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NEWS / WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
HEALTH
Obama reveals plan to fight AIDS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama is announcing a new national strategy for combatting HIV and AIDS aimed at helping reduce the number of infections and providing those living with the virus high-quality care free from stigma or discrimination.
The strategy calls for reducing the rate of new HIV infections by 25 percent over the next five years, and for getting treatment to 85 percent of patients within three months of their diagnosis.
Administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and domestic policy chairwoman Melody Barnes, were to unveil the strategy at the White House on Tuesday. Obama was to discuss the strategy at a reception honoring the work of the HIV and AIDS community later in the day.
"This is a moment of opportunity for the nation," Obama said in a report to be released
Tuesday. "Now is the time to build on and refocus our existing efforts to deliver better results for the American people."
The report is the result of more than a year of discussions between the administration, state and local officials, advocacy groups and the private sector. While the strategy calls for improved coordination among federal agencies, it doesn't identify any new government money to implement the strategy.
Approximately 56,000 people in the U.S. become infected each year with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and more than 1.1 million Americans are living with the HIV, according to the White House.
The new policy will concentrate HIV prevention efforts at the highest-risk populations, which include gay and bisexual men as well as black Americans, far more than is done today, said Chris Collins of the Foundation for AIDS Research, one of the groups that met with administration officials.
CAMPUS
KU Public Safety debuts crime-mapping project
BY KIRSTEN KWON kkwon@kansan.com
A new crime-mapping system on campus will help protect the KU community and work as rumor control.
The website, www.crimereports. com, will allow users to visually see where crimes occur. The KU Department of Public Safety debuted the mapping tool this month.
KU Public Safety Chief Ralph Oliver said he hoped the map would put an end to gossip that is often spread about crimes on campus.
"It's real information to either support or debug rumors," Oliver said.
A few of the crimes reported on the map within the past two weeks included disorderly conduct on Bagley Drive, an arrest for driving under the influence on West 18th Street, and an incidence of graffiti damage to the Kansas Union on Jayhawk Boulevard.
Icons on the map show the location, time and severity of the crime. Columns of information tell users
what crimes have occurred in the past seven days, and users can view crime information from several months ago. Members of the KU community will
know which areas have recently seen crimes such as car thefts, assaults and robberies.
Oliver said the department combined the map with the information it is required by federal law to report, but that the highlighted
said the site acted as a modern way for community members to keep watch over their neighborhoods.
"It's a perfect tool to collaborate with a neighborhood watch program."
"It's a perfect tool to collaborate
areas on campus weren't necessarily dangerous.
SCOTT KINZIE Senior vice president of marketing for CrimeReports.com
"If there's a laptop stolen in Wescoe, that doesn't mean it's dangerous to be in Wescoe, but we're required to put that all up," Oliver said. "If there is an area where we think there is a real threat, we would put out a separate crime alert."
Scott Kinzie, senior vice president of marketing for CrimeReports.com.
with a neighborhood watch program," Kinzie said.
The Lawrence PoliceDepartment also uses an internal system similar to the crime mapping of outside sites. Sgt. Michael Monroe said the department
planned to upgrade its system in the near future.
"We developed our system years ago but we're not saying ours is best," Monroe said. "It is an older system and we are exploring different options."
It will cost the Public Safety Department about $2,000 a year to create the online maps through the site.