2A
News in Brief
Friday August 29,1997
NEWS FROM CAMPUS, AROUND THE NATION AND THE WORLD
Passing student sees motorist's lewd actions
A man exposed himself to a KU student at 9 a.m. Monday in the 1000 block of Avalon Road, Lawrence police said.
The woman was walking on Avalon when a gray, '80s model Plymouth Reliant pulled up to the curb. When she looked into the car, the student saw the man masturbating in the front seat.
The woman said she had been wary of the vehicle because it had passed her several times before it stopped.
The man was described as a 20-to-30-year-old cascusian male with dark hair and a goatee. He was wearing a white shirt.
Kansan staff report
State
State Two children found dead in basement refrigerator
WICHIAM — James Krug remembers the 6-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister riding their bicycles or offering neighbors a chance to hold their puppy.
Shortly after 4 a.m. yesterday morning, police officers found the two children dead in an old refrigerator in the basement of their home, said Wichita Police Lt. Landwehr. Police were not releasing their names.
There were no signs of trauma on the bodies, but police did not know if the deaths were accidental or homicides, Landwehr said. Autopsies were being performed, and investigators were treating the deaths as suspicious.
A family member called police about 3:30 a.m. to report the children missing. They were last seen Wednesday evening, Landwehr said.
Landwehr said he thought it was the mother who called police, but was not sure.
He said the children lived in the house with their mother, a 10-month-old child, their grandfather, an uncle and another man, described by police as their mother's husband or boyfriend.
The refrigerator, in the basement of the home, was plugged in and appeared to be functioning. It was not being used as the main refrigerator, but Landwehr did not know if there was anything else in it.
Police drove away with the white Philo refrigerator strapped in the back of a police truck shortly after 11 a.m. An empty, inflatable swimming pool; a bicycle; balls; and a swing set littered the front yard of the house where the children lived.
Claud Hardrick, 68, who lives next door, said he woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of wailing and crying.
"Somebody over there was squawking and raising the roof," he said. He looked outside, but couldn't see anything.
While he was watering his lawn later in the morning, a policeman told him what had happened. There were police cars and
ambulances parked in front of the house. "I knew it had to be something terrible for all the commotion," he said.
National Affirmative action ban becomes law in California
SAN FRANCISCO — After nearly a year of legal challenges, California's affirmative action ban became westerday—the 34th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Thousands of the law's opponents streamed across the Golden Gate Bridge in protest of California becoming the first state in the nation to eliminate race and gender considerations in everything from hiring to education.
California voters passed the measure, Proposition 209, last November by a 54 percent margin, but the ban has been tied up in the courts since. The American Civil Liberties Union and other opponents tried to have it struck down, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused Tuesday to block implementation while it is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
King's famous speech in Washington in 1963 was on the marchers' minds as they trooped across the bridge, four and five abreast on a pedestrian sidewalk, chanting and singing "We Shall Overcome." The protest, followed by a rally, was peaceful and traffic was not disrupted.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who organized the march, urged Proposition 209 opponents to continue fighting.
Michael Brown admits guilt of election-law violation
WASHINGTON — The son of the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown pleaded guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor election-law violation, admitting he gave $4,000 to friends to donate to a Senate campaign.
The admission by Michael A. Brown was part of a deal with the task force set up by the Justice Department to investigate campaign fund-raising abuses. Brown's was the third plea obtained by the task force.
Brown, 32, admitted in federal court to giving an unlawfully excessive donation to the 1994 re-election campaign of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Prosecutors agreed not to recommend any prison term for Brown, who could be sentenced to up to a year and fined as much as $100,000. Sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 21.
As part of the deal, Brown agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation of fund-raising abuses and of Nolanda Hill, a former business partner of Ron Brown, prosecutor Raymond N. Hulser told reporters.
Hill's dealings with Ron Brown had been scrutinized by an independent counsel appointed to investigate the former commerce secretary. The Hill investigation was referred to the Justice Department
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Brown's plea bargain does not suggest political favoritism because this has been the practice in the past by the Justice Department.
last year after Ron Brown and others on a U.S. trade mission died in a plane crash in Croatia.
But Congress may want to reassess the penalties and the Justice Department guidelines to determine if stifter sanctions are warranted, he said.
Economic worries continue as growth remains steady
WASHINGTON — Spring and early summer were supposed to provide the damper on inflation that would help the good times last. But a sharply revised report yesterday put economic growth at a robust 3.6 percent, raising worries that mild price increases may accelerate.
The Commerce Department's latest second-quarter estimate of the gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced within the United States, contrasts with the sedate 2.2 percent rate reported a month ago.
The largest such revision in 31/2 years, it substantially wiped out what analysts had viewed as a welcome respite from the rapid 4.9 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year.
"Here we thought we were pausing and we weren't. We were doing better than we thought," said economist Robert G. Dederick of Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.
Separately, the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by a larger-than-expected 16,000 to 232,000.
Jittery Wall Street traders dumped stocks, pushing the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks down 129 points in the morning. The average recovered and was up as much as 25 points but then faltered, closing down 92.90 at 7,694.43.
