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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2004
THE TRUTH IS...
INGREDIENTS SHOULD NEVER BE SECRET.
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Motive in Peterson case questioned
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Scott Peterson was not experiencing money problems and stood more to gain financially if his pregnant wife remained alive, a defense witness testified yesterday at his murder trial.
Martin Laffer, a certified public accountant and former Internal Revenue Service investigator, testified yesterday that the Petersons appeared to be in good financial shape.
"Does it appear to you they were doing well for a young married couple with a baby on the way at their age?" defense attorney Mark Geragos asked.
Laffer said Peterson was paying $1,300 a month toward the mortgage on the couple's home, $50 more than the minimum required payment.
"Yes, they were fine," Laffer replied.
"Is there anything you see from the credit report that indicated Mr. Peterson did not have good credit?" Geragos prodded.
"Not at all, just the opposite," Laffer said.
Prosecutors have suggested that aside from Peterson's affair as a motive for murder, he hoped to gain from a $250,000 life insurance policy taken out on
Laci Peterson more than a year before she vanished.
Prosecutors have tried to portray the couple as being in financial straits. An auditor who testified previously for the prosecution said the couple had about $210,000 in debt, including their home mortgage.
"just the fact that somebody's selling something doesn't mean they need money," Laffer said.
During cross-examination of Laffer Tuesday, prosecutor Dave Harris noted the Petersons had been selling jewelry at pawn shops in the weeks before Laci vanished.
Laffer testified Monday that while Peterson's startup fertilizer
business was struggling, the parent company had assumed all debt and in fact had planned to lose money the first four years.
He also said that Laci Peterson was set to inherit part of $2.4 million from the estate of her grandparents,including part of $480,000 from the sale of their home.
She had already inherited about $100,000 in jewelry after her grandmother's death.
Laffer added that Peterson would have benefited from the inheritance only if Laci were still alive and the two were married. The money is now being split between two of Laci's siblings, he said.
President presses intelligence bill
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to reject an attempt by Republican leaders in the House to place in an intelligence reorganization bill some anti-illegal immigration measures that Democrats say they won't support.
The Bush administration wants "an effective bill that both Houses can pass and the president can sign into law as soon as possible to meet the nation's security needs," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and budget director Joshua Bolten said in a letter to congressional leaders.
negotiate a compromise on legislation based on the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.
Bush himself earlier called for lawmakers to hurry to finish their negotiations.
"These reforms are necessary to stay ahead of the threats," the president said in a Monday campaign speech. "I urge Congress to act quickly so I can sign them into law."
The House bill would expand the number of aliens subject to quick deportation by increasing the amount of time they would have to be in the United States to be exempted from speedy deportation.
Rice and Bolten's letter came as congressional negotiators prepared for their first public meeting on Wednesday to
The White House provided a copy of the letter to The Associated Press on Tuesday to ensure its side was publicly represented as the legislation becomes entangled in election-season politics.
"This is a blueprint and a path to a bill the president could sign to make our country safer and stronger," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
The Sept. 11 commission recommended the creation of a national intelligence director position to control almost all of the nation's 15 intelligence agencies, saying the agencies did not work together properly to stop the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington.
Design excellence goes to architects
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The architects who designed Bill Clinton's presidential library, a gleaming glass and steel building over the Arkansas River that invokes his administration's theme of "building a bridge to the 21st century," has won a National Design Award for excellence in architecture.
Polshek Partnership Architects of New York, whose projects include Carnegie's newest concert hall and the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was one of two winners in the architecture design category for the prizes, awarded yesterday by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Architect Rick Joy, currently working on a resort in Utah and several residential projects in the Southwest, also received an architecture award.
The $165 million Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., is scheduled to open next month with a major celebration and is expected to draw 300,000 visitors in 2005. The structure, designed to feel airy
and inviting, also mimics six industrial bridges that span the river and contribute to the city's aesthetic.
Polshek Partnership specializes in projects for educational, cultural and nonprofit organizations and tries to combine beauty with a connection to history, company founder James Polshek said.
"Architecture has a responsibility somewhat greater than making beautiful form — it has to make beautiful form that has some lasting meaning," he said.
Polshek Partnership also was recently selected to design an underground exhibit center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Polshek and Joy were to receive the architecture awards Tuesday evening at a ceremony that celebrates and raises public awareness about "the important role that design and designers play in people's lives," museum director Paul Thompson said. "This year the jury seems to have made a very strong commitment toward environmental responsibility and design that emphasizes human values."
EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY
$500 SCHOLARSHIP EX.C.E.L AWARD WINNERS
EDUCATION
SUA and BOCO would like to congratulate the winners of the 13th annual ExCel Award! They will both receive a $500 scholarship and they will be planning the Blueprints Leadership Conference in the Spring!
BOCO
Board of Glass Offices
SUA
Gaston Araoz Susan Henry
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