Section B · Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, December 7, 1998
Nation/World
High court to tackle loitering law
Chicago city ordinance intended to stop gangs
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Police grabbed Lui Gutierriez off the street on a chilly October night and locked him up under a city anti-loitering law designed to combat drug-trafficking street gangs.
"I felt shocked and completely powerless," said the 25-year-old, who works as a consultant for people working to get U.S. citizenship. And he quietly maintains that he never belonged to a gang.
The anti-loltering ordinance, which has been used for 45,000 arrests, goes before the U.S. Supreme Court this week for arguments about whether it endangers individual rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Cook County public defender's office challenged the 1992 ordinance, and the Illinois Supreme Court last year held it unconstitutional, saying
it was too vague and smacked of police-state tactics. The ACLU also said the measure was archaic because a 1972 Supreme Court decision prompted most cities to abandon loitering laws.
Police, however, say most critics have not seen gangs in action and do not appreciate how homeowners feel when they see tough gang members selling narcotics on the sidewalk.
And the city's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court has gotten support from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and other groups.
The anti-loitering law was designed to let police clear the streets of dealers even if they can't catch gang members with drugs.
"It would make it a lot less intimidating for people who go down to the store to buy a bottle of milk or go to the bus stop," said Mike Cronin, police gang specialist.
He estimated that about 15 gangs operated 40 to 50 open-air drug marts, each staffed by six to eight people, in his West Side area. On a tour of the area last week, drug dealers were plainly visible in the streets and back alleys. Their gang
In addition to drugs, gangs were blamed for 182 of Chicago's 759 homicides last year. Police estimated citywide gang membership at more than 10,000.
membership is no secret.
The ordinance says officers may arrest two or more people standing around with no apparent purpose if they refuse to move along and at least one is believed to be a gang member.
Six weeks later, a judge dismissed the case.
"She just called my name out and said, 'You can go home; the law is unconstitutional; have a nice day.'" Gutiérrez said.
Homeowners are enthusiastic about the ordinance.
Gutierrez says he was arrested when he stopped to chat with two friends while walking from his home in the heavily Latino Little Village area to visit his parents.
"The hands of the police are tied," said Jimmy Simmons, a 43-year-old contractor. "All they can do is tell you to move on. When the police leave, the gangs come back. If this ordinance is reinstated, the police can actually arrest them."
Elections strengthen ruling party in Taiwan
The Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Nationalist Party candidates were out early yesterday, parading with supporters who banged drums and gongs in a traditional thanks to voters for an important election victory.
The ruling party found its hand considerably strengthened after Saturday's legislative and mayoral election, with voters endorsing its moderate policies toward mainland China and steady management of the economy.
After years of scandal and decline, observers said, the election was a rebirth for the 104-year-old party that has ruled here since fleeing China 49 years ago.
The new clout means President Lee Teng-hui can bargain with China from a position of increased strength, hushing those calling for more aggressive moves toward reunification as well as those who would seek formal independence, said LiWu Guang-sheng, a political science professor at National Chengchil University.
"This election confirmed the Nationalist leadership and strengthens its bargaining position," Liaw said early yesterday at a seminar where experts gave their perspectives on the elections.
In the capital, Taipei, Nationalist challenger Ma Ying-jeou unseated the incumbent mayor, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Ma's victory reversed opposition gains in local elections last year and seemed to affirm the party's efforts to shake a lingering reputation for corruption and inefficiency.
The Nationalists also held onto the legislature, taking 123 of 225 seats, compared to just 70 won by the Democratic Progressive Party.
The party consololed itself with an upset win in the race for the mayorship of Taiwan's second-largest city, Kaohsiung. But the party's
immediate future was cloudy, with some members already clamoring for new leadership.
Defeated mayor Chen, the opposition party's top politician, wouldn't answer one of the big questions raised by Saturday's results — whether he would run for president in 16 months, when Lee is set to retire.
One Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker, Chou Po-lun, called for the party's chairman, Lin Yi-hsiung, to take responsibility for "this terrible defeat" by resigning.
Extremes of opinion on relations toward China, which claims Taiwan as a breakaway province, have alienated voters.
China and Taiwan separated after a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still says it would meet any formal declaration of Taiwanese independence with military force.
Though negotiations on reconciliation remain stalled, the sides have taken gradual steps over the
past year to renew talks that China broke off in 1995, angered by Taiwan's efforts to assert itself internationally.
The Nationalists' performance assured Beijing of continuity, said Ming Chu-cheng, a professor at National Taiwan University.
"The leaders in Beijing could go to bed without taking an aspirin Saturday, knowing their old friends will still be around," Ming said.
Falling oil prices not good news for Kansas industry
The Associated Press
He can't imagine any other life.
GREAT BEND — Al Hammersmith has worked in the oil fields since high school in the 1950s. Every day, the Ellinwood man and his little dog Maggie put 10 miles on his red pickup, making the rounds on oil wells spread across western Kansas.
can't imagine any other life.
But when the price of Kansas oil dipped below $8 a barrel last week, Hammersmith, 56, and other industry workers began to wonder how much longer they could hold on.
Thousands of Kansas oil industry veterans, already strapped by years of declining prices, are coping by cutting costs, delaying repairs and, in some cases, laying off employees.
At the same time, motorists and transportation companies are enjoying big savings at the pump. But that's little solace to those whose livelihoods depend on higher prices.
The oil industry is a significant economic force in Kansas, which ranked eighth among the states last year with daily production of about 109,000 barrels.
Statewide employment for the industry has dropped sharply in the past two decades. About 7,000 people in Kansas worked in oil field-related jobs last year. The high point in employment came in 1981, when about 18,000 worked in the industry.
Crude oil for January delivery fell to $11.24 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest level in 12 years. Kansas crude prices, which typically trail national prices by $2.50 to $3 per barrel, are at their lowest level since the
earlv 1970s.
"Why would you want to produce oil when you have to sell it at $8 a barrel?" Beren said.
At that price, producers can't even cover their costs.
The lack of business has forced many oil field-related companies to close.
In Great Bend, at least 11 companies that provide service and supplies to oil companies have closed in the past year, said Danny Biggs, vice president and general field superintendent for Pickrell Drilling Co. Inc, in Great Bend. The city is in Barton County, one of 11 Kansas counties where oil production exceeded 1 million barrels last year.
Nationally, some oil companies are joining forces in an attempt to cut costs. Last Tuesday, giants Exxon and Mobil merged in an $80 billion deal. The companies said they expect $2.8 billion in cost savings by merging.
But in places like Great Bend, where many oilmen work in companies of three to five people, they're searching for answers.
If something good doesn't happen soon, Hammersmith said more domestic oil producers would be driven out of business and the nation would become more dependent on foreign oil.
And abandoned wells cannot be brought back.
"When we plug a well, it's gone," Hammersmith said, because a well doesn't earn enough money to pay for the cost of drilling again.
Hammersmith became self-employed last year when the company he was working for moved out of Kansas.
Khmer Rouge surrender inspires hope
The Associated Press
Although the rebels staged sporadic attacks as recently as April, it has been several years since the Khmer Rouge posed a serious threat to the central government in Phnom Penh.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The surrender of the last known group of Khmer Rouge guerrilla holdouts led many Cambodians yesterday to hope that a lasting peace was finally at hand after years of war.
Yet despite the steady shedding of their ranks, government offensives never completely vanquished the guerrillas. At times it seemed the Maoist movement, responsible for the deaths of as many as 2 million Cambodians, would never die.
But on Friday, the rebels' chief of staff negotiated the surrender of the last main fighting force.
Life in the capital city continued as usual, but the surrender did have Cambodians looking favorably on a future that had appeared bleak following Cambodian leader Hun Sen's ouster of his co-Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranardidh in a violent coup last year.
