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News in Brief
Friday August 22,1997
NEWS FROM AROUND THE NATION AND WORLD
On Campus has new home in Classifieds
On the Record
On Campus announcements have been moved to the classified section. Clubs and organizations interested in having information published in the paper may place ads at the Kansan business office in 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
A KU student's gray vinyl checkbook and personnel checks were stolen at 3 p.m. Aug. 16 from the 3300 block of Iowa, Lawrence police said.
A KU student's wallet and checkbook were stolen at 4 p.m. Aug. 19 from the 2700 block of Iowa, Lawrence police said. The wallet and checkbook were valued at $50.
The rear window of a KU student's 1987 Volkswagen Jetta was damaged at 12:30 a.m. Aug. 20 in the 1100 block of Louisiana Street, Lawrence police said. The damage was valued at $500.
A KU student's 1996 gray "Ground Control" Specialized mountain bicycle with front and rear shocks was stolen between 4 p.m. Aug. 19 and 10:15 a.m. Aug. 20 from the McColum Hall bicycle rack, KU police said. The bicycle was valued at $600.
STATE
Shroud of morning fog leads to deadly accident
CONWAY SPRINGS, Kan. — Clutching a set of beads and likely saying the rosary with some of her closest friends, Norma Jean Halsey was on a somber journey to a funeral in southeast Kansas.
But the group never made it. Amid
hard early-morning thick early-morning turned into the path of women's Chevy Suburban at the inter-Wichita
section of Kansas Highway 93 and highway 96 Wednesday, killing Halsey and two others just north of Fredonia.
A carload of priests, also on their way to the funeral, came upon the wreckage a few minutes after the crash. The priests were able to administer last rites to the victims, said the Rev. David Linnebur.
Halsey, 61, and Marcelline Weber, 72, both of Conway Springs, and Dora Devlin, 70, of Viola, died at the scene. The driver and four other passengers were taken to hospitals in Wichita and Joplin, Mo., the Kansas Highway Patrol said. Three were listed in critical condition yesterday in Wichita.
"My mother was found with rosary beads wrapped around her hand," said Tammy Porter, as she held her mother's worn pink beads in an HCA Wesley Medical Center hospital lounge.
Ms. Porter said the group was more than likely saying the rosary on their way to the funeral in Pittsburg, where services were being held for the mother of their former priest, the Rev. Robert Wachter.
Linnebur, the new pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church, left the funeral Mass at Pittsburg to go to Fredonia and identify the bodies. Just six weeks into his new position, Father Linnebur had the job of notifying parishioners about the deaths.
News of the wreck spread through Conway Springs and Viola shortly
after noon Wednesday, via the parish prayer line and in chats at the General Store.
NATIONAL
FBI agent faces charges after Ruby Ridge shooting
BONNER'S FERRY, Idaho — An FBI sharpshooter who killed the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver in the 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge was charged with manslaughter yesterday. A friend of Weaver's was charged with killing a federal marshal.
Boundary County Prosecutor Denise Woodbury filed the state charges after a two-year federal investigation ended last week with no charges being brought against the FBI sniper, Lon Horiuchi, or several high-ranking FBI officials.
FBI Director Louis Freeh said he was "deeply disappointed" by Woodbury's action. He said the FBI would do everything it could to defend Horiuchi.
The 13-year FBI veteran is "profoundly distressed and troubled" by the charge, said his attorney, Adam S. Hoffinger. Manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Kevin Harris, a friend of the Weaver family, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan, who was killed with Weaver's 15-year-old son, Samuel, in the shootout that sparked the 11-day siege at the remote mountain cabin.
The standoff at the Weavers' home near
Weaver and Harris were tried in federal court in 1993 on a myriad of charges, including murder and conspiracy. They were found not guilty of the more serious charges, although Weaver was convicted of failing to appear for trial on the firearms charge.
Naples began after federal agents tried to arrest Randy Weaver for failing to appear in court to face charges of selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns.
Harris, who now lives in Republic, Wash., is also charged with aggravated assault for allegedly firing at another officer. The murder charge carries a death penalty because a law enforcement officer was killed.
Cigarette maker admits smoking may be killer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The chairman and CEO of Philip Morris Cos said yesterday that cigarettes might have killed 100,000 Americans, the first time an executive with the nation's largest cigarette maker has acknowledged a possible link between smoking and death.
The remark by Geoffrey Bible comes as Congress prepares to consider a $368 billion settlement that would wipe out most lawsuits against the industry.
Bible made the statement toward the end of 90 minutes of questioning by Ron Motley, an attorney for the state of Florida, which is suing the tobacco industry for $12.3 billion for the public cost of smoking-related illnesses.
