6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN NEWS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2004 Anti-war ad incorrect, Boyda says THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TOPEKA — Democrat Nancy Boyda yesterday denounced a television advertisement from Republican Rep. Jim Ryun that uses an image of Osama bin Laden and questions whether Boyda supports American troops abroad. Boyda, challenging Ryun for the 2nd District seat, demanded that the congressman pull the ad and apologize. The ad notes that Boyda participated in anti-war protests before the conflict in Iraq began last year, then attempts to tie her to a national group critical of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. "She has an odd way of showing her support" for American troops, the ad says of Boyda. "This ad is an out-and-out gutter attack and is the best evidence that he has lost his Kansas values and will now say anything to hold his seat," Boyda said during a news conference yesterday. Ryun's campaign stood by the ad, which began appearing Friday on TV stations in Topeka and Pittsburg. "We are not going to pull this ad," campaign manager Eric Haar said. Ryun began airing this ad less than a week after the Boyda campaign began broadcasting a commercial accusing Ryun of trying to prevent the military from cracking down on fraudulent insurance sales to soldiers, citing letters he wrote to the Pentagon in 2003 and 2004. Ryun has said he had concerns about proposed regulations but has argued it's wrong for Boyda to suggest he sided with insurance companies over soldiers. Boyda acknowledged participating in protests before U.S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003. Stories in The Kansas City Star described her as active in the anti-war movement and said she helped organize weekly rallies in Johnson County, where she was living. Boyda told reporters: "People, good Kansas people, Republicans and Democrats, moderates, conservatives, liberals, had questions about whether we should go to war, had questions about whether there was a coalition broad enough at the time." Last year, in justifying the war in Iraq, President Bush linked former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks carried out by bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Earlier this year, a bipartisan 10-member commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks found little evidence of collaboration between the ousted Saddam and Al Qaeda. However, Ryun's ad suggested that Boyda organized pre-war protests with a group opposed to U.S. action in Afghanistan, where the military hunted for bin Laden. The group is ANSWER Coalition, with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, which has described U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and other nations as "occupation." ANSWER stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. It organized a January 2003 anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., in which Boyda participated. Boyda campaign manager Jeff English said she neither belongs to the group nor endorses its views. "Jim Ryun is wrong to say that I did not support our troops. He is wrong to say that I did not support the war on terror, and he is wrong insinuate that I wouldn't do everything possible to defend our country, to rout out Osama bin Laden. It's a lie, and he knows that, and he needs to retract those statements," Boyda said. Haar said the Ryun campaign did not know how long it will broadcast the ad, and added, "It's a factual ad." Fort Riley soldiers charged with murder THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi civilian, the 1st Cavalry Division announced yesterday. A military statement identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr. and Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban, both from Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment from Fort Riley. Fort Riley spokeswoman Sam Robinson said Horne, 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., and Alban, 29, of Carson, Calif., were both on their second tour of duty in Iraq with the unit. The military declined to provide details about the case, saying an investigation is ongoing. The statement from the 1st Cavalry Division said the alleged incidents are not related to murder charges filed against Sgt. Michael Williams and Spc. Brent May from the same unit. They were charged in the deaths of three Iraqis, the military announced last week. Williams was also charged with obstruction of justice and making a false official statement, the military said. Horne joined the Army in September 1999 and arrived at Fort Riley in April 2003. Alban joined the Army in April 1997 and arrived at Fort Riley in December 1997. Robinson referred all other questions to the 1st Cavalry Division officials in Iraq, adding that Fort Riley has learned little about