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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
POLITICS
Obama speaks in Iowa ahead of DNC
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign stop in Sioux City, Iowa on Saturday. The Democratic National Convention began yesterday in Charlotte, N.C.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama lampooned the just-completed Republican National Convention as better-suited to an era of black-and-white TV and "trickle-down, you're on your own" economics Saturday, and declared that Mitt Romney "did not offer a single new idea" to fix the economy.
"There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but no one actually told you what they were." Obama said in Iowa, chuckling, as he set out on a three-day tour of battleground states in the run-up to his own convention. Later, Obama said, the Republican gathering was so rooted in the past, there should have been a rabbit-ears antenna on the convention hall.
Yet even the site of Obama's convention, Charlotte, N.C., served as an unweloved reminder to the Democrats of an economy so weak that it threatens his chances for re-election.
The president carried North Carolina in 2008, but the state's unemployment rate is pegged at 9.6 percent, much higher than the nation's 8.3 percent and tied with next door South Carolina for fifth from the bottom.
Obama's convention opens Tuesday at the Time Warner Cable arena with evening speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the keynote speaker.
The president will be nominated for a new term on Wednesday, when former President Bill Clinton also will speak. Vice President Joe Biden delivers his own acceptance speech the same evening.
evening.
Obama's prime-time acceptance speech, to be delivered at the outdoor Bank of America Stadium, caps the convention on Thursday night. Aides predict a capacity crowd will hear
the speech at the site, which has a capacity of nearly 74,000 for football.
Democrats are taking their turn in the convention spotlight just days after the Republicans met in Tampa, Fla., to nominate former Massachusetts Gov. Romney for the White House and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to be vice president.
A parade of speakers in Tampa excoriated Obama's handling of the economy, which is struggling in the weakest recession recovery of the post-World War II era.
The economy has been the top-rated issue in opinion polls all year, and the president is eager to turn the focus onto Romney on that subject.
republicans "will take us backwards." Obama said, to the age of "trickle-down, you're on your own" economics that begin with tax cuts for the rich but tax increases for the middle class.
The president made a brief detour to foreign policy in his speech.
"Gov. Romney had nothing to say about Afghanistan this week or the plans for the 33,000 troops who will have come home from the war by the end of this month," he said.
The Republican challenger "said ending the war in Iraq was tragic. I said we'd end that war and we did." Obama said.
Romney said late last year, in a veterans roundtable, "The precipitous withdrawal is unfortunate. It's more than unfortunate. I think it's tragic. It puts at risk many of the victories that were hard won by the men and women who served there."
Obama, pointing to successes,
declared, "I said wed take out bin
Laden and we did."
ist attacks, who was killed in his hideout in Pakistan by U.S. Navy SEALs last year. Obama ordered the raid, and even Republicans credit him for the decision.
Romney campaigned in Ohio during the day — the opening of the college football season — and proclaimed it was time the country had a winning season after years of a sluggish economy and high unemployment.
Referring to the number of jobless in the country, Romney told his own cheering crowd. "If you have a coach that's zero and 23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach."
He also pledged to cut the federal deficit and "get us on track for a balanced budget."
ADMINISTRATION
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAWRENCE, Kan. — University of Kansas Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little will be able to keep her eyes on her work instead of the road when a newly hired part-time driver begins taking her to and from some out-of-town appointments
Retired Douglas County sheriff's deputy Robin Moore has been hired for the job and will start Sept. 10 on an as-needed basis at a salary of $20 per hour, Mary Burg, the chancellor's executive assistant, told The Lawrence Journal-World .
Gray-Little will still drive herself around Lawrence and to some out-of-town appointments, so Moore's probable schedule
so Moores remains unknown. But Burg said the university is estimating he'll work about 15 hours a week.
Gray-Little
"We're trying this out. We've never done this before, so we don't
McKechnie, of Arcadia, said the board has been working with the chief executives of the state's public universities on time-management strategies to
help them become more productive.
"We're not paying (the chancellor) to circle the block 20 times looking for a parking spot," McKechnie said.
Jack Martin, a University of Kansas spokesman, said the driver will be used primarily when the chancellor has more than one appointment in a day in the Kansas City area.
For some trips to the airport
The suggestion to hire a parttime driver came from the Kansas Board of Regents. Regent Ed
MARY BURG the chancellor's executive assistant
before, so we don't know how many hours this will end up being."
know how many hours this will end up being," she said.
Gray-Little will use the driver chiefly for the roughly 80-mile round trips to KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., where she spends at least one day a week. She also travels to the university's Edwards Campus in Overland Park, about 30 miles from Lawrence.
in Kansas City,
KU had been
hiring a car
service for the
chancellor
at $100 per hour.
McKechnie said regents to encourage Kansas State President Kirk Schulz and Fort Hays State President Ed Hammond to make use of university aircraft to cut down on travel time, though neither has a driver.
"At least for the airport travel, that's going to save some money," Burg said.
three, though he met officials at the University of Iowa, the University of Missouri and Iowa State University all said that they do not employ drivers for their university leaders. But Martin said Gray-Little had heard from peers at the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Virginia who did use drivers.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012 photo provided by by Black Bear Casino Resort, people examine a bacon cheeseburger measuring 10 feet in diameter and weighing more than a ton at Black Bear Casino Resort near Carlton, Minn.
RECORD BREAKING
Welcome a new record holder to the books
CARLTON, Minn. — A Minnesota casino has cooked up a world-record bacon cheeseburger that's 10 feet in diameter and weighs more than a ton.
The behemoth burger was served up Sunday at the Black Bear Casino Resort
Guinness Records representative Philip Robertson verified the record for biggest burger. He called the feat a result of "remarkable teamwork" and said the burger "actually tastes really good."
Black Bear's burger included 60 pounds of bacon, 50 pounds of lettuce, 50 pounds of sliced onions, 40 pounds of pickles and 40 pounds of cheese.
It took about four hours to cook the patty. A crane was used to flip it.
near Carlton. It tipped the scales at 2,014 pounds.
A Duluth News Tribune report says the
previous mark was a mere 881 pounds,
13 ounces.
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Federal investigators believe there could be more victims of child molester in the Kansas City area after a second man was charged as part of an international child pornography ring.
Homeland Security Investigations special agent Gary Hartwig says the arrest of 38-year-old Michael Arnett in May prompted others to come forward and accuse 38-year-old Robert Poe III of molesting them.
search continues in child molestation case
Poe was arrested Aug. 10 in Laredo, Texas, on three counts of traveling to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. Prosecutors say Poe was a close friend of Arnett, who is facing federal charges of making, possessing and distributing child pornography.
A phone message left for Poe's attorney over the Labor Day weekend wasn't immediately returned.
Associated Press
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