Florida was the first of 40 states suing the major tobacco companies to bring a case to trial. Attorneys said they plan to prove the industry manufactured a defective product and deceived the public about smoking's dangers.
"I was impressed with the man's candor," said Motley, who on Friday will question Steven F. Goldstone, chairman and chief executive of RJR Nabisco.
Peter Bleakley, who represents Philip Morris and is the lead defense attorney in the Florida lawsuit, played down the significance of Bible's comments, which came as jury selection was ending its third week.
"I thought it was pretty uneventful," he said.
Motley called the comments a major concession. Aside from one industry maverick, Bennett LeBow, no top tobacco executives have conceded unequivocally that a single death has been caused by cigarette smoking.
LeBow, chief of the smallest of the major cigarette makers, Liggett Group, has said that cigarettes kill and are addictive.
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court yesterday reaffirmed its ruling
Affirmative action ban may go to Supreme Court
upholding California's voter-approved ban on race and sex preferences in affirmative action, meaning the law could go into effect within a week.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a request by civil rights groups for a rehearing on Proposition 209 had failed to gain a majority among the 18 judges eligible to vote. No vote total was announced.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Mark Rosenbaum said he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and would ask that court to continue a ban on enforcement of the measure during the appeal, if the appeals court refused to maintain that ban.
If neither court intervenes immediately, Proposition 209 can be implemented in seven days under the court's rules, Rosenbaum said.
He predicted the Supreme Court would agree to review the case and said 23 states were considering similar measures.
"This is the first time in the nation's history that state and local government have had their hands tied when it comes to remedying past discrimination against minorities and women," the ACLU lawyer said.
A lawyer for sponsors of the initiative said the appeals court's action makes it less likely the Supreme Court will review the case.
But if the court grants review, "I am confident it will find that the citizens of California acted in the letter and spirit of the Constitution when they voted to end racial preferences last November," Michael Carvin, of the Center for Individual Rights, said in a statement.
VMI initiation rite pushes one woman, 13 men out
LEXINGTON, Va. — The first woman to drop out of Virginia Military Institute's tortuous "rat line" left after deciding the regimented lifestyle and constant mental harassment were not for her.
The woman, who left late Wednesday night, joins 13 men in dropping out of this year's freshman class of 460 who arrived at the school on Monday. VMI ended its 158-year-old all-male policy this year with the admission of 30 women. The school refused to identify those who left.
"She just felt the military system was not for her," Tom Warburton, a senior, said of the woman student. Warburton and the school's professional counselors talked to the woman for several hours to make sure she really wanted to quit.
The woman had finished the opening day of the six-month tribulation VMI uses to test the physical, mental and emotional limits of all first-year students, or "rats." Until March, each rat must observe strict rules of discipline, live in spartan barracks, march at attention wherever they go on campus and do endless rounds of
pushups.
Wednesday afternoon, 108 upper class drillmasters got face-to-face with the rats and began screaming orders, insults and arcane questions at them, punishing the slightest lapses with pushups and other exercise.
During the dinner break, with a few hours of light military drills still ahead before the 10:30 p.m. curfew, the woman decided she could not endure four years in such a system, Warburton said.
The Supreme Court ruled in June 1996 that the state-supported school must accept women. VMI began planning to integrate women into its corps shortly afterward, determined not to suffer the embarrassment South Carolina's military college. The Citadel, endured since Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to enroll there in 1995.
INTERNATIONAL Sacred cow bones make interesting water filter
LONDON — At least they're not using mad cows.
A north England utility is filtering some of its water supply through the bones of sacred cows that have been burned into charcoal and horrified vegetarians are turning off their taps.
Yorkshire Water PLC says it uses only bones imported from India, where cows are considered sacred and allowed to live out their natural lives. Their old, brittle bones make perfect raw material for charcoal filters.
Using cattle from Western societies that slaughter them young for beef would not work so well because "their bones, like a human baby's, are still relatively soft," Yorkshire Water said in a statement.
Yorkshire Water, which nonplussed Brits once before when a utility executive made a point of stopping bathing during a 1995 drought, said its water meets all safety standards. However, it said "we can't undertake to supply water which meets individual dietary needs or individual religious, ethical or medical needs."
The company assures that because all bones are imported, there is no way any of Britain's mad cows — believed to cause a rare but fatal human brain ailment — could end up as water filter.
The Vegetarian Society, which campaigns against the use of animal products, is not impressed.
"Vegetarians throughout Yorkshire will be sickened by this move," spokesman Steve O'Connor said yesterday.
"It is impossible for the consumer to choose their water supply. Therefore, we are left in the frightening situation where we can no longer trust what comes out of our taps."
Yorkshire Water spokesman Norman Hurst refused to answer questions.
ET CETERA
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