4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 4. 2008
CRIME
Police request help for Final Four night
BY FRANCESCA
CHAMBERS
fchambers@kansan.com
Students who celebrate on Massachusetts Street Saturday will face a tough opponent — the Lawrence Police Department.
Sgt. Paul Fellers, of the Lawrence Police Department said the department had requested assistance from five outside agencies to help control crowds downtown.
Fellers said he was unsure how many more police officers would be on duty during the Final Four games than were on duty during the previous NCAA games, but that all five agencies said they would send officers.
The police department issued a press release Wednesday reminding fans that no missiles, fireworks, bottles or cans would be tolerated and plastic cups would be the only open containers allowed in public.
compliance.
The release said traffic would not be rerouted and pedestrians should be considerate toward motorists and vice versa.
Fellers worked downtown during the 2003 Final Four game and said that the crowds celebrated
Fellers said that although plastic cups would be permitted, it was illegal
to consume alcohol in public and the statute would be enforced.
Fellers said fans needed to remember that the national spotlight would not only be on the basketball team but on the community as well.
but that they were respectful of the surrounding communities.
Fellers said the best tool the police department would rely on was people doing the
He also said that illegal activities would be judged on a case by case basis but that generally the department would encourage voluntary
Fellers said fans needed to remember that the national spotlight would not only be on the basketball team but on the community as well. University Relations issued a press release Thursday echoing
Fellers' reminder.
Last Sunday, between 3 p.m. and midnight, the Lawrence Police Department received two fireworks calls and two noise complaints.
Kim Murphree of the Lawrence Police Department said the crimes may or may not have actually occurred.
It also reported one trespasser, six non-injury accidents, one burglary, two thefts, two instances of criminal damage, four disturbances (one of which included a weapon) and four medical emergencies.
In addition, more crimes may have been committed that were not reported, and the crimes that did occur may not have been related to the basketball games.
Edited by Samuel Lamb
Intruders raid opposing party's offices
>> ZIMBABWE ELECTIONS
A resident holds a poster with a message directed at President Robert Mugabe while celebrations were going for an opposition member of parliament who won a parliamentary seat in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Sunday. Riot police and other security forces were deployed to the suburbs ASSOCIATED PRESENTS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARARE, Zimbabwe
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule.
Five days after the vote, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission still had not released results on presidential election despite
Earlier, Mugabe apparently launched his campaign for an expected run-off presidential ballot even before the official results of Saturday's election were announced, with state media portraying the opposition as divided and controlled by former colonial ruler Britain.
increasing international pressure, including from former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who recently mediated an end to Kenya's postelection violence.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change already asserted its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidency outright, but said it was prepared to compete in any run-off.
The police raids came a day after official results showed Mugabe's party had lost control of parliament's 210-member lower house. The election commission was slow on the 60 elected seats in the Senate, releasing the first returns late Thursday that gave five seats each to the opposition and ruling party.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Bitti said hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition at a Harare
hotel were ransacked by intruders he believed were either police or agents of the feared Central
Intelligence Organization.
Biti said the raid at the Meikles Hotel targeted "certain people ... including myself." He said Tsvangirai was "safe" but had canceled plans for a news conference. Tsvangirai was arrested and severely beaten by police a year ago after a banned opposition rally.
In a further signal of the government's hardening mood, heavily armed riot police surrounded and entered a Harare hotel housing foreign correspondents and took four away, said a man answering the telephone at the hotel. Eight journalists were staying at the York Lodge.
"Mugabe has started a crackdown," Biti told The Associated Press. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."
"An American consular official who visited him at the central police station reported that he was being held for 'violation of the journalism laws,'" Keller said.
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said Times correspondent Barry Bearak, a winner of a 2002 Pulitzer Prize, was one of those taken into custody.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm over the detentions and called for the reporters' immediate release. "It is imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to work freely," said Joel Simon, the group's executive director.
The identities of the other reporters hadn't been determined.
Zimbabwe lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said "quite a few" American and British people had been detained by police but no charges had been filed against them. She said some were being questioned individually by police but were not allowed to have lawyers present.
Mugabe has ruled since his guerrilla army helped force an end to white minority rule and bring about an independent Zimbabwe in 1980, but his popularity has been battered by an economic freefall that followed the often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.
