KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010 / NEWS
3A
LAWRENCE
New biking group proposes local BMX racing course
Chris Neal/KANSAN
BY ALLYSON SHAW
Nate Spencer, a senior from Lawrence, jumps his bike off the wall between Wescoe and Stauffer-Flint halls. Spencer said he and his friends ride on campus two or three times a week.
ashaw@kansan.com
Lawrence doesn't yet have a BMX bicycle track, so Will Taylor, a junior from Lawrence, likes to ride his bike off the nearly 10-foot drop behind Wescoe Hall.
LARRI-BMX has 10 members, all in their 30s, Brian Shay, LARRI-BMX member and owner of Lawrence Re-Cyclery, said that BMX was most popular in the early '80s and has declined because of home gaming systems.
Taylor said the bike he has now can only handle a jump of about 15 feet. Held consider getting a better bike, but he said there's only so much a biker can do around Lawrence.
Taylor said he hadn't competed in a race in about eight years. But three or four times a week he and his friends jump from the stairs by Potter Lake and the stairs in front of Wescoe Hall. They also ride on the river trails and paths near Clinton Lake.
But a new non-profit group, the Lawrence Area Recreation Riders Initiative, or LARRI BMX, is trying to change that. The group has proposed a 1,500-foot dirt track that would be used for both local riders and regional races.
Students on campus seem impressed by the bikers, Taylor said, but sometimes spectators get in the way.
"And I'm not too sure how the campus police feel about it." Taylor
Taylor and 10 other students use stairs all across campus to get an adrenaline rush.
"When you're about to jump 15 feet, you can't be thinking about what might happen," Taylor said.
said.
ACADEMICS
"You have to have a certain mentality for it because it's very demanding," Taylor said. "You're pedaling constantly, falling down and breaking arms."
But BMX racing might not be for everyone. Recently while Taylor was riding his handle bars crossed, he flew off the bike and it hit him in the face. He lost a tooth, broke his nose and was knocked out for five minutes. Even when he doesn't crash, his shins get scratched up from the pedals, Taylor said.
med school expands satellite programs
Members of the LARRI-BMX group are considering two locations for the track. One is the YSI Sports Complex, 4911 W.27th St. But Shay said it would be good to have the course at the Douglas County Fairgrounds to keep it within riding distance for bikers. The proposal must be approved by the Lawrence City Commission before pushing ahead. The group hopes that the city or county will donate the land for the track.
"We could go build some jumps in somebody's backyard no problem," Shay said. "But we want to be approved. We want to hold American Bike Association-approved races."
Even so, Taylor said a new track would probably inspire some kids to get into BMX racing.
"I see a lot of kids riding bikes around here," Taylor said. "They're not really doing any tricks, but every kid loves riding a bike."
Shay said the track would bring a lot of business into Lawrence, as it would host races about twice a week in the spring and summer.
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education announced a favorable review of the four-year medical program expansions for the Wichita campus and the proposed Salina site this week.
The LCME, which is the accrediting authority for medical education programs, visited the sites in July.
The review gives the University of Kansas the official go-ahead to allow the Wichita and Salina sites to welcome their first class of four-year medical students next fall.
Edited by Alex Tretbar
Nielsen, the vice chancellor for public policy and planning, said that in her research she has found that people usually stay and decide to practice where they train.
The University medical center, Nielsen said, accepts mainly Kansas
Currently, students in the Wichita program spend their first two years at the University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., before going to Wichita for two years of clinical training. With the expansion, students will now be able to
spend all four years in Wichita.
"Kansas faces distribution and shortage problems, like much of the nation, because not enough physicians are practicing in rural communities," Marcia Nielsen said in an August interview.
According to the medical center website, an existing rural track program sent students to Salina for clinical training but with the expansion, students interested in rural health careers may complete all four years of their training in Salina.
The expansions of the programs to Wichita and Salina will address the shortage of rural health physicians in Kansas.
residents into its programs and last year 86 percent of students were Kansans.
For that reason, extensions of the two-year program in Wichita and the addition of a four-year program in Salina are crucial for ensuring the future care of rural Kansans.
