Canceled
It is the 15th time a scheduled baseball game hasn't
1B
been played this season.
I
TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2007
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 150
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 1A
graduation
Very few students graduate in four years,but that is not necessarily a bad thing. 4A
hockey
The Detroit Red Wings move to the Western Finals after defeating the San Jose Sharks. 8B
greenland
Two University graduate students are analyzing Greenland's climate with an advanced radar system.
8B
opinion
MURDERER!
Check out the latest opinion cartoon, "The Hypocritical Vegans." 9A
weather
Classifieds...3B
Crossword...8A
Horoscopes...8A
Opinion...9B
Sports...1B
Sudoku...8A
index
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2007 The University Daily Kansan
》 ACCIDENT
After fleeing police, a 23-year-old man crashed his pickup truck into the Chi Omega sorority house early Sunday morning. According to a police report, the man was being chased by police after he smashed the windows of two vehicles and threatened a man with a knife.
CONTRIBUTED BY OSAMA EL-TAYASH
Crash frightens onlookers
CONTRIBUTED BY OSAMA EL-TAYASH
Students who were swimming in the nearby Chi Omega Fountain narrowly escaped injury when the truck swerded around the fountain after smashing through two cement posts at the traffic control booth on Jayhawk Boulevard.
A 23-year-old man crashed his Dodge Dakota pickup truck into the Chi Omega sorority house early Sunday morning. The vehicle was traveling at speeds up to 80 mph and narrowly missed students swimming in the Chi Omega fountain, witnesses said.
BY JOE HUNT
Police had been chasing the vehicle after responding to disturbance with a weapon at the 500 block of 14th Street at 2:20 a.m. According to a police report, the man smashed the windows of two vehicles with a hammer and threatened a man with a knife. He fled after police arrived.
Osama El-Tayash, Columbia,
moph, sophomore, and Rufus Kerr;
Lawrence sophomore, had stopped to take a dip in the fountain as a study break when the accident occurred. They said about eight other students were in the fountain at the time, some swimming in bikinis or boxers.
They first heard sirens, and then saw a truck without its headlights on barreling down the street, followed by a police car.
"We had less than three seconds to move," El-Tayash said. "Even if we did, we wouldn't know which way to run."
When the truck reached the traffic control booth on Jayhawk Boulevard, the driver swerved to the left and smashed through two cement posts before he careened
SEE CRASH ON PAGE 3A
》 ULTIMATE FRISBEE
Horrorzontals hope to upset
BY KYLE CARTER
The men's ultimate frisbee team, known as the Horrorzontals, will take an experienced team to nationals in Columbus, Ohio, during Memorial Day weekend. This is their third appearance at nationals in the last five years.
The Horrortonzals placed second to Texas at the regional qualifying tournament in Austin, Texas. The 16 teams that qualified will be divided into four pools, where they will play each team in their group. The top three teams from each pool will advance to a single elimination tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Formed in 1979, the Horrorzontals have recently become a team to fear.
Kent Domas, senior, right, is a member of the men's ultimate frisbee team. The Horrorontz will participate in nationals on Memorial Day weekend.
"It started as a bunch of guys that used to do mushrooms together
Students see profitable future in new program
SOFTWARE
Two University students are trying to show that an abacus isn't just a way to solve simple mathematical equations, Christina Spires, Wichita graduate student, and Bob Thon.
BY BRIAN LEWIS-JONES
K
Falliston, Md., senior, helped create Abacus, a business plan named after the ancient calculation tool in an advanced entrepreneurship course. They won second place at the 2007 Shocker Business Plan Competition at Wichita State last April and
plan to start the business with the University professor who invented Financial Reporting and Auditing Agent Net Knowledge (FRAANK) software, Rajendra Srivastava.
Abacus uses FRAANK, which analyzes financial data automatically instead of leaving it prone to human error and has a patent pending.
Spires and Thon plan to generate investor interest in the software this
SEE PLAN ON PAGE 3A
>> BOARDWALK TRIAL
Rose changes his story about fire Defendant denies video confession
BY ERICK R. SCHMIDT
"I thought if it was something they would believe, they would leave me alone." Rose said.
Jason Allen Rose told the jury Monday that his 10-hour taped interrogation and confession was full of lies.
The version of the story Rose shared Monday was different from the one he told investigators in the days following the Boardwalk Apartments fire, which killed three people.
McGowan moved quickly through a list of confessions Rose had made on the tape, asking him to say which were truth and which were lies. The questioning moved at a rapid pace, with Rose answering quickly with "truth" or "lie" statements. Rose was asked about a series of reported incidents he had been accused of while growing up in group homes.
During the taped interrogation, Rose routinely changed details in his version of what happened that night. There had originally been a character named "Stan" who Rose said tried to sell him marijuana; Rose said he had been in the walkway multiple times before the fire; he said he set on fire a box of photographs his father had sent him. Monday, Rose told assistant district attorney Amy McGowan that those were all lies.
"You said, 'I have a problem with fires,' Jason," McGowan said. "True, or a lie?"
"That was a lie." Rose said.
Rose is accused of starting the October2005 Boardwalk Apartments fire, which killed residents Jose Gonzalez, Helen "Yolanda" Riddle and KU student Nicole Bingham. Rose is charged with aggravated arson, three counts of murder and seven counts of aggravated battery. The case originally went to trial in February but was declared a mistrial because of a late-surfacing witness. That witness, 21-year-old Emily Robinson, also took the stand in the trial's morning session.
Rose was called to the stand by his attorney, Ron Evans, and answered questions for just more than half an hour. Rose told Evans he did not think he was a suspect when the police came to talk to him at work, when he was taken to a police unit for questioning. Evans asked Rose a closing question.
"Finally, look at this jury. Did you set this fire?" Evans asked.
Rose was allowed to step off the stand just before 3 p.m. Monday and court was adjourned. Evans apologized to Judge Jack A. Murphy because he had not prepared for Rose's testimony to end so early. Evans had no more witnesses prepared.
"No." Rose said.
"I've got a bunch subpoenaed for Tuesday, your honor, but I wasn't expecting this."
Monday was the sixth day of the trial. Court will resume at 9 a.m. today.
Kansan staff writer Erick R. Schmidt can be contacted at eschmidt@kansan.com.
— Edited by Darla Slipke