* THE UNIVERSITY OF HAIRY KANSAN
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15 2008
NEWS
3A
RAILWAY TRAGEDY
Investigating cause of fatal train collision
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Los Angeles firefighters hand a victim from train car to waiting Los Angeles Police officers at the scene of a train accident in Los Angeles on Friday A Metrolink commuter train believed to be carrying up to 350 people collided with a freight train, killing 25 people and injuring 135.
Officials deny rumors of text-messaging by conductor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Federal investigators on Sunday combed railroad tracks and crushed wreckage looking for evidence to explain the nation's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years and made plans to interview dispatchers.
At the same time, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman played down a report
that the engineer of the Metrolink commuter train had sent a text message shortly before Friday's accident, in which 25 people were killed and 135 were injured.
The train slammed into an oncoming
the tracks in an early morning fog, while others snapped pictures and climbed inside the wrecked shell of the front passenger car.
"All you can do is go home and hug your wife and kids, I guess. These people were regular working people like you and I."
Union Pacific freight engine on the same track at 40 mph.
Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell had said the commuter train's engineer was at fault because he failed to stop at a red light on the tracks — but NTSB members cautioned that they had not completed their investigation.
Williams said he couldn't confirm reports that the engineer was text messaging shortly before the crash, but said investigators would consider that.
Eleven NTSB investigators were working on the accident, said agency spokesman Terry Williams.
Men wearing green and orange safety vests walked up and down
"We're going to look into that, anything that can help us find the cause of this accident," he said.
MARC ECKSTEIN Medical Director
Dr. Marc Eckstein, medical director for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said survivors' injuries included partially severed limbs and legs flayed to the bone. At least two survivors had to be extricated from
underneath dead bodies and six victims were discovered under the train Saturday, he said.
"There were bodies cut in half, and I could see torsos sticking out. It was pretty horrific." Eckstein said. "The bodies were entwined with the wreckage."
Eckstein said all rescue personnel were required to check in with a staff psychologist before leaving the scene — but many, including himself, preferred to deal privately with what they saw.
"All you can do is go home and hug your wife and kids, I guess," he said. "These people were regular working people like you and I and headed home looking forward to a weekend with their families — and they're dead in an instant."
Rescue crews recovered two data recorders Saturday from the Metrolink train and one data recorder and one video recorder from the freight train. The video has pictures from forward-looking cameras and the data recorders have information on speed, braking patterns and whether the horn was used.
Families of victims struggled with their loss after the coroner's office released a partial list of the names of the dead. Among them was a Los Angeles police officer and a city employee who was believed to work in the general services office, said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Spree Desha, 35, had worked for the police department for seven years and spent much of her career training new officers. She had been honored 34 times for performance and professional qualities.
"She sat in the first train (car) as a matter of practice, in uniform, so if someone came on the train and made trouble, she was ready to help out," Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said. "That was just the way she did business."
DIFFICULT DIALOGUES: RACE, EDUCATION & AMERICAN POLITICS
Will Race Survive in the US? The Possibilities & Impossibilities of the Obama Phenomenon
Upgrades needed at Sudler for new group to move in
BY KAYLA REGAN editor@kansan.com
David Roediger University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sept. 15 | The Commons at Spooner Hall | 3:30-5:00 p.m.
$300,000 for building to meet disability standards
RENOVATIONS
David Roediger's lecture is based on his forthcoming How Race Survived United States History (Verso). The lecture sets the historic presidential candidacy of Barack Obama within longer patterns of white supremacy in the U.S. past. Roediger's recent books include Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Become White and Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past.
the Kade Center the next likely candidate to use the building if KPR were unable to pay.
KU HALL CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES The University of Kansas
This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. 785-864-4798 * hallcenter@ku.edu www.hallcenter.ku.edu
When KJHK leaves the Sudler House in Fall 2009, its neighbors could be able to use the building's space — as long as they can pay the building's tab.
The Kansas Audio Reader Network, which provides news for people with visual impairments and is broadcast by Kansas Public Radio, operates out of the Sudler Annex, a few yards away from the Sudler House. The network would use the building to help sort and store auction items like compact discs and cassette tapes for its annual sale — "For Your Ears Only" — as well as for
facilities operations. KPR's use of the building depends on whether the station can pay to restore the building to the Americans with Disability Act's compliance codes.
The Kade Center operates in a building a couple of feet away from the Sudler House. The two properties were built together in 1929, with the Sudler House serving as a stable for horses. The center plans to restore the Sudler House to its original state as a companion building.
These plans depend on the Kade Center's ability to afford them. For now though, Steeples said, "Until they've (Kade Center) got several thousand dollars to update it, it's going to Audio Reader."
"It will take a lot of money to get it up to code if it were to become a public building," he said.
Don Steeples, senior vice provost, who is kept informed on the status of the Sudler House, named
The renovations would cost an estimated $300,000. They include installing fire sprinklers, railings and possibly an elevator.
Tom Johnson, KJHK general manager and faculty advisor, said the building still had a way to go before it would meet standards.
— Edited by Adam Mowder
Petraeus weighs redirecting troops
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD—U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that experience in Iraq shows it will take political and economic progress as well as military action to tackle increased violence in Afghanistan.
MIDDLE EAST
"You don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
His comments come as a debate over the need to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan has become a central issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.
Petraeus, who is widely credited with pulling Iraq back from the brink of civil war, is taking over as chief of U.S. Central Command, the headquarters
overseeing U.S. military involvement throughout the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia.
He'll hand over the reins in Iraq to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno Tuesday during a ceremony at the U.S. military headquarters at Camp Victory on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
"We've got a situation in Afghanistan where clearly there have been trends headed in the
Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy,has paid off in Iraq,where the number of attacks has dropped to its lowest point in more than four years. But he will face a new challenge with violence rising in Afghanistan.
It will be a delicate balancing act to tackle a resurgent Taliban enjoying refuge in the lawless border areas of Pakistan without losing ground in Iraq.
The reason for the decline in violence is hotly debated, but the U.S. military cites the troop buildup, along with a Sunni revolt that saw former insurgents turn against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire ordered by a strident American foe Muqtada al-Sadr.
The 55-year-old general assumed control of U.S. forces in Iraq about 19 months ago after President Bush ordered some 30,000 additional American forces to Iraq as part of a so-called surge aimed at stopping spiraling Sunni-shite sectarian violence.
"Political, economic and diplomatic activity is critical to capitalize on gains in the security arena," he said.
wrong direction," Petraeus said. "Military action is absolutely necessary but it is not sufficient."