Chrung Veasna, a 27-year-old waiter at a Phnom Penh café, said he believed the agreement forged last month between Hun Sen and Ranariddh to form a new government had convinced the Khmer Rouge its war could not be won.
"I think maybe we won't have fighting again." Chrung Veasna said. "They have been living on the border and fighting the government for a long time. They don't want to follow (their leader) anymore."
Those most affected by the surrender will be Cambodians living in rural areas along the border with
Jason Benavides/KANSAN
Thailand, where the Khmer Rouge was most recently active. Fighting earlier in the year drove as many as 15,000 people into Thailand. The surrender deal includes their return to Cambodia.
Khem Nuon, the chief of staff for Khmur Rouge army chief Ta Mok, negotiated the rebels' surrender. In a nationally televised speech, Khmu Nun and seven Khmer Rouge commanders denounced their leaders Ta Mok, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea as "criminals" and promised their forces would join the Cambodian army.
Khem Nuon later told a journalist the three leaders — all of whom are implicated in killings by the Khmir Rouge when it rulied the country from 1975-79 — had "retired." He refused to give more details.
Hun Sen, sworn in last week as sole prime minister, welcomed the defection as a historic moment for Cambodia in a televised speech yesterday.
Nuclear waste placement haunts U.S. government
WASHINGTON — Every day, more than six tons of dangerous nuclear waste pile up at power plants around the country — more than 2,000 tons a year. The spent reactor fuel, highly radioactive for the next 10,000 years, has long been the nuclear industry's most vexing problem.
And as it inexorably accumulates, a major dispute has developed about whether the government should remove close to 40,000 tons of used nuclear fuel from 72 power stations and keep it at a central location.
The Associated Press
Utilities say the government should haul away the deadly garbage and are seeking billions of dollars in damages because of federal inaction.
Now a federal judge said that in three breach-of-contract cases involving three closed New England reactors, the government is liable for monetary damages for failing to dispose of the reactor waste.
"The government made commitments with these utilities, entered into contracts to take the waste and accepted their money. Now the government has welched on the commitment," says Jerry Stouck, the attorney representing the three
Last year, a federal court ruled that the government need not take the waste until it has a safe place to put it, but it also gave a green light for utilities to seek monetary damages from the Energy Department for the breach of contract. The Supreme Court recently let stand that decision, and so far 10 utilities have done so.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group, claims that if the lawsuits succeed, the government could be liable for as much as $56 billion. Energy Department officials scoff at the figure but acknowledge millions could be at stake.
The squabble on reactor waste—nearly 40,000 tons already at 72 power plants in 34 states—also is being fought out in Congress.
In 1982, Congress assured utilities that the government would find a central storage site for spent reactor fuel and begin accepting the waste by 1988. The deadline passed
Stouck's clients are asking for $268 million in damages, although the courts must still determine how much the government will pay. Operators of seven other reactors are asking for more than $4 billion in damages, and dozens of other utilities are waiting to file court claims.
last January with the waste still at the bottom of cooling pools — or, in a few cases, dry cask storage — at reactor sites.
New England plant operators.
But deep-seeded opposition by Nevadans has stymied the congressional effort each time, with another attempt expected early next year.
In each of the last three years, attempts have been made in Congress to build a temporary government storage facility in the Nevada desert, where the government hopes to eventually bury the waste deep beneath Yuca Mountain, 90 miles north of Las Vegas.
The Clinton administration has argued the waste should remain where it is until a decision is made on a permanent burial site at Yucca Mountain. And the Nevada project
— which could begin taking waste as early as 2010 if the site is found geologically suitable — itself has not been given the final go-ahead.
Utility executives argue nuclear materials already are shipped safely and that with time, new technologies will be developed to deal with the waste issue. After all, they note, originally the idea was to reprocess used reactor fuel. But that approach was abandoned by the United States in the 1970s because of concerns about nuclear proliferation.
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