the two incidents since they were first reported. Yesterday's charges were the third set of murder charges filed in just over two weeks against soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — NBC chose the 50th anniversary of The Tonight Show on yesterday to announce that Jay Leno will be succeeded by Late Night host Conan O'Brien in five years — or thousands of jokes from now. The unusual succession plan solves a delicate problem for NBC, blocking other networks from poaching O'Brien to move him to an earlier time slot. Leno planned to make the announcement on yesterday's Tonight show. "In 2009, I'll be 59 years old and will have had this dream job for 17 years," Leno said. "When I signed my new contract, I felt that the timing was right to plan for my successor and there is no one more qualified than Conan. "Plus, I promised Mavis I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60," the notoriously workaholic Leno said about his wife. He knew that they wanted to keep O'Brien but that wouldn't be likely if Leno kept doing the job indefinitely. ical respect. But Leno eclipsed Letterman among viewers in the 1995-96 season and hasn't looked back. When they signed Leno to his latest contract extension, NBC executives said they asked Leno when he'd feel comfortable making a transition. Leno's agreement to a 2009 exit gives him the chance to make a smoother transition than when he took over from Johnny Carson on May 25, 1992, said Aaron Barnhart, a Kansas City Star columnist who once ran a newsletter on late-night TV news. Leno was criticized then for not even mentioning his predecessor. In the season that concluded last week, Tonight averaged 5.8 million viewers, a 2 percent increase over the previous year. Letterman's Late Show on CBS averaged 4.2 million, up 8 percent from the year before. For his first few years at Tonight, Leno trailed the person he beat for the job — David Letterman — in ratings and crit- Some in the industry privately thought it odd that Leno, who rarely if ever misses work, would willingly place a deadline on himself unless he was being pushed by NBC. NBC executives were not commenting on yesterday. But Barnhart said the experiences of Leno's good friend, Jerry Seinfeld, might have proved that there is life — and lucrative work — after giving up the TV gig of a lifetime. John L. White/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Brad Anderson, left, and Hector Esparza walk past a boat that was washed ashore by Hurricane Jeanne, Sunday at the Everglades Adventure Marine in Pahokee, Fla. "Seinfeld has proven how you can move beyond TV and continue to be as big and as popular and as in demand as ever without having to punch the clock every night," he said. O'Brien's previous contract was expiring this year. The last time he was up for a renewal, Fox tried to lure him with an earlier show, but O'Brien turned it down at the last minute. ABC, Fox and even CBS — if Letterman has any plans to retire himself in the next few years — might have been interested. 'Nature destroys it' again in Florida In interviews, O'Brien, 41, has expressed a mixture of ambition and loyalty to NBC. He debuted in his current time slot in September 1993. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS "There is the curiosity to take the show earlier," O'Brien told The New York Times last spring. "But if going to another network for more money still means being seen by fewer people, what are you doing? Then it's just an ego thing." MELBOURNE, Fla. Hurricane Jeanne tore a fresh path of destruction as it finished its march up storm-ravaged Florida. The fourth hurricane in six weeks shut down much of the state and prompted recovery plans on a scale never before seen in the nation. At least six people died in the storm as it plowed across Florida's midsection in a virtual rerun for many residents still trying to regroup from hurricanes that have crisscrossed the Southeast since mid-August. Jeanne came ashore around midnight Saturday with 120 mph wind, striking the same area hit three weeks ago by Hurricane Frances and rocketing debris scattered by earlier storms. Roofs were torn off, stop lights dangled precariously and bridges were flooded from the mainland to barrier islands. About 2.6 million homes and businesses lost power, but some 800,000 had it restored by midday. Jeanne was at barely tropical storm strength when its center moved over Georgia late yesterday morning, dumping up to 6 inches of rain. It later weakened into a tropical depression with steady winds near 35 mph. The storm doused South Carolina and spawned tornadoes that damaged seven mobile homes and a building housing a Head Start center, said Cody Odom, of the Clarendon County Disaster Preparedness Agency. Four people were injured. Frustration was obvious yesterday in Florida. Nicole jillard and Ed Holzer waited 20 minutes in their car with