The hope is that half of those training in Wichita and Salina will stay and practice there.
According to the website, the School of Medicine-Salina will be housed primarily in space provided by the Salina Regional Health Center. Students will listen to lectures along with students in Kansas City and Wichita via interactive television and podcasts, while web-based systems will support most of the curriculum's laboratory components.
By Angelique McNaughton
NATIONAL
Police crack down on cartel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JONESBORO, Ga. — Federal and local law enforcement agents have arrested 45 people and seized cash, guns and more than two tons of drugs as part of an investigation into the Atlanta-area U.S. distribution hub of a major Mexican drug cartel, authorities said Thursday.
Operation Choke Hold began in May 2009 and targeted the Atlanta-area operations of La Familia Michaocana, authorities said at a news conference at a suburban Atlanta courthouse. Known as La Familia, it is one of Mexico's largest and most brutal cartels.
"It has been widely reported that the Atlanta metropolitan area has become a major distribution center for drug cartels based in Mexico," said Jack Killorin, director of the Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. "Let today also document that law enforcement working together is successful in disrupting their oper-
Authorities seized 4,120 pounds of marijuana, 46 pounds of meth amphetamine, 43 kilograms o
cell based in Atlanta imports cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. The network distributes significant
cocaine, 20 guns, six vehicles and about $2.3 million in cash. The drugs have a street value of more than $10 million, Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Lawson said.
"This here is a mountain of drugs and a lot of cash and guns. For the cartels, all of that is replaceable."
JACK KILLORIN Director, AHIDTA
"This here is a mountain of drugs and a lot of cash and guns. For the cartels, all of that is replaceable," he said. "What's not replaceable is the trusted associates, many of whom we arrested during this operation."
The operation dealt a major blow to La Familia's operations in Atlanta, Killorin said.
amounts of the drugs to Florida,
A l a b a m a ,
Indiana, Illinois
and North
Carolina.
Suburban Gwinnett County has become a major distribution hub for multiple Mexican cartels
Investigators say the La Familia
to move their drugs throughout the eastern U.S. This investigation began in Gwinnett but quickly extended to other suburban counties, where a majority of the arrests were made.
That signals that traffickers are spreading to other parts of the metro area, in part because of a law enforcement crackdown in Gwinnett, Killorin said.
Ambulance drivers let man cast vote
HAVERTOWN, Pa. — A Philadelphia-area man didn't let an ambulance stop him from casting his vote.
ODD NEWS
Eighty-three-year-old Charles Gorby persuaded an emergency crew to stop and let him vote Tuesday as they took him home after a two-week hospital stay.
HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A Maryland jury has convicted a woman of burglary, assault and reckless endangerment for breaking into her neighbor's house wearing nothing but a bridal skirt and veil on a snowy night in February.
Thirty-three-year-old Melissa Wagaman testified Thursday that a combination of cold medicine and marijuana apparently made her hallucinate that she was getting married and her mother was locked in her neighbor's basement
ODD NEWS
Bridal hallucination leads to prison time
Wagamain broke a dining room window with her head, causing shattered glass to cut an artery in
Since the polling place was only about a block from Gorby's Havertown home, the crew agreed.
her neighbor's arm.
Gorby voted from a stretcher with his legs protruding
The jury rejected defense arguments that Wagman truly believed she needed to enter the house and did not know she was endangering her neighbor.
She faces up to 23 years in prison.
He tells the paper that "voting is the least you can do" as a citizen.
Gorby tells the Delaware County Daily Times he felt it was his responsibility to make it to the polls if he was able.
Scott was jailed early Thursday after failing to post $5,000 bond on charges of felony retail theft and receiving stolen property.
soap. Police said 38-year-old Rickey Scott stole 13 containers of soap from a Rite Aide store Wednesday evening. Police did not immediately say why Scott stole the soap or why he allegedly wanted or needed so much of it.
ERIE, Pa. — An Erie man was jailed on felony shoplifting and other charges after failing to make a clean getaway during an unusual crime: allegedly stealing $86 worth of body
Online court records do not list an attorney for Scott.
from under the voting booth's curtain.
Shoplifter caught in soap-only heist
Associated Press
Associated Press