THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN N THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN NEWS MANAGEMENT Editor-in-chief Hannah Wise Managing editors Sarah McCabe Nikki Wentling ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Business manager Elise Farrington Sales manager Jacob Snider NEWS SECTION EDITORS Associate news editor Joanna Hlavacek Sports editor Pat Strathman News editor Allison Kohn Associate sports editor Trevor Graff Entertainment and special sections editor Laken Rapier Associate entertainment and special sections editor Kayla Banzet Copy chiefs Megan Hinman Taylor Lewis Brian Sisk Design chiefs Ryan Benedick Katie Kutsko Designers Trey Conrad Sarah Jacobs Opinion editor Dylan Lysen Photo editor Ashleigh Lee Web editor Natalie Parker PAGE 2A ADVISERS General manager and news adviser Malcolm Gibson The University Daily Kansas is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansas are 50 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansas business office, 2015A Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunyside Avenue, LAWNES, KS, 66045 Sales and marketing adviser Jon Schlitt Contact Us editor@kansan.com www.kansan.com Newsroom: (785)-766-1491 Advertising: (785) 864-4358 Twitter: UDK_News Facebook, facebook.com/thekansa KANSAN MEDIA PARTNERS The University Daily Kansan (ISSN 0746-9467) is published daily in the school year except Saturday, Sunday, fall break, spring break and exams and weekly during the summer session including holidays. Annual subscriptions by mail are $250 plus tax. Send address changes to The University Daily Kansan, 2015A Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunpside Avenue. Check out KUJH on Knology of Kansas Channel 31 in Lawrence for more on what you've read in today's Kansan and other news Also see KUJH's website at tvku.edu KHIK is the student voice in radio. Whether it's rock 'n' roll or reggae, sports or special events, KHIK 9.7 is for you. 2000 Dole Human Development Center 1000 Sunnyside Avenue Lawrence, Kan. 66045 Wednesday What's the weather, Jay? T-Showers. 70 percent chance of rain. Wind NW at 16 mph. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2013 HI: 47 L0: 33 weather.com Thursday HI: 46 L0: 31 Puddle-jumping, anyone? Friday Cloudy. 20 percent chance of rain. Wind NW at 15 mph. Mostly cloudy. 10 percent chance of rain. Wind N at 10 mph. HI: 50 LO: 23 Sleepy kind of weather. A little warmer today. CALENDAR Tuesday, April 9 WHAT: Persian Culture Fest; Nowruz Celebration WHERE: Spencer Museum of Art, Reception Room WHEN: 2 to 4 p.m. ABOUT: Celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, by sampling Persian food, viewing iranian handicrafts and cultural items, and learning about resources for Persian languages at the University. Wednesday, April 10 **WHAT:** Tuesday Nite Swing **WHERE:** Kansas Union **WHEN:** 8 p.m. **ABOUT:** Take lessons in a variety of dance styles from East Coast and Lindy Hop to Hizzop Lindy and Balboa, all for free. WHEN: Dram Culture Fest; Film/ Panel “A Separation” WHERE: Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium WHEN: 5 to 7:30 p.m. ABOUT: See this Academy Award-winning film from Iran for free, then participate in a panel discussion afterward. WHAT: KU Fit Launch Thursday, April 11 WHERE: Amber Student Recreation Fitness Center WHEN: 4:30 to 9 p.m. ABOUT: Hit up the Rec for the launch of new fitness classes. Zumba, Body Pump, Hip Hop Hustle, Turbo Kick and Power Step classes will be featured. Market WHERE: Cottin's Hardware, 1832 Massachusetts WHEN: 4 p.m. ABOUT: Visit this small-scale indoor farmers market and pick up homegrown treats. **WHAT:** Persian Culture Fest; An Eve- nment of Persian Classical Music **WHERE:** Spooner Hall, The Commons **WHEN:** 6-30 o'm. ABOUT: Kansas City-based classical Persian music group Orkideh will perform as part of Persian Culture Fest. Friday, April 12 NATIONAL **WHAT:** Trinity Vintage Sale **WHERE:** Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vermont St. **WHEN:** 6 to 8 p.m. **ABOUT:** This classy event features elegant items such as china, silver, art and furniture for sale. Bring $5 for admission Friday night, and enjoy wine, fruit and cheese. WHAT: "8" by Dustin Lance Black WHERE: Wesco Hall, 3139 WHEN: 7:30 p.m. ABOUT: This new play by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black chronicles the federal trial about Proposition 8 in California and addresses marriage equality issues. Adults more likely to text and drive EMILY DONOVAN edonovan@kansan.com Adults are more likely to text while driving than teenagers, according to a survey conducted by AT&T2. About 49 percent of more than 1,000 surveyed adults admitted to texting while driving, compared to 43 percent of more than 1,000 surveyed teenagers surveyed last April. The popularity of texting while driving, said Nicole McCroskey, isn't surprising. Supremo Anuja Croci from Ottawa, texts and drives on her way to the store. In 2011, at least 23 percent of all accidents involved someone who was texting while driving, which is about 1.3 million crashes, according to textinganddrivingsafeft.com. Although her parents lecture her about concentrating on the road while driving, McCroskey, a freshman from Overland Park, is never taken aback when she catches her mom hypocritically texting while driving. The urge to immediately reply to her cellphone, McCroskey said, is an automatic reaction, even though she admits to laughing at and criticizing other