Seemingly laying the groundwork for a Mugabe run-off campaign, the state-run Herald newspaper said the ruling ZANU-PF party was running neck and neck with the opposition in the vote count, and it highlighted divisions among Mugabe's foes.
The Herald also charged that Tsvangirai would give farmland back to whites.
CAMPUS
Class cancellations not yet determined
BY JESSICA WICKS jwicks@kansan.com
Classes are still on...for now
In 1988, the provost cancelled classes for the entire school the day after the KU championship victory. The rumors suggest that if Self can pull off the big win, Chancellor Robert Hemenway will follow suit.
University of Kansas students have been calling the chancellor's office all week to verify rumors that classes will be cancelled Tuesday if the Kansas basketball team wins the championship Monday night, according to Jessica Pryor, senior administrative associate to the chancellor's office.
Todd Cohen, director of University Relations, said students should plan on going to class as usual.
"We have to get past Saturday first," Cohen said.
Pryor said some students were so sure the Jayhawks would win and classes would be canceled that they were planning trips for that day.
"They are a little ahead of themselves," Pryor said. "The last time that happened was 20 years ago."
Pryor said she hadn't heard of anything from the chancellor about canceled classes but that the process would be similar to inclement weather closings.
"You won't know until the last
minute," Pryor said.
Cohen said that he heard reports on TV that the University always cancelled classes for championship victories.
"The last time that actually happened was in 1988," he said.
Brian Clausen and Brittan Young, Overland Park sophomores, said they would not go to class even if it were scheduled as usual.
"If we win the national championship,we deserve to have class off." Clausen said.
Young said the chancellor should call off classes even if the Jayhawks don't win.
Cohen said that the basketball players themselves would be in class the next day and students should do the same.
"Everybody would be too depressed to go to class," Young said. "No one would participate."
"We have to remember that we represent the same school the players do," Cohen said. "Stay Jayhawks, stay classy."
Cohen, who was a KU student in 1988, said it was easy for things to get out of control after the game.
He said he hoped students wouldn't let the exuberance of the expected victory Monday take over common sense.
He said the celebration committee would mostly be concerned with student safety.
AIRLINES
— Edited by Jared Duncan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESENTS
People stand in line at a Southwest Airlines counter at Chicago's Midway Airport on Thursday. Well-publicized maintenance problems at American, Southwest and other airlines were filtering into the飞行的 public's pcacy, adding a new headache to air travel.
Grounded flights add concerns for travelers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Before boarding an American Airlines flight to Dallas this week, Jody Johnson took an unusual pre-travel precaution: She checked to see whether the aircraft was among those recently grounded because of safety concerns.
She was relieved to learn it was not the same type of plane grounded last week by American Airlines and Delta Air Lines for inspections of wiring along the wheel wells.
"It's the airlines' responsibility to us as consumers to offer service that's safe," said Johnson, a student from San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Well-publicized equipment problems at American, Southwest and other large carriers is making travelers jittery and adding another headache to the ordeal of air travel.
"It's the airlines' responsibility to us as consumers to offer service that's safe."
JODY JOHNSON American Airlines passenger
There are also questions about the outsourcing of maintenance work to overseas facilities and allegations of a too-cozy relationship between airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Such concerns aren't likely to fade from filers' psyches soon, as Congress and the FAA pledge to step up scrutiny of maintenance procedures. Still, flying on U.S. airlines has never been safer, according to analysts.
"You just hope and pray that (airlines) do their homework, because our lives are at stake," said Grant Schleisner, who arrived at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday after a 12-hour flight from Auckland, New Zealand.
"I'd rather miss a flight than be put on a plane that you're not sure about," he said.
Analysts say any financial impact stemming from fliers concerns about lax maintenance is far outweighed by the punishment the airline industry is taking because of high fuel prices and economic weakness.
And most travelers say they have faith in U.S. carriers and their regulators.
Schleisner, a 63-year-old retiree from San Luis Obispo, Calif., applauded the airliners' decisions to cancel flights.
In recent years, public sentiment about regulation has been "less is more, but people have a right to beconcerned," said Daniel Petree. dean of the College of Business at Embry-
Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The public spotlight heated up last month after the FAA took the rare step of ordering the audit of maintenance records at all domestic carriers following reports of missed safety inspections at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co.
The airline was hit with a record $10.2 million fine for continuing to fly dozens of Boeing 737s that hadn't been inspected for cracks in their fuselages.