THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
INTERNATIONAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014
PAGE 3
PEDRO FAMOUS DIAZ/AP
U. S. businessman Gary Giordano, center, photographed shortly after being freed from police custody, sitting in the back of an SUV driven away from an Arban detention facility by local lawyer Chris Lejeuz, and American lawyer Jose Baez, left, in Oranjestad, Aruba, Monday, Nov. 29. Giordano, held since Aug. 5, is free to leave the island, although prosecutors say he is still their prime suspect in the disappearance of his traveling companion.
American man freed from jail
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORANJESTAD, Aruba—A U.S. businessman was released from jail in Aruba on Tuesday and free to leave the island, although prosecutors continue to try to put him back behind bars as a suspect in the disappearance of his traveling companion.
Gary Gliorand left prison in an SUV with his lawyers, entering the vehicle behind a concrete wall so he was hidden from journalists waiting outside. He made no statements as he drove off and headed to a hotel in the center of Oranjestad. Prosecutors expect him to leave the island at the first opportunity but his immediate plans were not clear.
"Gary Giordano is happy to be out of prison, yet he is very unusey" his Aruban attorney, Chris Lejuez, told The Associated Press. "He still feels something could go wrong and he could be back in prison."
Giordano, who denies any wrongdoing in the disappearance
of Robyn Gardner, was freed after nearly four months in custody under a court order issued by a judge who ruled prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to justify holding him longer.
Prosecuters say they are still trying to build a case against him and will seek his extradition if an appeal's court ruling expected Wednesday issues a reversal and orders the 50-year-old businessman back to jail.
"The case does not end here. Mr. Giordano will remain our prime suspect," said Solicitor General Taco Stein.
Giordano has been a suspect since Aug. 5, three days after reporting to police that Gardner was apparently pulled out to sea while they were snorkeling off the southern tip of the island. Her body has never been found despite extensive searches, leaving investigators with only a circumstantial case that a crime was even committed.
CAMPUS
Report finds cause of fire
Investigators have identified an overheated refrigerator as the likely cause of Saturday's fire in Malott Hall, according to the University. Lawrence Fire and Medical's full report is not finished yet, but a detective investigating the fire suggested the condenser and condensation tray on the back of the refrigerator as the fire's point of origin, according to Jack Martin, spokesman for the University.
The fire occurred in a chemistry laboratory on the fifth floor at around 7:15 a.m. and was extinguished with no injuries reported. Investigators suspect no criminal activity. The laboratory remains closed, but Malott Hall remains open and no classes have been canceled or relocated. Two laboratories on the third and fourth floors suffered water damage during the fire department's response. Facilities and Operations staff continued Tuesday with cleaning and repair efforts, but no estimation of the cost of the damage was available.
Ian Cummings
POLITICS
Cain may drop out after new claims
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Herman Cain told aides Tuesday he is assessing whether the latest allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior against him "create too much of a cloud" for his Republican presidential candidacy to go forward.
Acknowledging the "firestorm" arising from an accusation of infidelity, Cain only committed to keeping his campaign schedule for the next several days, in a conference call with his senior staff.
had stated unequivocally that Cain would not quit.
"If a decision is made, different than to plow ahead, you all will be the first to know" he said, according to a transcript of the call made by the National Review, which listened to the conversation.
It was the first time doubts about Cain's continued candidacy had surfaced from the candidate himself. As recently as Tuesday morning, a campaign spokesman
Cain dined anew that he had an extramartial affair with a Georgia woman who went public a day earlier with allegations they had been intimate for 13 years.
"It was just a friendship relationship," he said on the call, according to the transcript. "That being said, obviously, this is a cause for reassessment."
He went on: "With this latest one, we have to do an assessment as to whether or not this is going to create too much of a cloud, in some people's minds, as to whether or not they would be able to support us going forth."
Saying the episode had taken an emotional toll on him and his family, Cain told the aides that people will have to decide whether they believe him or the accuser.
ECONOMY
Illinois considers business tax plan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SPRINGFIELD, III. — What a state takes away, it also can give back.
Less than a year after raising personal and corporate income taxes, Illinois officials are now considering a $250 million package of tax breaks for several prominent businesses threatening to leave the state, including Sears and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. To make the measure more palatable, individual taxpayers also would get a dollop of relief.
The idea of giving tax breaks to companies is a hard sell in the state Legislature when many families are struggling and the Occupy Wall Street movement is reflecting anger at corporate interests. But advocates say if Illinois doesn't take action, the businesses and their thousands of jobs will be lured away by states that are eager to take advantage.
"If we don't do it, another state will. That's the reality of the world in which we live," said Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat who is chairman of the Illinois House Revenue Committee.
The Illinois Senate approved the tax breaks Tuesday, but the House rejected them with an overwhelming 8-99 vote. With no hope of a quick resolution, lawmakers ended their brief session and went home until negotiators come up with a new, more palatable version.
Illinois' tax dilemma is a collision between two different goals: Balancing the budget and avoiding the image of a state that's bad for business. And in the process, officials want to avoid being exploited by companies making threats, perhaps empty ones, to flee Illinois.
When 2011 began, the state faced a deficit projected to hit $15 billion. The Democratic governor and Democratic majorities in the Legislature decided an income tax increase had to be part of the response to that gap.
They bumped the individual tax
rate to 5 percent, up from 3 percent originally, and the corporate rate to 7 percent, from 4.8 percent. The increase, most of which is temporary and will expire in stages over the next 15 years, is supposed to generate about $6.8 billion in its first year.
Other states pounced. New Jersey, Indiana, Wisconsin and more began promoting themselves to Illinois businesses. They succeeded in drawing some companies away, despite protestations from Illinois officials that the state still has a low overall tax burden.
In the months since then, the same Democratic governor and Democratic legislators have passed measures to cut business costs for workers' compensation and unemployment insurance costs. Now the package of tax breaks is on the table.
Doug Whitley, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, sees the proposal as acknowledgment that officials went too far with the January tax increase.
"They overreached," Whitley said. "They're trying to bring the pendulum back to a more middle ground and they're trying to send a strong message to employers that elected officials are not oblivious to their outcry."
The tax package would renew a $15 million income tax credit and a break on local property taxes for Sears Holdings Corp.
The proposal also cuts income taxes about $85 million for CME Group Inc. and CBOE Holdings Inc., which run the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The companies complain that they are still taxed on every transaction they handle, as if all business is still conducted by shouting men on trading floors, when most of their trades are now done electronically by buyers and sellers who have no connection to Illinois. The legislation being discussed would tax the exchanges on only 27.54 percent of their revenues.