factor. If they are stronger than 15 miles per hour, the crew is likely to call off an attempt to raise the statue.
"Things are going very well," said Gregg Lynch, the contractor's project manager. "The weather forecast looks very good right now."
The statue, by Salina sculptor Dick Bergen, weighs 4,100 pounds and stands 22 feet tall. Its name comes from the state motto, "Ad Astra Per Aspera," — "To the Stars Through Difficulties."
The base of the statue has a 2-inch-thick stainless steel plate, as does the top of the cupola on the dome. With the statue in place, workers are supposed to thread 17 bolts through both plates to join them together.
On Monday, the two plates were about an eighth of an inch apart when workers discovered that five bolts wouldn't tighten enough. Lynch said the holes in
the two plates were mismatched by a fraction of an inch.
Workers brought "Ad Astra" down and yesterday used drills to redo the holes in both plates
Gregg said the extra work wouldn't add to the project's cost, which eventually reached $1.6 million, including work on the dome, casting the statue and building a new plaza on the south Capitol grounds.
Private donations are expected to provide at least $1.5 million.
Until a decade ago, a 750-watt bulb topped the dome. The state then replaced it with a 250-watt high-pressure sodium bulb, which burns brighter and saves energy.
An 1889 plan called for a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture.
MetLife settles lawsuit with families
The Associated Press
across the nation
TOPEKA — The state treasurer's office and Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. have settled a federal lawsuit that the state agency filed over death benefits for thousands of railroad workers.
Treasurer Tim Shallenburger and the company announced the agreement yesterday. It could affect the families or heirs of up to 7,600 Kansas railroad workers and tens of thousands more
The agency filed its U.S. District Court lawsuit in February, seeking permission to audit the MetLife records, citing its authority to collect unclaimed property.
Shallenburger worried that the families or heirs of many deceased railroad workers did not know they were eligible for a $2,000 payment under MetLife group life policies.
A MetLife spokeswoman said the company had no problems.
with paying the benefits but challenged the authority of Shallenburger's office to audit its records.
The company did not view the unpaid benefits as unclaimed property.
Under the settlement, MetLife agreed to set up a program to notify railroad workers and their families of the potential death benefits, which were first included in contracts between railroads and labor unions in 1966.
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