Jayplay writer Caleb Regan gives a first-hand account of his family's hunting tradition INSIDE As fall sports come to a close, Kansan sportswriters take a look back at the highs and lows of this season. 1B
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 71
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 1A
WEATHER
Vanessa Pearson/KANSAN
Darian Nave, Kansas City, Kan., junior, tries to escape the sheet Wednesday outside the Underground in Wescoe Bay. The freezing rain completely coats the sidewalks by 2 p.m.
Sudden chill shocks area
Freezing temperatures, sleet snap temperate weather around Lawrence
BY NATE MCGINNIS AND ERIN CASTANEDA
Warm weather Tuesday led many students to believe winter wouldn't come soon, but those perceptions were shattered when Mother Nature unleashed freezing rain and high winds Wednesday on campus.
The weather shift might shock students in other parts of the nation, but not KU students. Nathaniel Cunningham, Ottawa freshman, said he was used to unusual weather
in Kansas.
"I never know what to expect, especially in the winter," he said.
Donna Tucker, professor of geography, said that cold weather systems weren't unusual for the central United States and that it was normal to see snow and ice at the end of November.
"There've been times when our first winter was even later," she said. "The timing isn't all that unusual."
Weather reports predicted cold weather would not begin until Thursday, leaving some students
winter photos
Did you take photos of the season's first winter weather? Send them to photojkansan.com and we'll publish some in the paper and put them all online.
Cody Harryman, Wichita freshmen, returned home Tuesday night and forgot to roll up his car win-
unprepared for the winter storm.
dow. When he returned to his car yesterday he found his window frozen half-open with ice covering the inside of his car.
Harryman said the best way to deal with the frigid walk to class was to bundle up and face it head on.
"Wear a hoodie, wear a long-sleeved shirt and a coat and a stocking cap and try to keep your eyes shut when you're walking into the wind," Harryman said.
Adam Knoernschild, Lydon
FEATURE
SEE WEATHER ON PAGE 5A
Reasons may differ but rooting through dumpsters endures
BY DARLA SLIPKE
Plastic crunches under his feet as they sink into the waist-deep mass of boxes, books, containers and white trash bags, full of "treasures" the business had tossed.
Davis, 24, is one of many Lawrence scavengers who rumage through rotting fish, soiled diapers, swarming cockroaches and other disposed items in dumpsters behind Lawrence businesses to prevent waste, to recycle or to find abandoned resources and
Under the cover of darkness, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and faded jeans, Tyler Davis sifs through trash piled high inside a blue dumpster behind a downtown store.
food. Some go regularly, as much as several times a day, to favorite spots, others more sporadically whenever the fancy strikes them.
After recovering several issues of last month's magazines, Davis hoisted himself out of the dumpster and took off in his green Geo Metro.
"This dumpster has gotten increasingly hostile." Davis said at the next stop, another blue garbage bin. A warning was painted on the side of the bin in blood red. Owners dumped water in the bin and ripped out chapters from books they tossed to deter scavengers, Davis said. But that didn't stop him.
SEE DUMPSTER ON PAGE 4A
ARTS
Photo exhibit shows horrors of poverty
Display features pictures from trip to China
BY DARLA SLIPKE
Students and two professors met three children in the streets of China eating cigarette butts and rotting food during a summer study abroad trip. The children's father had died, probably of the bird flu, and their mother suffered mental illness trying to provide for them on $11.50 a month.
This is one of many encounters students documented in photographs during a month spent traveling throughout China. The photos are on display at the Spencer Museum of Art through Feb. 4.
Pok-Chi Lau, professor of design, said that the photos were "hard to swallow," but that the difficulty was
The woman's daughter broke her back in two places while carrying chemical fertilizer and her son also suffered from mental illness. Social workers visited the family and the mother didn't get dressed to meet them.
Two photographs of the impoverished family are displayed in the exhibit. In one, you can see dirt under the mother's fingernails. She hadn't showered in weeks, Lau said.
"She was crawling in the streets and eating rotten food, so they locked her up." Lau said.
"When you see harshness," he said, "you also see beauty."
what distinguished them
SEE CHINA ON PAGE 5A
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2008 The University Daily Kansan
BUSINESS
BAILING OUT
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Steven Allen of Lawrence escorts a man he and his father-in-law, Steve Robson, took into custody after the man, bonded through Ace Ball Bonds, missed his court date. Steven helps his father-in-law with fictive recoveries to ensure that he is not liable for the amount of the ball bond.
Life of bail bondsmen goes beyond dramatic television portrayals
BY JACK WEINSTEIN
The headlights of Steve Robson's black Ford pickup cut through the fog of gravel dust as he sped toward the mouse near Tonganoxie. He slammed on his brakes, jumped out and ran toward the door, a badge on his right hip, handcuffs hanging from his belt and pepper spray in his back pocket. As his son, Brock, and son-in-law, Steven, circled the house to prevent the woman from fleeing through a window, Robson banged on the door.
"I have a warrant for your arrest," he yelled, trying to coax the woman outside.
The woman had failed to show for her court date. If he couldn't get her out of the house and back behind bars, Robson stood to lose $1,000. It took nearly 30 minutes, an exchange of profanities between Robson and the woman's boyfriend and one failed escape attempt before the woman came outside. She allowed Robson to cuff her and take her back to jail.
Robson, 46, owns Ace Bail
Bonds, 2400 Franklin Rd., and is one of a handful of Lawrence bondsmen who make a living by bailing people out of jail. Bondsmen guarantee their clients will appear in court and an insurance company guarantees the bail payment. If the client misses court or flees, bondsmen become modern-day bounty hunters, tracking down and apprehending the "skips," as Robson calls them. If they don't return skips to jail, bondsmen and their insurers stand to lose the full amount of the bond. Because all of their clients are accused of crimes, and some flee rather than face trial, bondsmen must arm themselves with pepper spray, taser guns and bulletproof vests.
Even so, local bondsmen say the job is mostly boring and easy. It's more like being an insurance agent than is portrayed on the reality TV series, "Dog The Bounty Hunter," which follows Duane "Dog" Chapman, an eccentric bail bondsman, on his
SEE BAIL ON PAGE 8A
Ryan McGoeney/KANSAN
Steve Robson of Lawrence fields calls in his office during one of the slower parts of the bondsmans daily operational cycle. Although Robson estimated he spend about five hours a day on the phone, most calls from individuals needing bail come between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
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