Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PD BOX 3585
TOPEKA, KS 66601-3585
ansan
Rain likely
Tuesday
November 11, 1997
Section:
A
Vol. 108 . No. 59
Vol. 108·No.59
HIGH LOW 45 30
Online today
Sports today
Take a peek at the University Daily Kansan's web site dedicated to Kansas basketball.
http://www.KUbasketball.com
The Kansas men's basketball team beat Pella Windows 98-79 in the final exhibition of the 100th season.
SEE PAGE 1B
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Au pair verdict sent via Internet
(USPS 650-640)
Message delayed by power failure
By Daniel E. Thompson
dthompson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Louise Woodward, au pair and convicted killer of an 8-month-old boy in Massachusetts, walked out of the courtroom yesterday afternoon while the judge's decision crawled across the Internet.
Judge Hiller Zobel reduced the verdict from second-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. He sentenced Woodward to time served, meaning the nine months she has already spent in jail since the case began was her sentence.
But the remarkable thing about the case was that Zobel's decision was supposed to be released by e-mail at 10 a.m. EDT to 24 Internet news organizations.
That was the intention anyway. A power failure delayed the announcement until approximately 11 a.m. EDT.
The power for the Internet service provider for Zobel's outbound e-mail was cut off just before the message was to be sent, said Elizabeth Lear, manager of technical support for Software Tool and Dye.
"At about 10 o'clock straight up, a breaker blew, taking out a couple of blocks." she said.
It was the second such mishap in this electrified case. When Zobel said last week he would release his opinion first by email, online periodical Lawyer Weekly, http://www.masslaw.com, which was scheduled to carry the verdict, was flooded with hits, and the Web site's server
crashed. As of last night, it was still down.
Zobel decided to e-mail the decision to several news organizations.
Lear said Software Tool and Dye, the server through which Zobel sent his decision and the oldest Internet provider in the United States, waited 15 minutes after the power resumed at 10:35 a.m. EDT to make the power supply was stable.
They were back on-line at 10:50 a.m. EDT. David Gottlieb, professor of law at the University of Kansas, said he was not waiting by a computer to get the first glimpse of the decision, but he liked Zobel's cyber-savy decision.
"One of my students printed it out and gave it to me before class," he said.
"I'm completely in favor of him doing it." Gottlieb said. "Judges are supposed to speak through their opinions. It's much more effective than Geraldo or some other means. It's a way to disseminate it to the
Au pair-related web sites
The judges ruling:
www.mnsbc.com/news/judgeruling.html
www.cnn.com
News stories:
www.mnsbc.com/news/119716.asp
www.cnn.com
news.uk.msn.com - A British news site
Related sites:
www.masscomm.net/nanny
homepages.force9.net/louise/ - A British
support page
largest number of people directly. Probably more people have read his opinion than any other opinion of a lower court."
Forever your squirrel
Some campus creatures are getting a helping hand
By Corrie Moore
cmoreo@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Secretaries from the Germanic Languages and Literatures department have been squirreling around with some furry creatures who hang out behind Wescoe Hall.
For more than five years, the secretaries have been leaving nuts on the windowsill of their office on the second floor of Wescoe for squirrels to eat.
Montana Huslit, Germanic Languages and Literatures graduate secretary, said the squirrels started appearing on the windowsill after the elm tree between Dole and Haworth halls died and was torn down about five years ago. Many squirrels lost their homes and came looking for new shelter.
rels that feed off the nuts, she said.
"We ended up with bedraggled squirrels sitting on our windows." she said.
During this time of the year, there are not as many squir-
Husilit said that the department went through one bag of roasted nuts every two to four weeks. The secretaries have three or four regular customers that they have come to recognize.
"I think we have less squir-rels than we originally did," she said.
The wooly rodents have been climbing the walls at Wescoe Hall for years. Bob Porter, associate director of physical plant maintenance for Facilities Operations, said that feeding the squirrels caused more of them to come around but that he did not mind people feeding them.
A squirrel snacks on a nut outside the window of the Germanic Languages office on the second floor of Wesco Hall. The secretaries in the office leave nuts on the window ledge for捕 squirrels. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
"I don't see how it could cause any problems." he said.
The species of squirrel found on campus is the eastern grey squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis. They are arboreal, or tree squirrels.
They are highly adapted for tree climbing because they have tough curved claws and are unusually flexible in their ankle joints. Their hind feet can bend back 180 degrees.
They carry nuts in their jaws and bury the nuts close to their nests. Even in the winter, squirrels will venture out in the cold for food.
Squirrels feed heavily on nuts. Their food consumption is highest in the summer or autumn and decreases in the winter.
Porter said that because the squirrels were so fast, it would be a real problem if one were to get loose in the building.
Huslit said that the squirrels would not come to the windowsill and pick up the nuts unless the window was closed.
When the squirrels get really hungry, they sit outside the window with their paws on the glass. Huilt said.
