14 | THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM | NEWS | WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2007
》 COURTS
City ordinance could raise legal fees for infractions
By Susan Schwarz
sschwarz@kansan.com
A proposed city ordinance could cost students who drink and drive as well as underage drinkers.
CityCommissionerRob Chestnut said the city is continuously reviewing the fees regarding the criminal justice system. Chestnut said the cost for the criminal justice system increases yearly just like other fee-based services the city provides.
If the Lawrence City Commission passes an ordinance calling for an increase in some municipal court fees, DUIs and MIPs may become more expensive.
Chestnut said the city's recent budget concerns would be affected by the fee increases.
"The fee increases will contribute to general fund revenues that are now out of balance," Chestnut said,
Chestnut said the fees represent a fraction of what it costs the city to provide law enforcement for the community.
Among other things, the ordinance calls for a $100 increase to the cost of going on diversion.
KANSAN.COM
- Results from Tuesday night's city commission meeting
Diversion is a method that allows people to avert prosecution of a case by completing conditions of a diversion agreement over a set period of time. After this set time period, if all conditions of the agreement have been met, the charge is dismissed.
City prosecutor Jerry Little said the increased diversion fee will have some financial effect on students, but not much.
Little said students will still have time to pay their fees or do community service to pay off their fines. For each hour of community service, students can work off $7 of the fine, Little said.
The standard diversion fee for an MIP will increase to $400 if the city passes the ordinance.
Becky Wasserman, Dallas junior.
said she was glad she got her MIP last year.
"Trust me, $352 was enough of a punishment." Wasserman said.
Wasserman said she thinks the potential fee increase is going to be a struggle for some students.
"It is a substantial amount of money to pull out all at once," Wasserman said.
The city commission passed the ordinance through on its first reading July 10. If the ordinance passes through the second reading it will go into effect once published.
The increased Municipal Court fees will include a $150 probation fee and $10 fingerprinting fee.
The ordinance also calls for a $52 per day fee from people jailed by the city as reimbursement to Douglas county for the cost of their incarceration. The Municipal Court judge will have the ability to assess if the defendant has the ability to pay this fee. If the defendant does not, they will not be responsible for the cost.
—Edited by Ben Smith
》 ENTERTAINMENT
Local band makes break for the big-time
Musicians question effectiveness of national publicity in enticing fans
By Alaide Vilchis Ibarra avilchis@kansan.com
Recently the local band The Only Children received national recognition for their new album, Keeper of Youth, released in May.
Despite the national recognition, Ryan Benton, the band's drummer, said that the attention does not necessarily mean people are coming to their concerts in droves.
"I don't know if people have the
On their MySpace page, people from Houston, Philadelphia and Chicago have written them to ask if they'll tour through the cities.
After being reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine and landing spots as artists of the day on spin.com and MySpace.
During their last tour, The Only Children
attention span to see a review and look for the music," Benton said. "I don't know if people would remember the name of the band for that long."
"Id much rather be in a magazine like No Depression — a smaller-circulation music magazine than Rolling Stone," Berwanger said. "Because you know that the people actually listen to the whole music and the whole CD and try to understand it."
Josh Berwanger, the frontman who formed the band in 2004, said that even though the band has been featured in national magazines, he doesn't think the publicity has helped the band bring in more people to concerts. He also said he did not care much for the coverage the band is receiving because, he said, to do the reviews of small bands in big magazines, reviewers only listen to the first three songs in an album.
played to audiences ranging in size from 12 to 150 people.
Berwanger started the band after his previous band, The Anniversary, broke up. Before that he was a University student for one semester majoring in film before he decided to drop out to go on tour with The Anniversary.
Ten years after the band broke up, Berwanger said he is at a point in his life when he is enjoying making good music.
"I don't know if people have the attention span to see a review and look for the music."
"I feel like we are pretty good and everything that we do I totally believe in but I understand that's not enough to get huge and make money," Berwanger said. "That is not as important to me as it is to put out a good record and having fun."
Benton said he has mixed feelings about the national coverage.
RYAN BENTON Guitarist, The Only Children
"Its kind of cool but I don't
know if it means anything really great is going to happen." Benton said. "I think it's cool to have one person in the middle of nowhere or in a big city that is into you."
Benton describes The Only Children's music as the type that "feels like it's the kind of music that was popular 40 years ago."
Their music sounds like old rock and roll with a hint of something modern, Benton said. With this CD, Benton said he and the band were going for a "dirty sound," something not overproduced.
"In the shit that is popular today you would never hear some sort of error. Everything is so produced it makes it sounds like a product not music." Benton said. "People are human, you have to make mistakes."
The Only Children are scheduled to play at 7 p.m., Sunday at McCoy's. 4057 Pennsylvania Ave., Kansas City, MO.
Edited by Ben Smith
Edited by Ben Smith