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NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2007
Thai House Delivers
publican presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) speaks to the House of Representative at the State House on Wednesday in Oklahoma City. Brownback is one of several socially conservative republicans running for the republican presidential nomination.
Brownback seeks support from conservatives
》2008 ELECTION
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OKLAHOMA CITY — Sen. Sam Brownback said Wednesday he is "a tortoise" in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, starting out slowly and slowly moving up in the polls.
"It is very early in this contest," Brownback said following a speech before the Oklahoma House. "It is a big crowded field."
Brownback, a favorite of social conservatives, said he is "getting some good traction" as he crisscrosses the nation delivering his message in states whose 2008 primaries are considered key to the nomination.
Brownback emphasized both fiscal and religious conservative ideas during a 20-minute address to the state House where he promoted faith-based lifestyles and stronger families.
Pollisconsistentlyplace Brownback of Kansas behind top-tier candidates Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts.
He criticized legal attempts to stop religious expression like the singing of hymns at Christmas in
"The country is a faith-based experiment," Brownback said. "Faith is a good thing. It's not a bad thing. We ought to celebrate it."
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public venues.
"Don't use legal fees as blackmail to drive people out of the public square," he said.
Brownback expressed support for the war in Iraq and said that as president he would veto a war spending bill passed by the U.S. House that would require President Bush to bring combat troops home from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008. The president has also promised to veto it.
"We must win this war on terrorism," Brownback said, adding it is "right and just" to oppose militant Islamic radicals who are bent on attacking the U.S.
"The only way we lose is to pull out of the war on terrorism," Brownback said to applause from lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state House.
He said withdrawing from Iraq will not end the threat of terrorist attacks.
"We must engage and we must be in this fight," he said. "We cannot set a deadline for us pulling out."
Brownback said the nation needs a national energy policy that concentrates on wind energy, biofuels and other alternative fuels to make the nation less dependent on foreign fossil fuel sources.
he said.
He also said he opposes a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. "If you want less of something, tax it,"
Brownback said he wants to restrain federal spending and realign the nation's tax code by adopting an alternative flat tax. Placing four large volumes of Internal Revenue Service tax codes on the podium, Brownback
said the code is unintelligible.
"It needs to be taken behind a barn and killed with a dull ax," he said.
He also commended the state House for adopting anti-abortion legislation that would bar state tax
dollars and facilities from being used for the procedure. The measure is opposed by the Oklahoma State Medical Association, which said it interferes with a physician's ethical obligation to discuss all options of treatment with a patient.
CRIME
Professor appeals murder conviction
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Murray said in the appeal that the 2005 conviction for the bludgeoning and stabbing of Carmin D. Ross was "tainted."
LAWRENCE — A former Kansas State University professor convicted of murdering his ex-wife in 2003 has appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court for a new trial, claiming that his trial was unfair and based on circumstantial evidence.
An attorney for Thomas E.
A jury found the former English professor guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years. Murray has maintained his innocence.
The appeal argues that the conviction was based largely on Murray's suspicious statements and actions after Ross' death and not physical evidence linking him to the crime.
"The state's case was a house of cards, built on dozens of minor circumstances," appellate defender Sarah Ellen Johnson wrote in her brief to the court. "Remove any one of the minor circumstances and the entire case against Mr. Murray could collapse."
GAMING
Johnson's appeal for a new trial includes questions over a drop of Murray's blood that prosecutors said was found at the scene of the killing.
Assistant District Attorney Angela Wilson said last month that there was an "overwhelming mountain" of circumstantial evidence against Murray.
Prosecutors said Murray killed Ross, whose body was stabbed 17 times, because he was furious about the possibility of losing custody of his daughter. The murder weapon was never found.
Johnson said DNA analysis of the blood wasn't a conclusive match with Murray's.
Legislators gamble on casinos' future Use of slot machine money unclear
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — For many legislators, the elusive effort to remove Summer County from consideration for a resort casino was like Sasquatch, something glimpsed only in passing and from a distance, perhaps only a myth.
Others insisted before legislators began their annual spring break Wednesday that the measure is real and will appear when they return April 25.
Meanwhile, Sumner County awaits word on how much money it will get from a casino and slot machines at Wichita Greyhound Park.
What emerged all day Tuesday and early Wednesday was plenty of talk, a lot of maneuvering but no bill.
"There still a lot of things out there to be discussed and hashed out in any trailer bill, and I haven't seen one yet," said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney (D-
Understanding the behind-the-scenes maneuvering on Sumner County's fate starts with last week's passage of the bill allowing a single casino each in Wyandotte County, Ford County, a southeast zone including Crawford and Cherokee counties and a south-central zone covering Sedgwick and Sumner counties. The measure also permits slot machines at race tracks in Kansas City, Frontenac and Wichita.
Summer County became eligible for a casino through an amendment added in the House by Rep. Vincent Wetta (D-Wellington). Even if it doesn't land the casino, it would get a share of Sedgwick County's gambling revenue, about $2 million.
Greensburg). "Gaming issues are always hard to negotiate."
Supporters pushed the bill through using procedures that prevented senators from rewriting the measure before sending it to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
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