"They've never learned to knock," she said.
"We never try and hold a nut for them," she said.
Medical center lands windfall after auction of Flint Hills
Research gets support from $2 million sale
Jennifer A. Yeoman
jyeoman@kansan.com
Kansan writer
Somewhere in Chase County between Cottonwood Falls and Cassoday lies 5,001 acres of nothing, worth $2,400,800.
rint Hills grassland was auctioned
on Thursday following the wishes of
Opal Lewis,
owner of the land,
who died Sept. 3,
1996.
The University
The university of Kansas Medical School will recieve about 13 percent of the estate after the costs of administration and specific bequests are dealt with. Lewis requested that the money go to the medical center and other research institutions.
Lewis inherited the land from her father A.N. Lewis, a rancher. Lewis' husband and son passed away years ago, leaving her with no heirs. After her son's death, Lewis leased the land.
"She didn't have any direct family left, and there was a group of second heirs that she had made a cash settlement with," said Joe Biggs, auctioneer. "She was pretty adamant about where she wanted money to go. A lot of the money is going for leukemia research. She had a granddaughter who died of leukemia, and she felt very strongly towards it."
The proceeds will be used for research at The University of Kansas, The University of Missouri, The University of Pennsylvania, John Hopkins University, The American Heart Association and the Sloan-Kettering Institute.
Victoria Thomas, general counsel for the University, said that she didn't think that the estate would be settled until late winter or early spring. The University will not receive the money until that time.
Money will also be given to the William Newton Memorial Hospital and Billy Graham Evangelist Association.
The land is the largest amount of prairie land auctioned in 15 years.
"I saw a few larger auctions in the early '80s," Biggs said. "But it's been awhile."
The land was parceled off into six sections. Biggs said.
"There were definite boundaries," he said. "That is the reason that they were sold that way. She would have wanted it sold in smaller tracts because then you can have more buyers. If it had been sold in one piece, there would have been six bidders. This way, there were 15 to 20 bidders.
Winning bids were from the Kruse family of California, National Farms of Texas, and Richard Griffin and Stanley Stout, both of Cottonwood Falls.
Fen-Phen alternative still on some Lawrence shelves
By Sarah Chadwick
by Sarah Chadwick
schadwick@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
The Food and Drug Administration warned last week that the diet drug marketed as the herbal answer to Fen-Phen is not safe and should be taken off the market. Fen-Phen, a popular diet drug, was banned by the agency.
Some Lawrence stores, however, continue to sell the herbal version of the drug.
Herbal Fen-Pen contains ephedra, an amphetamine also known as Ma Huang. Ma Huang has potentially powerful stimulant effects on the nervous system and heart.
The FDA has received more than 800
reports since 1994 of adverse effects associated with the use of products containing this drug. People have reported heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, seizures, insomnia, anxiety, tremors and headaches.
A statement issued by the FDA said the agency regarded any over-the-counter alternative to prescription anti-obesity drugs to be a drug.
Tom Wilcox, a pharmacist at Round Corner drugstore, 801 Massachusetts St., said his store had 10 packages of the pills.
"This is not something I'm promoting. I don't know that there is a shred of evidence that any of this stuff works." Wilcox said.
General Nutrition Center, 520 W. 23rd St.
and Community Mercantile, 901 Mississippi
St., areLawrence stores selling herbal diet pills.
"The Diet Phen is well labeled," said Hal Sears, Community Mercantile retailer. "It tells you what's in it with a warning about the Ma Huang, about raising blood pressure. It's fairly benign. I wouldn't get it if it was dangerous. I kind of screen these things."
Sears said he usually told people which diet products had ephedra and gave them a warning.
"This stuff is not poison or anything," Sears said. "You would have to take a lot of ephedra before it would hurt you. The government is just trying to get rid of anything that had ephedra in it."
Sears said he had been selling herbs for 25
Quiring said he did not think that the drugs actually were effective in weight loss.
"I think a lot of companies are trying to sell their products to capitalize off the baa pub
Many local pharmacies do not carry the diet suppressant because of the possible dangers.
"The herbal Fen-Phen that I'm acquainted with contains a couple of products, St. John's Wort and ephedra," said Lynn Quiring, pharmacist at the Medicine Shoppe, 1807 Massachusetts St. "Ephedra has been shown to cause seizures, heart attack and even death in some doses. In any form, it's not a safe product. If people are using it indiscriminately, it can cause harm."
years. He is not a pharmacist.
- Herbal Fen-Fen contains ephedra, an amphetamine that affects blood pressure.
- It has been reported to cause seizures, strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, tremors, anxiety, nausea, insomnia and headaches.
Some local stores still carry the herbal version of the drug.
Fen-Phen Information
licity of the other Fen-Phen," Quiring said. "There's no correlation between the prescription and this other stuff. I think that's very misleading."
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