their 3- and 1-year-old children for two bags of ice, a case of bottled water and 12 Meals Ready to Eat at a Kmart parking lot in Stuart. The drive-up service provided by the National Guard attracted a line of cars stretching at least a half-mile down U.S. 1, the coastal city's main thoroughfare. Florida was the first state to withstand a four-hurricane pounding in one season since Texas in 1886. "We fix it and nature destroys it and we fix it again," said Rockledge bar owner Franco Zavaroni, who opened his tavern to seven friends who spread mattresses on the floor among the pool tables to ride out the storm. Irene Underwood, 88, waited at a Red Cross shelter in Melbourne for a ride to her sixth shelter since the hurricanes started. Her latest temporary home was being closed as emergency officials consolidated operations. "I can't go home because I don't have any power. It's terrible." Underwood said. Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith said yesterday that Jeanne left few buildings in his county unscarred because Frances had weakened them and subsequent rain from Ivan had saturated the ground. At 2 p.m., the center was in southwestern Georgia south of Macon. It was moving north at 14 mph and was expected to move over the Carolinas. About 50 homes in Valdosta, Ga., in the south-central part of the state, were evacuated early yesterday because of flooding. More than 76,000 Georgia homes and businesses were without power, and about 760 people staved in Red Cross shelters. President Bush declared a major disaster area in 26 of Florida's 67 counties while FEMA officials said the hurricanes represented the largest relief effort in the agency's history. More than 3,000 National Guard troops were deployed to aid relief efforts. Several counties, including Palm Beach and St. Lucie opened distribution sites yesterday for water and ice. Jeanne follows Charley, which hammered Florida's southwest coast Aug. 13; Frances, which struck the same area as Jeanne Sept. 5; and Ivan, which blasted the western Panhandle Sept. 16. The three storms caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 73 people in Florida alone. "I never want to go through this again," said 8-year-old Katie Waskiewicz, who checked out the fallen trees and broken roof tiles in her Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood after riding out Jeanne with her family. "I was running around the house screaming." Jeanne was a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall at Hutchinson Island, 35 miles north of West Palm Beach. Officials at the National Hurricane Center said the similar paths of Jeanne and Frances were possibly unprecedented. With Jeanne dumping heavy rain, there was fear of flooding in the days to come in already saturated east and central Florida. Most counties in South Carolina except the northeast corner were under a flood watch, and the U.S. Weather Service placed much of southern Georgia under a tornado watch. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency and mobilized 300 National Guard soldiers. The University of Kansas Department of Theatre and Film University Theatre 2004·2005 Season Season tickets now on sale! Your University Theatre University Theatre Ticket Office 864-3982 A CLAS Act! MAINSTAGE SERIES ★ KU-TYP 50th Anniversary Celebration You Can't Take It with You by Moss Hart and George Kaufman March 4, 5, 6*, 10, 11, 12, 2005 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare November 12, 13, 14*, 18, 19, 20, 2004 Speakers nightly at 7 p.m. prior to 8 p.m. curtain Amber Waves by James Still October 1**, **2**, *3*, 7, 8, 9, 2004 Candide All performances are in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre Music by Leonard Bernstein, Book by Hugh Wheeler, adapted from the book by Voltaire Lyrics by Richard Wilbur, with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and John Latouche April 29, 30, May 1*, 5, 6, 7, 2005 KU THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE SERIES Still Life with Iris by Steven Dietz ★ October 2*, 2004 -in repertory with- Amber Waves by James Still All performances are in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre Noodle Doodle Box by Paul Maar February 12*, 2005 INGE THEATRE SERIES by Aristophanes October 22, 23**, 24*, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30**, 2004 Two One-Act Plays Two One-Act Plays Directed, designed and performed by our Undergraduate Students April 8, 9**, 10*, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16**, 2005 All performances are in the William Inge Memorial Theatre August 27 - 28, 2004 William Ige Memorial Theatre SPECIAL EVENT KU's Summer Greek Theatre Program presents The Eumenides, the third part of Aeschylus' Orestiae Order individual tickets online at kutheatre.com less noted, all performances are at 7:30 p.m. *2:30 p.m. **5:00 p.m. **8:00 p.m. TUE Spa aire com