THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2008
NEWS
ECONOMY
3A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Donn., left, and the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. listen to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008, during the committee's hearing on the credit market turmoil.
Historic bailout debated
Bernanke and Paulson testify before skeptical congress
BY JEANNINE AVERSA ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Senators dug in their heels Tuesday, pushing back against dire warnings from the government's top economic officials of recession, layoffs and lost homes if Congress doesn't quickly approve the Bush administration's emergency $700 billion financial bailout plan.
Congressional leaders still predicted passage — with significant changes — but Wall Street's nerves were hardly soothed. The Dow Jones industrials sank 161 points and now are off more than 500 this week after initially surging on the bailout announcement last week.
Deepening market trouble was just one piece of the economic havoc that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told senators would ensue if Congress lags in acting on the administration's proposal to rescue tottering financial institutions.
"I share the outrage that people
have," Paulson said. "It's embarrassing to look at this. I think it's embarrassing to the United States of America. There is a lot of blame to go around."
But without the bailout plan, Paulson and Bernanke sketched out
a dire scenario for senators at a contentious daylong hearing: Neither businesses nor consumers would be able to borrow money, and the world's largest economy would grind to a virtual halt.
"I thinks it's embarrassing to the United States of America. There is a lot of blames to go around."
troubled banks and financial institutions. Getting those debts off their books should bolster those companies' balance sheets, making them more inclined to lend and easing one of the biggest choke points in the credit crisis. If the
In public and in private meetings, both Democrats and Republicans said big changes are needed, presaging a difficult road ahead for the measure.
HENRY PAULSON Treasury Secretary
The legislation the administration is promoting would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other rotten assets held by
plan works, it should help lift a major weight off the national economy that is already sputtering.
Democrats were determined to wrest concessions from the administration on
domestic spending and middle-class economic aid. And they said Republicans had to share in the politically tricky task of pushing through a financial bailout six weeks before the elections at a time when millions of everyday Americans are economically strapped.
Gunman kills 10 in Finnish school Police release shooter even after YouTube threat
CRIME
BY MARIUS TURULA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Finnish media identified the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, a 22-year-old student at the school.
There are roughly 1.6 million firearms in private hands in Finland, a nation with deeprooted traditions of hunting in the sub-Arctic wilderness. The country's 650,000 licensed gun owners — about 13 percent of the population of 5.2 million — include hunters, target shooters and gun collectors, and Finland ranks in the top five in civilian gun ownership per capita along with the United States, Yemen, Iraq and Switzerland.
KAUHAJOKI, Finland — A chilling YouTube video with a young man firing a pistol and warning "You will die next" caught the eye of police, who questioned him but then let him go, saying they didn't have enough evidence to take away his weapon.
On Tuesday, he walked into a vocational college, the School of Hospitality, and opened fire, killing 10 people and burning their bodies with firebombs before shooting himself fatally in the head. At least two other people were wounded.
The latest shooting raised questions about whether police could have stopped the bloodshed, and although there was little initial debate about gun control, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said the government may consider restrictions on privately held semiautomatic weapons.
The rampage bore eerie similarities to another school massacre in Finland last year in which an 18-year-old gunman killed eight people and himself. Both gunmen posted violent clips on YouTube prior to the shootings, both were fascinated by the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado, both attacked their own schools and both died after shooting themselves in the head.
which offers courses in catering, tourism, nursing and home economics. Police declined to identify him, saying he did not have a previous criminal record.
Witnesses said panic erupted as the masked gunman, dressed in black and carrying a large bag, entered the school just before 11 a.m., and started firing in a classroom where students were-taking an exam.
"I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol," school janitor Jukka Forssberg told broadcaster YLE. "I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning and one managed to escape out the back
A bout 150 students were inside the school, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki, when the shooting began. Students and teachers were evacuated — fleeing down row boats — a
out the back door."
clips were linked to the shooter. But in one clip posted by a 22-year-old "Mr. Saari," a black-clad man with thinning blond hair fired several shots in rapid succession with a handgun at a shooting range.
The posting was made five days before the shooting and the location was given as Kauhajoki. It included menacing lyrics from a German electro-industrial band Wumpscut: "Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war."
"It's clear that we have to carefully go through what should have been done and if we could have avoided this situation."
The gunman left two handwritten messages at the dormitory saying he had planned the attack since 2002 and that he hated the human race, Neulaniemi said.
Jari Neulaniemi, the officer heading the investigation, said the attacker was armed with a .22-caliber pistol and firebombs that were used to start several fires. Many of the bodies in the school were burned beyond recognition, he said.
A video clip posted on the Internet by the alleged gunman showed him pointing his gun to the camera and saying "You will die next" before firing four rounds.
"Mr. Saari" also posted at least three other clips of himself firing a handgun in the past three weeks.
Finnish authorities did not confirm exactly what YouTube
evacuated — some reportedly fleeing down a nearby river in row boats — as police arrived.
ANNE HOLMLUND Interior Minister
YLE said he also made postings on Finnish Internet chat rooms, saying he lived alone with his cat and that his interests included shooting, playing drums, heavy metal music and horror movies.
On Monday, police brought in the gunman for questioning about the Internet video. They said they released him because he hadn't broken any laws and was not deemed a threat to others.
Interior Minister Anne Holmlund, who heads the police department, said nothing indicated there had been negligence on the part of the police.
"It's clear that we have to carefully go through what should have been done and if we could have avoided this situation in some way," Holmld said.
Laura Lodenius of the Peace Union of Finland disagreed.
"Police interrogated this man on Monday but did not think they had the legal powers to withdraw his gun license. That really shows that there is something wrong," Lodenius said.
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