12A the university daily kansan
news
wednesday, may 5, 2004
BAN: Smoking not allowed in Lawrence businesses beginning July 1
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
smoke, Occupational Safety and Health Association would do something about it, he said.
Highberger upheld that second-hand smoke could harm the public's health, as his decision hinged on this rather than on a "freedom" issue.
"Loud music does not negatively affect other people," Highberger said. "Drinking beer does not negatively affect other people, but smoking affects everyone
"I would drink a lot in there, but I just can't be in there and that's almost discrimination against me."
Gary Hawke
Former small business owner
against me."
else in the room who is breathing that smoke."
neering senator, said that commissioners should not have the ultimate authority on the smoking ban issue.
Jason Boots, KUnited engi
ngbon issues
Student Senate and the Student Legislative Awareness Board are encouraging students to help gather the 3,800 signatures necessary for a petition to vote on the issue, the Plano, Texas, sophomore said. Others spoke about how they would frequent bars if a cloud of smoke did not await them at the door.
business owner, said that it was wrong to use the word "rights" when debating a smoking ban. It was a question of rights versus convenience, he said. It was inconvenient for him to go to bars because he has asthma and heart disease.
Gary Hawke, a former small
"I love drinking," Hawke said. "I would drink a lot in there, but I just can't be in there and that's almost discrimination against me."
-Edited by Joe Hartigan
Bill grants immigrants cheap tuition
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — A bill offering some illegal immigrants a tuition break at Kansas' public colleges and universities cleared the Legislature yesterday and headed to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who plans to sign it.
The House voted 68-54 for the measure, which won Senate passage earlier this year.
Sebelius issued a statement explaining why she will sign the measure into law.
"In the long-run, we will be a stronger state." the Democratic governor said. "We need to open the doors of our colleges and universities to all our high school
graduates."
The proposal extends in-state tuition, which is lower than tuition for nonresidents, to illegal immigrants who have attended a Kansas high school at least three years and graduated or earned a general educational development certificate in Kansas.
To receive the cheaper tuition, an immigrant would have to be actively seeking legal immigration status or plan to do so as soon as he or she were eligible.
Proponent contended that many of the immigrants who will benefit have lived and attended schools in Kansas for years and intend to remain in the state.
"These young people consider
themselves Kansans," said Rep. Sue Storm, (D-Overland Park). "They're going to work in Kansas. They want to be part of us."
they want to be part Kansas residents pay substantially less than students from outside the state at public universities. In the current semester, for example, in-state tuition for 15 credit hours at Kansas State University is $1,755, compared to $5,700 for undergraduates from other states.
Opponents argued that the proposal would reward lawbreakers and perhaps even aid terrorists.
"If terrorists come to get a pilot's license at a Kansas university, at least we gave them in-state
tuition before they used it against us," Rep. Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, said sarcastically, drawing boos from some in the chamber.
"The bottom line is we are rewarding people who are in violation of federal law," Mays said after the vote.
House Speaker Doug Mays, R Topeka, was among the opponents.
Mays had refused to allow the issue to come to a vote this year, but proponents forced his hand yesterday by threatening to block action on a budget cleanup bill. The cleanup bill supplements the $10.3 billion budget already signed into law for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Bonus charges likely for car thief
The Associated Press
OLATHE - A man charged with stealing a $35,000 Cadillac, who was caught after police tracked the car down using its Global Positioning System device, could face additional charges after giving police a false name, prosecutors said.
Scott Thomas Hazel gave police a different name following his arrest, The Kansas City Star is reporting in its Wednesday's editions. Hazel was charged and booked into the Johnson County jail Mondayas Reginald M. Collier.
Collier is actually an employee of the Johnson County Department of Corrections. He learned of his "arrest" after receiving calls Tuesday from people who had seen media accounts of the car theft.
Hazel and Catherin M. Curns,
38, of Kansas City, Mo., appeared
in Johnson County District Court
on Monday on one count each of
criminal use of a credit card, felony
theft and misdemeanor theft. Colliers' bond was set at $25,000 and
Curns' was set at $10,000.
The pair are accused of stealing a 2004 Cadillac CTS worth about $35,000 from an Independence, Mo., dealership, a wallet that had
The pair are accused of stealing a 2004 Cadillac CTS worth about $35,000 from an Independence, Mo., dealership,a wallet that had been taken from a woman at a Shawnee restaurant and making $1,300 in illicit credit-card purchases.
been taken from a woman at a Shawnee, Kan., restaurant and making $1,300 in illicit creditcard purchases.
Officers found the wallet and credit cards in the Cadillac on Saturday after tracking it to a Merriam, Kan., parking lot.
Police found the suspects based on descriptions from the dealership's employees.
OnStar workers turned on the car's alarm so police could find it when they drove into the lot.
Sony comes out with Internet music download service
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Sony Corp. entered the burgeoning digital music market yesterday, launching an online music download service that the electronics and media conglomerate is banking will also generate sales for its line of portable audio players.
"They're behind the curve already and they have to play catch-up on two fronts, on selling their audio players and getting people to use their music service."
The service, dubbed Sony Connect, offers more than 500,000 tracks from artists on major and independent labels. Like Napster 2.0 and the iTunes Music Store from Apple Computer Inc., Sony
Michael Goodman Boston Yankee Group senior analyst
Connect sells individual tracks starting at 99 cents and full album downloads beginning at $1.99.
without beginning Sony's entry into the online
subscription services. Like Apple, which used its online music sales as a way to drive sales of its iPod digital players. Sony hopes to turn a profit for its own array of audio players.
music market comes more than a year since the launch of iTunes and months behind about a dozen other pay music sites and
But doing so will depend largely on whether Sony can draw music fans who have not already invested in iPods or other music players, which cannot play song files in Sony's ATRAC3 format.
"They're behind the curve already and they have to play catch-up on two fronts, on selling their audio players and getting
people to use their music service," said Michael Goodman, senior analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. "There's roughly three to four million people that have already placed that bet."
Officials at Santa Monica-based Sony Connect Inc., which runs the service, say the online market is still developing and there is room for Sony to scoop up market share.
"Apple did an excellent job in cultivating this new market," said spokesman Mack Araki. "We
believe we can expand the market to a much broader audience with a broader line of devices and an easy to use service."
Apple has about 30 percent share of the overall portable digital music player market, which includes players that play protected content sold by the online services and players that can only play MP3s or other unsecured song files, Goodman said.
Apple's share of portable players that can play legally purchased music files is between 80 percent and 90 percent, he said.