thursday,november 20,2003
the university daily kansan 7A
news
Jackson faces molestation charges
The Associated Press
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. Authorities issued a warrant for Michael Jackson's arrest on charges of molesting a child and asked the pop superstar yesterday to turn himself in and surrender his passport.
The 45-year-old King of Pop was accused of multiple counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14. A decade ago, Jackson was also accused of molestation but was never charged because the youngster refused to testify.
District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon Jr. would not say when or where the alleged crimes took place or how old the youngster was. He said an affidavit outlining the details would be sealed for 45 days.
On Tuesday, as many as 70 law enforcement officers spent 12 hours searching the Neverland Ranch for corroborating evidence. The $12.3 million ranch has a mansion and its own zoo and amusement park.
Each of the sex charges is punishable by three to eight years in prison. Sneeddon would not say how many counts Jackson faces.
Bail would be set at $3 million, authorities said.
Sheriff Jim Anderson said authorities had been in contact with Jackson's lawyers and the singer had been given the chance to surrender "within a specified period of time." Anderson refused to say how long that would be.
The announcement of the arrest came at an often-jovial news conference with Anderson and Sneddon. The prosecutor looked sheepish after gesturing so forcefully that he knocked over a news organization's microphone. At another point, he ridiculed a suggestion from Jackson that the allegations were timed to coincide with the release of his latest album.
"Like the sheriff and I are really into that kind of music," Sneddon said.
The district attorney said the investigation had been under way for a while, and the timing was unrelated to Jackson's new album, Number Ones.
His last studio album, Innincible, sold about 2 million copies in the United States—great for most artists, especially veteran stars, but only so-so for the man who bills himself as the King of Pop.
Blackout was preventable
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The nation's worst blackout should have been contained by operators at Ohio's First Energy Corp., a three-month U.S. and Canadian investigation concluded yesterday. The investigators also faulted Midwest regional monitors.
In their report, they said the company's operators were inadequately trained and computer problems in its Akron, Ohio, control room kept them from recognizing immediately that problems on three lines were causing the Midwest grid to become unstable.
"This blackout was largely preventable," said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham at a news conference as he and his Canadian counterpart, Herb Dahliwal, released a 134-page report on the blackout, which left 50 million people in eight states and Canada in the dark last August.
The report also faulted Midwest grid monitors who should have been able to observe the failure of three First Energy, high voltage lines in northern Ohio.
The monitors also should have helped the utility company respond to the problem and head off the outages that engulfed a region from eastern Michigan to New York City in seven minutes, the report said.
It said the regional group, working out of a control center in Indiana, lacked the tools and capability to monitor the grid and analyze what was happening in the hour before the blackout hit Aug. 14.
Sebelius: Marriage law stays, for now
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius would not say yesterday whether she supported or opposed gay marriage, only that she did not think a Massachusetts court's ruling on the issue would lead to a repeal of Kansas' ban anytime soon.
Massachusetts' highest court on Tuesday ordered legislators in that state to replace within 180 days that state's same-sex marriage ban with a policy permitting gay couples to wed. In 1996, Kansas legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill reinforcing a
long-standing policy of recognizing only unions of one man and one woman.
"The Kansas Legislature has taken a pretty strong (stance) in terms of the definition of marriage," Sebellius said. "I don't that's going to change any time soon."
Attorney General Phill Kline, who voted for the same-sex marriage ban as a Kansas House member, said Tuesday that legislatures, not courts, should decide such issues.
U. S. Sen. Sam Brownback criticized the Massachusetts ruling, saying "Protecting marriage is
essential to the long-term health of our families and culture."
Asked for her opinion, Sebelius said she had not read the Massachusetts court ruling, adding, "It clearly is not applicable in Kansas."
Pressed further about her own views on same-sex marriages, she said, "Well, I need to read the case. I don't really even understand quite what the facts were or what they took a look at. I think that the Kansas Legislature overwhelmingly set the framework for the law in Kansas, and as I say, I don't see that changing anytime soon."
Nation New movies at home could be reality in 2005
WASHINGTON—Americans could be watching newly released movies via the Internet as soon as mid-2005 as the industry speeds development of a secure delivery system, Hollywood's chief lobbyist said yesterday.
"Maybe by this time next year we'll be able to have the beginnings of some really sturdy, protective clothing to put about these movies," Motion Pictures Association of America chief executive Jack Valenti said.
Valenti said he would like to see movies go straight from the big screen to the Internet, where customers could download or view them on demand well before DVDs and videos reach the store shelves.
Fighting piracy is putting its financial health at risk, Hollywood is working with high-tech experts,including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and university experts, to develop a secure system for delivering movies, he said.
Valenti said the industry has no current plans to sue pirates, but isn't ruling it out because surveys show music piracy is being taken more seriously.
—The Associated Press
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