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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10.2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
CULTURE
The world most likely won't end this Friday
BREANNA MCCARTHY editor@kansan.com
The world will still be around Saturday, John Hoopes, professor of anthropology, said.
...
Hoopes is aMayan scholar and uses research to separate fact from fiction on the Mayan calendar, as some have predicted the world will end this Friday, Nov. 11.
Hoopes said there's many end-of-the-world theories, but the craziest he said he's heard involve extraterrestrials.
"The 11-11-11 thing has come up as a result of people who are following those others and just happen to notice those dates," Hoopes said. "I think people may associate 11's with disasters because of Sept. 11."
"There are some people — in fact, Eric Von Daniken, who's famous for his 'Chariots of the gods' and was one of the originators of ancient alien theories — says that 2012 is when the ETs return," he said.
Whether there's an apocalypse or not, students said they have an idea as to what they'd like to be doing when the world ends.
"I'd be getting wasted, probably to be honest with you," said C.J. Slaughter, a sophomore from Kansas City, Kan. "I just don't believe it at all. There's no reason for the world to end on Friday."
Tulum in Quintana Roo, Mexico, was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Mayans. The Mayan calendar ends after Dec. 21, 2012, leading many people to believe that will be the day the world ends.
MIKE GUNNOE/KANSAN
— Edited by Jonathan Shorman
CAMPUS
Mistake in Malott alarm forces students to leave
Sonam Bhakta, a sophomore from Wichita, was watching iodide and sodium solutions mix in her organic chemistry lab when white lights started flashing and a booming intercom ordered evacuation from Malott Hall.
Students and professors left their classes and evacuated Malott yesterday afternoon about 1:20 p.m. and were told by the intercom to grab their belongings.
"I was kind of clueless," she said.
The cause was not a test, but a mistake within the alarm system. A group of facility workers were soldering ventilation coils together on an upper floor in Malott. A facility worker said that smoke is expected with this specific job.
A small amount of smoke reached a fire alarm zone that was supposed to be disarmed and set off the alarm. The facility worker said that he had never before experienced this kind of alarm malfunction on the University's campus.
"We thought that zone was disarmed," he said. "It was not. When the alarm went off, I knew exactly what happened."
Max Rothman
Charge dismissed against Planned Parenthood
STATE
I ASSOCIATED PRESS
A judge Wednesday dismissed the most serious charges against a Kansas City-area Planned Parenthood clinic accused of falsifying records and failing to follow abortion law after a prosecutor revealed that state officials had destroyed key evidence.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe told the judge he had no choice but to ask that 49 of 107 charges against the clinic be dismissed because documents central to the case were destroyed.
Meanwhile, authorities in the state capital of Topeka, at the request of Attorney General Derek Schmidt, plan to investigate the records shredding to determine if any laws were broken. The documents were reports on individual abortions performed in 2003, filed by Planned Parenthood's clinic in Overland Park with the state health department, as required by law, and copies held by the attorney general's office under Schmidt's predecessors.
District Judge Stephen Tatum dismissed 23 felony counts of falsifying such reports, as well as 26 misdemeanor charges that the clinic had failed to maintain its own copies, as required by law. Prosecutors wanted to compare in court copies of the documents the state had with those Planned Parenthood produced later when the clinic was under investigation. Prosecutors allege the documents didn't match, suggesting the clinic didn't keep proper records and created false ones when compelled to produce them.
Fifty-eight misdemeanor charges remain, accusing the clinic of performing illegal abortions and failing to follow a state law restricting lateterm abortions.
The case stems from an investigation by Phill Kline, a Republican abortion opponent, focusing on abortion clinic: when he was Kansas attorney general and later as Johnson County district attorney.
A Planned Parenthood attorney said the charges always were baseless and blamed the problem with
the records on Kline, who filed the criminal case in 2007.
Howe disclosed last month that the health department had shredded its copies of the reports in 2005, in what Planned Parenthood described as a routine destruction of documents. Howe said in court Wednesday that the attorney general's office, under Democrat Steve Six, also destroyed its copies in April 2009 — 18 months after the criminal charges were filed in Johnson County.
The district attorney said his office has partial copies of the same records, but they haven't been declared authentic in the court record, and he can't establish a proper chain of custody.
"The legal hurdles are insurmountable." Howe told Tatum.
The dismissed charges alleged that Planned Parenthood had failed to maintain its copies of the reports, then produced falsified versions when compelled to do so in 2006 by a judge during an ongoing investigation of abortion providers by the
attorney general's office.
Planned Parenthood attorney Pedro Irigonegaray said in court that the clinic's set of reports didn't match the health department's set exactly because clinic employees made hand copies, not photocopies. The information contained in each set was the same, he said.
The health department shredded its copies during the administration of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat who supports abortion rights and who later became U.S. secretary of health and human services.
Shawnee County Sheriff Richard Barta confirmed he is investigating the records destruction at the request of Schmidt, a Republican who defeated Six last year.
Six did not return telephone messages to the Kansas City, Mo., law office where he is a partner.
Schmidt declined to comment but wrote in a letter to Barta that without an investigation, he couldn't determine whether the attorney general's office under Six had followed state law or its own records-destruction policies in shredding its copies of the abortion reports.
Irigonegaray blamed the "legal fiasco" that led to the dismissal of the charges on Kline. The attorney general's office under Kline had obtained copies of the full reports from the health department in 2004, Irigonegaray said, but the agency never declared their authenticity — and now can't with its set destroyed.
Kline, who was attorney general from 2003 to 2007, lost his bid for re-election in 2006 and served as Johnson County district attorney from 2007 to 2009.
Kline said in a telephone interview that the criminal case "was defeated" by the actions of others, including Sebelius and Democrats who succeeded him as attorney general.
"We did what we were supposed to do." he said.
A hearing on the remaining charges against Planned Parenthood is set for February.
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POLITICS
Businessman Herman Cain says Italy is "beyond the point of no return," and the U.S. needs to revitalize its economy.
Romney says there will be an effort to draw the U.S. in, but the nation needs to focus on getting its own economy going. He also ruled out federal help for U.S. banks that hold Italian debt.
Republican presidential hopefuls were asked if the United States should join in a bailout of Italy. Europe's third-largest economy is dealing with massive government debt.
Republican Mitt Romney says if the U.S. does not get serious about reducing its spending and dealing with its debt, it will be in the same position as Italy.
Associated Press
Romney does not want involvement in bailout
Perry forgets agency name he wants to cut
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry says he would eliminate three federal agencies. Just don't ask him to name them.
The Texas governor on Wednesday night struggled during a debate with his rivals and said he would nix the Commerce and Education departments. He drew a blank when the moderator asked what the third agency would be. Perry previously has called on the elimination of the Energy Department.
Perry is only saying "oops" for drawing a blank on a favorite subject of criticism on the campaign trail. His advisers are considering skipping four future debates.
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Associated Press
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