THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
TUESDAY,OCTOBER 31,2006
NEWS
5A
ELECTIONS
Kline faces consumer protection complaints
BY JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — A top deputy is defending Attorney General Phill Kline's record on consumer protection, saying a decline in complaints filed and restitution reflect a change in philosophy away from harassing businesses and a "nanny state."
However, the director of the Consumer Protection Division under Carla Stovall Steckline, former attorney general, said Monday the division's latest report shows Kline isn't committed to helping consumers who feel they've been cheated.
Consumer protection is an issue as Kline, a Republican, seeks a second term against Democratic challenger Paul Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney. Steckline, a Republican and Kline's predecessor, endorsed Morrison earlier this month, citing what she called a lessening of consumer protection activities.
Amid the debate Monday, Kline consumer protection director Bryan Brown issued the division's annual report for fiscal year 2005, which ended June 30 of that year. In an unusual move, he included a 33-page memo discussing the division's change in philosophy, saying reforms had "remedied state action often accused of overreach due to a seeming antibusiness bias."
"This jurisdictional check upon the power of the 'nanny state' was nonexistent in the Consumer Protection Division in the years prior to the reforms," Brown wrote. "Many Kansas businesses have rather humorous stories to tell about the spurious nature of complaints received from the Consumer Protection Division prior to our reorganization."
The division reported almost $541,000 in consumer savings from its efforts in fiscal 2005, and $381,000 more in restitution awarded to consumers, adding up to $922,000.
But the combined total was lower than any during Stovall's eight-year tenure, which saw restitution average almost $3.2 million each fiscal year. Also, the number of complaints filed by consumers dropped from a high of 8,585 in fiscal 2000 to 4,308 in fiscal 2005.
"Mr. Kline doesn't believe in consumer protection," said Steve Rarrick, who led the division under Steckline. "I don't believe that laws passed by the Legislature with regard to consumer protection are laws that the attorney general can just ignore."
Morrison's criticism of Kline and
a contentious and sometimes bitter campaign that has featured attack ads on both sides.
That led the Lawrence Journal-World to endorse neither candi-
broad support across party lines and across the state," he said. "It shows that Kansans are tired of Phill Kline's bad judgment and wrong priorities."
"Mr. Kline doesn't believe in consumer protection."
But Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones said Kansans already knew of Kline's record on criminal justice and other issues, while Morrison needed to build his name recognition.
date, saying in a Sunday editorial: "Unfortunately, it's hard to scrape through all the mud being slung to get to basics. Wipe off the candidate you prefer and mark your ballot for him."
Kline collected $1.1 million in contributions from the beginning of 2005 through Oct. 26, according to reports filed by his campaign with the secretary of state's office. That normally would have been a record for an attorney general's race.
"Mr. Morrison was virtually unknown to the entire state except for the Kansas City area and a few pockets here and there," she said.
Besides being bitter, the campaign has been unprecedented for the amount of money the candidates have raised.
However, Morrison raised twice that — more than $2.2 million — during the same period.
Morrison's campaign began airing two new television ads statewide
Mark Simpson, Morrison's campaign manager, noted that the Democrat faced statewide attack ads from the Washington-based Republican State Leadership Committee.
"Our fundraising indicates
STEVE RARRICK
Former Consumer Protection
Division director
Monday. One touts endorsements from several newspapers. The other takes Kline to task for raising 15-year-oldlegations of sexual harassment in two dismissed
federal lawsuits against Morrison, who paid no damages to the former employee who sued him.
The Democratic challenger has repeatedly attacked Kline for hiring Brown in 2003 to lead the division. Morrison used one television spot to publicize Brown's dozen arrests, without mentioning they occurred 1980s and 1990s and arose from anti-abortion protests. Kline has said Brown's activities then represented civil disobedience.
"Clearly, under his tenure as AG, there have been problems in this division, and it starts at the top, with his hiring of someone with 12 arrests to run it," Simpson said.
Jones said those past arrests don't affect how Brown runs the division, but added, "He has that same passion for his beliefs that he has for Kansas consumers."
Brown said in his report that if there were problems, it was in the previous administration's approach to consumer protection issues.
