wednesday, September 24. 2003
news
the university daily kansan
5A
Kline: Casino defiles historic building
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Two federal agencies failed to enforce laws protecting a national historic site that's being used as a casino by an Native American tribe, Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline said in a lawsuit filed yesterday.
In the lawsuit, the attorney general asked U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson to order the Department of Interior and the National Indian Gaming Commission to suspend gambling at the casino until full compliance of the law has been met. No hearing date was set.
The Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma opened its casino on Aug. 28 in narrow trailers attached to the Scottish Rite Temple in downtown Kansas City, Kan.
It is next to the tribe's historic Huron Cemetery, which was established in the 1840s.
Neither agency would comment on the lawsuit. The Wyandotte tribe referred calls to its
attorney, David McCullough of Oklahoma City, who didn't return phone messages left at his office.
In the lawsuit, Kline said the two agencies didn't enforce provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act as they pertain to modifications or deacements of the landmark.
The tribe wasn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Kline spokeswoman Whitney Watson said that was because "the two federal agencies are the ones charged with the oversight of the tribe and in federal court they are the ones you sue."
Kline said the temple is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The lawsuit said the tribe "has engaged in conducting certain demolition, modification and/or alternation to the interior" since taking possession of the temple.
The state doesn't know the
extent of the changes because the tribe has refused to allow state inspectors to check the premises. Kline said in the suit.
He also said the two agencies didn't conduct required evaluations of potential adverse impact nor did the state have a chance to provide any input.
The state is currently appealing the agency's decision in the federal court.
The casino offers about 150 bingo games, "pull tab" games and a variety of electronic pull tab devices that look and play like slot machines.
The Interior Department in June ruled the tribe's downtown land was eligible for federally licensed Class II gambling activities, which allows such games.
In 1996, the Wyandotte Nation asked the Interior Department take the property in trust for the tribe, which it did.
The tribe for years had threatened to open downtown casino as leverage to force approval of
its preferred plan for a larger scale casino and resort at The Woodlands racetrack in Edwardsville or near Kansas Speedway in western Wyandotte County.
Four tribes, the Prairie Band Potawatomi, the Sac and Fox, the Kickapoo and the Iowa, each operate casinos with slot machines on their reservations in northeastern Kansas.
The Legislature consistently has denied the Wyandotte Nation's requests, while the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., have supported the tribe's effort.
The Kickapoo and the Sac and Fox Nation also have proposed building a tribal casino about one mile west of the speedway.
But that support began to erode last October when the tribe, citing treaties from the 1850s, filed a federal claim to nearly 2,000 acres of industrial land in Kansas City, Kan.
ALUMNI: Association to aid African-American graduates, students
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
graduates' participation at similar universities. Kansas State and the University of Missouri have minority alumni associations. Minority involvement remains similar to overall involvement at both universities, Williams said. Minority alumni involvement at the other universities is comparable to the University.
Of Kansas's 98,209 graduates from 1982-2003, 11.8 percent are members of the Alumni Association.
In the same time period, KU has graduated 2,262 AfricanAmerican students. One hundred ninety-two, or 8.5 percent of the University's AfricanAmerican graduates during that time period are members of the University's Alumni Association.
Hispanic graduates, with 159 Alumni Association members, have a higher involvement by percentage. Of the 1,344 degree
holders, 11.8 percent are members. These figures are in line with overall totals, Williams said.
"There is no evidence that sponsoring minority group activities results in greater membership participation," Williams said.
Furthermore the University Institutional Advancement Policy recognizes only one alumni association.
"To form specifically separate groups would be against our mission." Williams said.
But Banks said the alumni group was not a separatist idea.
"We want to supplement what they're doing—we know we can reach an audience that they aren't reaching." Banks said.
Banks said when he was at the University, the African-American Alumni group sponsored career fairs and had mentor programs, which benefited students. Because of the boost provided by the African-American Alumni group, Banks said
"I remember very vividly that they gave me confidence that I can succeed and do well," Banks said. "Because of that, I've always wanted to get involved in helping black students."
he was encouraged to continue his education at UCLA and work in big business. He now works as a Bank of America executive.
came in 1983 there has been at least one minority person on the board. He also said the confusion of having multiple alumni associations has already led to problems.