drivers seen on their phone behind the wheel. RHIANNON ROSAS/KANSAN "I don't think people should text and drive, but that makes me a hypocrite because I text and drive," McCroskey said. McCroskey would be among the 98 percent of the survey responders who admitted to texting while driving that said doing so is unsafe. "I put my phone on top of my steering wheel and text while I'm kind of looking at the road in the background while my phone is in the foreground". McCroskey said. "I'm pretty sure everyone does that." Kansas Statute 8-15,111 prohibits drivers from reading or sending any written communication, including text messages, instant messages and email. The law, however, makes exceptions: drivers can access their contact list to make a phone call, use navigation applications and even receive and read information related to safety alerts, weather alerts and traffic alerts. Although it's a primary law, meaning that McCroskey could be pulled over and issued a $60 fine for texting and driving without having to be caught in any other violation, the law has so many exceptions that Sergeant Trent McKinley, Lawrence Police Department's Public Affairs Officer, may not pull a driver over even if he sees she is on her phone. Even when next to another car at a stoplight, McKinley said it's difficult to be certain a driver is texting rather than doing something exempted without sitting in the same vehicle and literally looking over her shoulder. "If I'm going to stop you, I want to have some reasonable suspicion that you're violating the law," McKinley said. "For me to stop you and then find that you were looking up your mother's telephone number at work, I would have potentially made a mistake in stopping and detaining you." Furthermore, asking for a search warrant to verify, Sergeant McKinley said, may not be reasonable if a driver were to deny having texted and driven after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation. While Kansas is one of 39 states that ban text messaging while driving, only 10 states hand banded cellphone use altogether. "All of us will agree that mobile devices like that — whether it be a GPS, a cellphone, any other electronic device that requires your attention — if you're giving that device attention, you're not giving the road and other things the level of attention that you should," McKinley said. "It definitely creates a distraction, and those distractions are dangerous." Virginia Tech Transportation Institute estimates that text messaging while driving increases the risk of crashing 23 times than when driving while not distracted. In 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 18 percent of crashes that caused fatality or injury was caused by driver distraction. "People text and drive because they don't think that it can wait. McCroskey said. Edited by Jordan Wisdom INTERNATIONAL Thatcher remembered as more than a politician ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON — Margaret Thatcher was not just a political titan, she was a cultural icon — skewed by comedians, transformed into a puppet and played to Oscar-winning perfection by Meryl Streep. With her uncompromising politics,ronlad certainty,bouffant hairstyle and ever-present handbag,the late British leader was grist for comedians,playwrights,novelists and songwriters whether they loved her or — as was more often the case — hated her. SATIRICAL TARGET Thatcher's free-market policies transformed and divided Britain, unleashing an outpouring of creative anger from her opponents. A generation of British comedians, from Ben Elton to Alexei Sayle, honed their talents lampooning Thatcher. In the U.S., "Saturday Night Live" got in on action — albeit more gently — making the Iron Lady the subject of several skits. In one of them, Monty Python member Michael Palin played the prime minister shortly after her election in 1979, poking fun at her helmet of hair. MUSICAL OPPOSITION Pop was political in Thatcher's day, as the bitter social divisions of the 1980s sparked an angry musical outpouring. "Whenever I'm asked to name my greatest inspiration, I always answer 'Margaret Thatcher,' musician Billy Bragg, one of her most vocal opponents, said in 2009. "Truth is, before she came into my life, I was just your run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter." Bragg was a member of the 1980s Red Wedge movement that campaigned against Thatcher and the Conservatives and for the Labour Party. LITERARY INSPIRATION Thatcher has made appearances in several novels written or set in the 1980s. — forms the dizzying pivot of Hollinghurst's tale of 80s power and excess. She was a major, though mostly unseen, in Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prizewinning 2004 novel "The Line of Beauty," set during the height of Thatcher's rule. The prime minister's appearance at a Conservative lawmaker's party — where she sends the crowd into a tizzy and dances to the Rolling Stones with the novel's young protagonist — forms the dizzying pivot of STAGE AND SCREEN STAR Thatcher's transformation into a stage and screen character started not long after she took office. The most acclaimed recent screen Thatcher was Streep's turn as the politician looking back on her life in the 2011 film "The Iron Lady" Streep won an Academy Award for a performance that humanized a divisive character. "It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the U.K," Streep said. "But to me, she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit."