THE UNIVERSITY OF DARRY KANSAN
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
NEWS 5A
STATE
Kansas casino alters proposal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY — A proposed casino at the Kansas Speedway received a new brand when the company operating the Kansas City-area NASCAR track took on a new partner for its project, changing from Hard Rock to Hollywood.
The change is an issue for the state review board that will determine whether the project moves forward. The board's chairman has questioned how a name described last year as important to the project's success can be discarded this year.
The track's parent company, International Speedway Corp., had used the Hard Rock brand when its partner in the casino venture was The Cordish Co. of Baltimore. But when Penn National Gaming Inc., of Wyomissing, Pa., bought out Cordish earlier this month, ISC adopted the Hollywood
brand Penn puts on its premier properties.
For the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board, more than a name or theme is at stake. Chairman Matt All said the issue is whether one brand name is better at drawing customers than another
— and whether the state sum-
to get more revenues either way
— from what already will be a
notably different project.
"The unique nature of it — the fact that you would look at that and say there's nothing else out there just like this — would make it a more effective tourist draw," All said. "I want to see the same type of thought and care put into this proposal to make it unique to this location as we got last year."
The Penn-ISC partnership is the only remaining applicant for a contract with the Kansas Lottery to build and manage the single casino authorized for Wyandotte County. The lottery owns the rights to the new gambling, and
the state will receive 22 percent of the revenue — eventually, almost $50 million annually, according to Penn-ISC projections.
Last year, the review board awarded the lottery contract to an ISC-Cordish proposal for a $681 million. Hard Rock-themed hotel-and-casino complex in a competition that began with five applicants, none of them Penn. But later, because of the sour economy, the ISC-Cordish partnership wanted to revise its plans, and the lottery reopened the application process.
The second time around, the ISC-Cordish partnership's only challenger was Penn, which proposed a $539 million complex with its Hollywood brand near the NASCAR track. The new ISC-Cordish proposal is worth $521 million.
In buying out Cordish, Penn guaranteed that the first phase of construction on ISC's project can be financed without debt.
INTERNATIONAL
Israeli left-wing activists protest during a demonstration against settlement construction and house demolitions in East Jerusalem outside Jerusalem's Old City Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with Obama and Palestine's president, Mahmod Abbas, in New York tomorrow.
Obama will meet with Israeli Palestinian leaders on resolution
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Barack Obama will try to get Mideast peacemaking back on track this week in a meeting with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, hoping the weight of the U.S. presidency can resolve a showdown over Israeli settlement construction and get the sides talking again after months of deadlock.
For Obama, it's high-stakes diplomacy that relies on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as key to cracking other world problems. He'll be bringing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
together in New York on Tuesday for their first encounter since Netanyahu took office in March.
Obama faces a tough task. The Israelis and Palestinians have dug in deep to positions that have eluded compromise, despite multiple visits by Washington's special U.S. envoy. Deep divisions among the Palestinians further complicate the process. And it's far from clear whether there is enough common ground between the hawkish Netanyahu and the weakened Abbas.
The Palestinians hope to build a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those territories in 1967. While
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 Netanyahu has given little indication that he is ready to make territorial compromises in the West Bank and east Jerusalem that would be crucial to reaching an accord.
After the meeting was announced Saturday, Netanyahu's office said he "warmly accepts" the invitation. A senior Israeli official said the meetings in New York were meant to lay the groundwork for negotiations but would not constitute a relaunch of talks.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to articulate government policy on the record.
Hommad Zazi, father of a man suspected of a link to terrorists, leaves the Federal Building in Denver after being arrested by FBI agents in Aurora, Colo., late Saturday. Zazi's son, Najibullah Zazi, received weapon training from al-Oaida.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Evidence surfaces of man's role in making explosives
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — Investigators said they found notes describing how to make bombs in the handwriting of an airport shuttle driver arrested as part of a terrorism investigation, and they also discovered his fingerprints on materials — batteries and a scale — that could be used to make explosives.
Zazi, 24, has publicly denied being involved in terror plot. Zazi, his father, and an Imam in New York City were arrested late Saturday on charges of making a false statement to the government, though legal experts say more charges could be coming.
Zazi's defense team denied reports that Zazi considered a plea related to terror charges, and Zazi's attorney, Arthur Folsom, dismissed as "rumor" any notion that Zazi played a crucial role. Zazi's defense team did not respond to repeated attempts to reach them Sunday.
The emerging details show that Najibullah Zazi, who has admitted receiving weapons training from al-Qaida, played a direct role in an alleged terror plot, authorities said court documents released Sunday.
Federal officials in Denver declined to comment.
Zazi admitted to FBI agents that
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Najibullah Zazi is suspected of playing a direct role in an alleged terror plot, according to investigators, charges he denies.
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detonators and a fuse.
In addition, agents found Zazi's fingerprints on a scale and
says the handwriting on the notes appeared to be Zazis. The affidavit doesn't mention that they were part of a book, but that they were e-mailed as an attachment between accounts believed to be owned by Zazi in December, including an account that originated in
The FBI said it found images of nine pages of handwritten notes on a laptop containing formulas and instructions for making bomb,
"It appeared to be consistent with the handwriting as it appeared in the document," an FBI agent wrote of comparisons of Zazi's handwriting with the notes.
he received instructions from al-Qaida operatives on subjects such as weapons and explosives. Court documents filed in Denver say Zazi was speaking with agents under an agreement where he might avoid prosecution.
Zazi told the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes as part of a religious book he downloaded in August. Zazi said he "immediately deleted the religious book within days of downloading it after realizing that its contents discussed jihad."
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double-A batteries seized during a raid at a home in the New York City borough of Queens on Sept. 14.
leaders administered tribal areas of Pakistan, the documents say.
He received the training in the
Pakistan.
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Zazi, who lives in the Denver suburb of Aurora, underwent three days of questioning by the FBI before his arrest.
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Also arrested were his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, in Denver; and an associate
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However, an arrest affidavit
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