In the Jan. 12, 1990 Alumni board minutes Jackson was recorded as saying the Black Alumni committee was no longer necessary and could work with the Alumni Association.
Williams said he knew the group Banks spoke of but it wasn't a separate Alumni Association. And Williams said Elmer Jackson, an African American on the Alumni board, dissolved the group.
Williams said minority support was a key component in a thriving University Alumni Association and that since he
A woman called yesterday morning to ask if she had to pay dues to both associations, Williams said. Situations such as this highlight the problems having two organizations would create. Williams said.
Banks said the group would continue to exist regardless of Williams' concerns.
"I think lack of diversity is a big disservice to all students," Banks said. "If you haven't worked with people of other backgrounds, preconceived notions will hurt you in the work force."
He wants to continue the group in the hope that it will increase diversity.
"My passion is to get KU to a better place," Banks said.
Edited by Jonathan Reeder
Testimony heard in child's murder
OLATHE — Siblings of a 9-year-old boy who suffocated while wrapped mummy-style in duct tape described for a jury how they, too, were sometimes tied up overnight for stealing food and water.
Brian's siblings — a 9-year-old girl and two boys, ages 12 and 16 initially denied to investigators in December that their adoptive parents had disciplined them physically.
Brian Edgar was already dead when his adoptive father, Neil Edgar, brought him from the family's rented Overland Park home to University of Kansas Medical Center early on Dec. 30, 2002. He had vomited while a sock was stuffed in his mouth, witnesses testified last week.
In later statements to detectives that were played for journs Monday, the 12-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl said they were tied up, but both said they did not think there was anything wrong with being disciplined that way.
Neil Edgar, 47, and family baby sister Chasity Boyd, 20, are being tried in Johnson County District Court on one count each of first-degree murder and two counts each of felony child abuse. Edgar's wife, Christy Edgar, pleaded guilty before testimony began last Thursday to first-degree murder and child abuse.
"I learned my lesson," the 12-year-old said about being punished.
He said it happened to him only once, but his little sister described it as an almost nightly occurrence.
Witnesses yesterday included Chauntel Williams, a former member of the small Kansas City, Kan., church founded and run by the Edgar adults. Neil Edgar served as pastor of God's Creation Outreach Ministry, according to Williams and other witnesses, while Christy Edgar was known as the evangelist or the prophet.
Williams, a 50-year-old mother of nine, said church members believed that God spoke to
Christy Edgar and had at one point gave her a new way to discipline children — tying them up.
On the morning of Dec. 30, Williams testified, Boyd and Christy Edgar came to her home with a black plastic trash bag and told her to get rid of it. Williams said she and her husband burned the bag's contents — a one-piece sleeper, some socks and wadded-up duct tape — in their fireplace.
In exchange for Williams' cooperation in the case, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge against her of aiding a felony.
On Monday, the Edgars' 16-year-old adoptive son gave the following account of Brian's final days:
Christy Edgar and Boyd wrapped Brian in duct tape from his feet to his shoulders on Dec. 28. Neil Edgar saw what was going on but did not participate, the older brother said.
The women also placed a sock in Brian's mouth because he was gnawing at the tape. They left him to sleep in a basement utility room.
The next night, after a day at the Kansas City, Kan., church run by the Edgars, Brian again was in trouble, and again Boyd and Christy Edgar wrapped him in duct tape, the older brother said.
They ran out of tape when Brian was wrapped up to just above his waist. Neil and Christy Edgar went to get more, and when they returned the women continued to tape Brian, this time wrapping it completely around his head, leaving only an opening for him to breathe through his nose.
"Now try to get out of this one," the 16-year-old testified one of the women told Brian.
The next morning, Brian was not breathing. Neil Edgar took him to a hospital.
Christy Edgar, Boyd and the other children gathered up the tape and other items that had been used to restrain Brian and took them to another person's house to be destroyed, the 16-year-old said.
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