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THE UNIVERSITY'S DAILY IANSAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2009
BUSINESS
NEWS 5A
The city's legal battle to close the long-contested 821 Club met with victory last week. The club surrendered its liquor license Tuesday and went up for sale Thursday.
City code violations cause 821 Club closing
BY JUSTIN LEVERETT
jleverett@kansan.com
Club 821, located at Ninth and Iowa streets, has closed. The building is now on the market.
He said the city had fined the club for not having the minimum number of parking spaces required by city code to operate a nightclub.
The nightclubs location at 821 Iowa St. has been the site of multiple violent incidents this year. A man was arrested there in March in connection with a stabbing outside the club. Another man was arrested in April for disorderly conduct while carrying a handgun, and three more were arrested in July after a shooting outside the club.
Rich Blackmon, formerly a consultant to the owners, said that the closing had everything to do with the club's city code violations, and
District County Judge Michael Malone ordered the club's owners in September to pay the city $100 every day that it failed to meet the minimum number of parking spaces, as well as $11,500 in legal fees.
Formerly called Club Axis, the business changed management in May and was renamed the 821 Club in an attempt to salvage its reputation.
nothing to do with the violence that had occurred there.
The owners are due back in court for a hearing Tuesday, and their attorneys have filed an appeal.
Edited by Alicia Banister
CHARITY Kansas Dance Marathon starts fundraiser today
said she and other volunteers would line Strong Hall with 100 pumpkins, donated by Wal-Mart, which students could personalize with paint and other decorations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Kansas Dance Marathon, a student-led fundraising campaign that raised roughly $20,000 for the Children's Miracle Network last year, is starting its second year of philanthropy today on Strong Hall.
"get our name out there as well."
Claire Williams, St. Louis senior and director of special events,
"It's something that was simple and easy to do and something I think people on campus will enjoy doing to benefit the community," Williams said. "Money is a goal, but we wanted to provide something that will
Williams said the event would be one of many small events the Kansas Dance Marathon would plan before its massive 12-hour Dance Marathon in April. All of the proceeds, she said, will go to local Children's Miracle Network causes, including the KU Medical Center Pediatrics and Children's Mercy Hospital. She said she and the other students involved in the planning this year were
hoping to more than double last year's contribution to the organizations.
"We are expecting a huge increase in what we raised," Williams said. "We're making small goals to lead up to the big one. Our goal this year is $50,000, which would be a huge response for a second-year marathon."
-Ray Segebrecht
CRIME
Madoff associate found dead in pool
Palm Beach Fire and Rescue respond to an emergency call in Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday. According to Don Taylor, acting battalion chief for Palm Beach Fire and Rescue, it received a call for a possible drowning.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jeffry Picower, a philanthropist accused of profiting more than $7 billion from the investment schemes of his longtime friend Bernard Madoff, was found at the bottom of the pool at his oceanside mansion and died Sunday, police said. He was 67.
Picower's wife discovered his body and pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Medical Center at about 1:30 p.m.
Palm Beach police are investigating the death as a drowning, but have not ruled out anything on the cause of death.
"There wasn't anything noted as far as trauma or anything to the body," he said, adding that "it did appear that he was swimming
Picower's body showed no visible injuries, said Joseph Sekula, spokesman for the Palm Beach Fire Department.
because he was wearing swimming trunks"
Picower's wife told responders she had seen her husband just 15 minutes before finding him in the pool, but she did not specify whether she saw him in the pool or elsewhere, Sekula said.
Detectives were still at the home more than six hours after the initial 911 call. The iron gate to his long driveway was open and several Palm Beach police cars were parked near the mansion. The home and property is worth more than $33 million, according to the county property appraiser's records.
Picower had been accused by jilted investors of being the biggest beneficiary of Madoff's schemes.
to a request for comment.
In a lawsuit to recover Madoff's assets, trustee Irving Picard demanded Picower return more than $7 billion in bogus profits. Irving Picard did not immediately respond to a phone message left at his office Sunday. Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, also didn't respond
Picower and his wife started the Picower Foundation in 1989, which has given millions to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Human Rights First and the New York Public Library. It also funded diabetes research at Harvard Medical School.
The foundation, whose assets
After the Madoff scandal broke in December, the Picower foundation said it would have to cease grant-making and would be forced to close.
were managed by Madoff, said in its 2007 tax return its investment portfolio was valued at nearly $1 billion.
NATIONAL
Harvard Medical School center of ongoing investigation
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — Six Harvard University medical researchers were poisoned in August after drinking coffee that was laced with a chemical preservative, according to university officials.
In an internal memo first reported in the Boston Herald's Sunday editions, the school said the coffee came from a machine near their lab that later tested positive for sodium azide, a common preservative used in labs.
The six reported symptoms after drinking the coffee. Aug. 26, ranging from dizziness to ringing in the ears, and one passed out. They were treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and later released.
The memo, written by Daniel G. Ennis, executive dean for administration, and Richard M. Shea, associate dean for physical planning and facilities, does not say whether officials believe the poisoning was intentional.
"As always, we are mindful of the need to be diligent about laboratory safety and security and the importance of proper management of laboratory chemicals;"the memo states.
"We are in the process of installing additional security cameras throughout our buildings, and we are strengthening the security systems that manage access to the laboratories during both normal business hours and off hours," it goes on to say.
The researchers, which include staff and students, all work in the Harvard Medical School's pathology department in its new Boston research building. They were using mice to investigate how diseases interact with the immune system.
Harvard spokesman David Cameron on Sunday said university
cautionary measures to help ensure the well-being of the community.
Cameron said as far as he knows the lab has not been a target of threats or animal-rights protests.
ing investigation of what appears to be a single isolated event", he said. "Because many details are unknown, (the medical school's) leadership is taking additional pre-
"Essentially, there is an ongo-
police are investigating along with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Boston Public Health Commission.