THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5, 2009
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5. 2009
NEWS
3A
NATIONAL
Stranded commuters are loaded on busses near the scene of a train fire in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Nov. 4. A Philadelphia commuter train caught fire Wednesday, complicating the morning rush already hampered by the city's transit strike. Officials said no injuries were reported.
Train fire worsens already bad transportation strike
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Commuters biked, walked, juggled carpool schedules and hitched rides as the city's transit system ground to a near halt for a second day Wednesday, a rush worsened when a regional rail train caught fire.
Regional rail lines are running because their workers are represented by a different union. But trouble hit around 7 a.m. when a car caught fire as it headed downtown, causing delays and confusion. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority officials said it was likely an electrical fire and was not suspicious.
More than 5,000 members of SEPTA's largest union walked off the job early Tuesday, leaving thousands of people struggling for ways to get around without the use of subways, trolleys or buses.
"I can't take the whole strike off," said Niki LaGrone, 27, a Catholic school teacher in North Philadelphia, as she prepared to take regional rail as far as it goes and then walk a mile and a half to school. "I'm going to have to show up ... Hopefully, I can find somebody when I get in to work to help me out."
The Philadelphia school district reported a 16 percent drop in high school attendance Wednesday. On an average weekday, about 54,000 public and parochial students take SEPTA to school.
At the J.R. Masterman high school, Robin Carpenter unloaded a bicycle from his father's car so he could make the 7-mile ride home in the afternoon.
"I do ride my bike sometimes but not during cross-country season," he said, adding that the strike was an inconvenience. "It's too tiring."
Karen Pollack scrambled to find ways to get her 16- and 13-yearold daughters to and from their respective schools.
Pollack lives in the city's
Germantown section and left about 15 minutes earlier to drop off her younger daughter at Masterman. Her husband dropped off their older daughter at a school about 5 miles from home.
Getting them home could be a
"I can't take the whole strike off. I'm going to have to show up."
challenge, though, since her older daughter usually takes SEPTA. Now, she's going to walk the 15 or so blocks to her sister's school and hopefully find a spot in that car pool — if there's room.
The origin of the blaze was probably in the heating or electrical system, Jordan said, and the entire fleet will be inspected once the cause is determined.
"It was a little stressful last night," Pollack said. "It's going to be day-to-day."
Jim Jordan, an assistant general manager for SEPTA, said the regional rail car that caught fire was about 40 years old, one of many slated to be replaced soon.
Flames could be seen shooting from the front of the train shortly after 7 a.m. A big cloud of smoke also billowed from the train. No injuries were reported.
Wayne Rafferty, 27, of Pottstown, a lab technician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said he had to calm down another passenger on the packed train.
NIKI LAGRONE Philadelphia school teacher
he packed train, and
he saw other passengers kicking out the removable emergency windows. Once outside the train, he took a picture of the front of it with flames and smoke.
"I already texted in the photos to my boss. I said, "This was my train," he said. "He said he'll
see me when he sees me, so I'm going to start making the hike." Rafferty estimated that it would take about an hour to walk to his workplace.
The sudden strike by Transport Workers Union Local 234 has all but crippled the system, which averages more than 928,000 trips each weekday. The union walked away from negotiations on a new contract over disagreements on wage, pension and health care issues.
mistaken for a common ladybug
BUGS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
These beetles were originally brought here to control the population of other types of insects, but have now become more of a nuisance themselves." Smith said. "And honey bees generally come out on these warmish days to eat and dump waste, so they're around more, meaning people are more likely to come into contact with them."
Schwartz said there were always five to 10 of the ladybug-like beetles by her windows in her room.
"They've been getting a lot worse," she said. "It's kind of confusing, though, because my window is closed and I don't know how they are getting in."
"Pack rats can be a huge nuisance since they like to chew on electrical wiring," Haley said. "They can also get into car engines and cause all kinds of expensive damages."
Joanie Haley, office manager of Haley Pest Control, Inc. said that this fall had been busy with calls about pests. She said ants, brown spiders, ladybugs, roaches and termites have been problems this year, but she had also seen an unusual amount of pack rats.
Vince Avila, associate director for facilities in the Department of Student Housing, said most insects found in residence halls traveled in on backpacks, grocery bags and clothes.
"That's how many of the roaches travel in and then they stay because they food that's been left out," Avila said. "That's also where a lot of the rodents come from that we've had to relocate."
"Bugs are so much bigger here than they are at home." Jenny Curran, Chicago freshman, said. "When I moved into Corbin, I had a ton of huge spiders in my room."
Avila said he recommended
There are, however, cases in student living that do require attention, if not by Student Housing, then by the students themselves.
students report insect problems so Housing can take care of the issue.