FAST FOOD
KFC eliminates unhealthy oils Restaurant drops trans fats ahead of New York City ban
BY DAVID B. CARUSO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Industry leaders dished up a plateful of reasons why such a plan shouldn't be adopted in the nation's restaurant capital.
The move would be a "recipe for disaster that could be devastating to New York City's restaurant industry", said E. Charles Hunt, executive vice president of the New York State Restaurant Association.
The shift by KFC and a handful of other fast food chains _ and the effort by New York health officials _ mark an aggressive crackdown on an ingredient that is consumed in large doses around the country.
NEW YORK — After two years of secret taste tests, KFC said Monday it would stop frying chicken in artery-clogging trans fats, but New York City restaurants being urged to do the same say it's not so easy.
An average American eats 4.7 pounds of trans fats a year, and the oil is used as a shortening in baked goods like cookies, crackers and doughnuts, as well as in deep frying. Experts say a ban in New York would reverberate across the country because the city's food industry is so large.
KFC's announcement, which won praise from consumer advocates, came an hour ahead of a public hearing on a proposal that would make New York the first U.S. city to ban the unhealthy artificial fats.
The ban initially would have been a harsh one for KFC. But the company now says that by next April, all 5,500 of its U.S. restaurants will have switched from trans fat-rich partially hydrogenated vegetable oil to a new soybean oil believed to be less likely to cause heart disease.
Some KFC sites have already made the switch in secret trials to see if customers would notice a difference. They did not, and
Burger King also said Monday that it hopes to begin testing trans fat-free cooking in some restaurants within, 90 days. Wendy's has already switched to a zero-trans fat oil. McDonald's had announced that it intended to do so as well in 2003, but has yet to follow through.
The New York hearing on the proposed trans fat ban was packed with doctors and paid industry spokesmen. Long lines at the building's security checkpoint and an overflowing hearing room might have deterred ordinary citizens or restaurant owners from speaking.
But industry representatives like Hunt spoke out.
"This ban threatens popular dishes and affordable menus," he said. "The city needs to get serious about working with, not against, our restaurant owners."
He and others said a ban would leave cooks unable to find proper replacement ingredients, and force some to switch to bad alternatives.
"Colonel Sanders deserves a buck et full of praise," said CSPI executive director Michael Jackson. "If KFC, which deep-fries almost everything, can get the artificial trans fat out of its frying oil, anyone can."
Sheila Cohn Weiss, director of nutrition policy for the National Restaurant Association, suggested
Health advocates applauded the company's switch. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which sued KFC last spring over the trans fat content of its food, announced Monday that it was withdrawing from the lawsuit.
"We're confident that there is ample supply of healthy trans fat alternatives," Frieden said, although he added that officials might consider giving restaurants more time. The New York City Board of Health is expected to vote for the ban in December with an 18-month period for a full phase-in.
that restaurant owners in need of a quick fix would simply switch to another unhealthy substance like palm oil, which contains unhealthy amounts of saturated fat.
New York's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, said officials have heard the supply argument before and rejected it as unsupported.
Louis Nunez, president of New York's Latino Restaurant Association, said a quick survey by his group shows at least 980 of its members don't know what trans fats are.
KFC President Gregg Dedrick said he was confident the switch won't prompt complaints about taste.
Still, he added, demand for transfat-free oils has the potential to outpace supply.
"This is a switch that cannot happen immediately," she said.
KFC has concerns about supply, too.
Monsanto spokesman Chris Horner said he expected the farmland devoted to the company's new seed to triple next year to 1.5 million acres, up from 500,000 acres this year and 100,000 in 2005.
"There is no compromise," he said at a Manhattan news conference. "Nothing is more important to us than the quality of our food and preserving the terrific taste of our product."
Dedrick said KFC and the creator of the new oil, the Monsanto Corp., had to work with seed oil processors to persuade farmers to grow more of the special soybeans used in the product. Among other things, farmers were offered a price premium to grow the new soybeans.
"If this goes in with no education there is going to be an avalanche of fines." Nunez said.
Even with the development of new oils, finding replacements for every recipe may be tough.