After last month's GDP report, the stock market soared to a record 8,259.31 on Aug. 6. Traders believed the apparent slowdown meant Federal Reserve policy-makers had no reason to quell inflationary pressures by raising interest rates to engineer still-slower growth.
But since then, worries about future inflation have sent stocks on a roller-coaster ride and the market's value, as measured by the Dow average, has dropped nearly 7 percent over the past three weeks.
At least so far though, inflation isn't a problem. A price measure tied to GDP rose at a scant 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the mildest in five years.
ATLANTA — The suicide rate in the West was higher than in any other region between 1990 and 1994, and government researchers aren't sure why.
Suicides more common in Western states, CDC says
The 13-state Western region had 38,709 suicides during that period, a rate of about 14.1 suicides per 100,000 people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The rate was lowest in the nine-state Northeast, at 9.3 per 100,000.
In the South, encompassing 16 states and the District of Columbia, the rate was 13.1. In the 12-state Midwest, it was 11.4.
Researchers aren't sure if unemployment and isolation are more prevalent in the West, said Dr. Alex Crosby, a CDC medical epidemiologist.
"It's possible they may be factors," he said. "If we can answer some of the questions about why the West is high, that might help us look at the problems in other areas."
Because suicide rates are generally higher for men, the elderly and certain ethnic groups, the agency adjusted the rates to reflect the population makeup of each region. Even then, the Western rate was 71 percent higher than that of the Northeast.
The South's rate remained at 13.1, and the rate for the Midwest fell slightly to 10.9.
International Stone-throwing Serbs greet NATO-led troops in Bosnia
TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — NATO-led troops took up positions in at least two towns early yesterday to prevent violence between Serb factions, but drew an angry response from stone-throwing civilians, witnesses and officials said.
The peace force, in a statement, said it moved to "deter the outbreak of violence" after receiving indications that forces loyal to Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavic would try to take control of police stations and the media in Serb-held areas of northern Bosnia.
Plavsic is locked in a power struggle with officials loyal to war crimes suspec Radovan Karadzic.
While NATO troops already have taken action against police loyal to Plavic in her northern power base of Banja Luka, international officials strongly support her drive to isolate Karadzic.
The NATO statement said that both regular police and the better-equipped special police were reported to be carrying unauthorized long-barrel weapons.
NATO said its troops — which included Americans — were positioning themselves to prevent violence, were conducting reconnaissance, and were supporting U.N. police whose job it is to monitor local police units.
However, they met an angry reception. Ljuba Maratovic, director of the proKaradzic radio station in Brcko, said soldiers of the NATO-led peace force equipped with armored vehicles, most of them Americans, arrived at the main Brcko police station during the night.
He said in a telephone interview that local officials and citizens prevented them from entering, and that the soldiers had to withdraw. However, they remained in the town.
Eyewitnesses said stones were thrown at NATO vehicles, and that they heard
shots fired — but it was unclear by whom or whether anyone was injured.
The local radio station appealed for citizens to come and defend the city. Sirens wailed in the streets.
Brcko residents said that the local police chief, Andria Mileovic, recently had switched sides in the power struggle and now was supporting Plavic.
The Associated Press
Other witnesses reported a heavy presence of the peace force near Bjeljina, in the northeast corner of Bosnia near the border with Serb-led Yugoslavia.
Corrections
A photo about a Lawrence film incorrectly credited the photograph as contributed art. The photographer was actually Judi Lacefield, a Lawrence resident.
A story on Watkins Health Center said that to make appointments students should call Watkins at 864-9055. That number was incorrect. The correct number to call is 864-9500.
On the Record
A KU student's orange Cannondale F-900 mountain bike was stolen between 5 p.m.
Aug. 18 and 8 a.m. Aug. 19, from the 700 block of Michigan Street, Lawrence police said. The bicycle was valued at $1,210.
A KU student's radial tire was damaged between 11:30 p.m. Aug. 19 and 7:30 a.m. Aug. 20, in the 1700 block of Louisiana Street, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated at $80.
A KU student's Hastings gift certificates were stolen between 10 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m. Monday, from the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Street, Lawrence police said. The items were valued at $30.
A KU student's car rear window and console were damaged between 1:30 and 11 a.m. Monday, in the 600 block of Alabama Street. Lawrence police said
A KU student's Cannon 35 mm camera and $4 in quarters were stolen between 2 and 10 a.m. Monday, from the 1100 block of Mississippi Street, Lawrence police said.
A KU student's left rear passenger door was damaged between 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Monday, in the 1600 block of High Drive. Lawrence police said.
A KU student's convertible car top was damaged between 6 p.m. Aug. 21 and 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, KU police said. The damage was estimated at $200.
A KU student's black leather wallet, containing $14, a Kansas driver's license and other items, were stolen between 5:25 and 5:30 p.m. Monday from Robinson Gymnastium, KU police said. The wallet and other items were valued at $50.
A KU student's red parking permit was stolen between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tuesday, from lot 201, KU police said. The permit was valued at $95.
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