"We use safe insecticides," he said. "Some of the ones in stores are pretty strong."
Avila said the Housing Department treated every campus building with kitchens monthly for pest problems and responded to others on a call-in basis. He also said he didn't think there weren't many problems in residence halls because students didn't often call in with problems.
Curran, like many other
Patty Quinlan, supervisor of nursing at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said students generally came in with honey bee stings more as temperature changes, but said bug bites could be hard to identify unless the bug is caught.
"I had my dad go get me spray," she said. "That pretty much killed all of them, but I still see bugs around fairly often."
students, did not call Housing and Maintenance to help solve the pest problem. She took matters into her own hands.
"We see a couple people every week who could have a bug bite," she said. "The only time it is a problem is when there's an allergic reaction, Quinlan said, "but, fortunately, most bites aren't that horrific."
PROFESSOR (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
University in 1956 after resigning from his position at the University of Alabama in protest of segregation.
Edited by Betsy Cutcliff
Shaffer was opinionated and passionate, and not just about economics — he acted as an advocate of human rights and freedom of speech throughout his life. He spoke out against Nazi Germany in the 1940s, American segregation in the 1950s, the Vietnam War in the 1970s and recently demonstrated against the Iraq war.
In 1990 Shaffer confronted more injustice when a law, later ruled unconstitutional, forced fulltime professors to retire at age 70, said Joe Sicilian, chairman of the department of economics. Sicilian said Shaffer continued to teach, however, for significantly less pay until age 89 because he enjoyed working with students.
"That was what he loved the most, his interaction with students." Sicilian said. "He would tell me he would love to run into students from the past or the present in town or on campus."
Sarah Frazelle, KU research analyst and lecturer, spent five semesters as Shafer's teaching assistant before assuming his role as the current economics 104 instructor. Frazelle said she always tried to follow the example Shaffer set with the course, but that there were aspects to his lectures that she couldn't recreate. For example, she said, he would always present a long, detailed island analogy on the advent of money.
Harry Shaffer, former KU economics professor died Tuesday. He was 90 years old.
"That is something that will never be able to be told the way he told it," Frazelle said. "That is something students for generations will always remember: that money story."
Shaffer, in his 50-plus years at the University, had the opportunity to tell that story and others to multiple generations of Jayhawks. In a 2007 interview with The Kansan,
"He was very lively. He had a lot of energy," Ptacek said, before adding that the slow, deliberate game was, "absolutely never dull with Harry Shaffer."
wife, was a man who graced everyone around him with his positive spirit and will be missed by many, Ptacek said. Ptacek said he would most miss his friend in the poker group that Shaffer would enliven for hours every Sunday afternoon.
Shaffer, who exhaled his last breath in the presence of his
Lawrence to be with his wife Betty who is a Christian," Platck said. "They were probably the most incredible love story that anybody who knew them had ever seen."
www.lenahaneyedoc.com
She said she also remembered it fondly from when she bumped into him in person in the grocery store six years after she took his course.
Shaffer was with his wife Betty at the time, Barker said, and seized the moment to compliment her good her looks. When Barker agreed that Betty was indeed beautiful, Shaffer gleamed and said, "Well, of course, she was a dancer," Barker said.
Manda Barker, a 2005 graduate and former student of Shaffer, said she mostly remembered his endearing charm. It always characterized the stories he would unravel to his hundreds of
"That is something students for generations will always remember: that money story."
Shaffer reported that multiple students had commented on having parents who took his course before they did.
— Edited by Anna Kathagnarath
economic students, she said.
SARAH FRAZELLE KU lecturer
"Harry is jewish and he went to a Christian-based church in
entire marriage. He said he noticed the steadfast devotion they had for one another from the first time he met Shaffer at the Unity Church of Lawrence.
"Only once did I have somebody say 'Professor Shafer, my grandfather took your course.' Shafer said.
Russ Ptacek, longtime friend of Shaffer, said it was moments such as these that characterized their
ENVIRONMENT 1,200 new life forms identified at Yellowstone
HELENA. Mont. — Scientists searching for Yellowstone National Park's lesser-known life
forms — beyond its famed bison, bears and wolves — found more than 1,200 species, including several never known before to exist in the park.
A one-day study of the park in late August found microscopic worms, mushrooms, a bluish-
green lichen, a slender grass and a colorful tiger beetle, among other creatures, in about two square miles of Yellowstone, according to initial results released this week.
Associated Press
HPV Fact #11:
You don't have to actually have sex to get HPV-the virus that causes cervical cancer.
There 's something you can do. Visit your campus health center.
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