THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008
NEWS
NEW YORK
9A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation amid a prostitution scandal as wife Silila looks on Wednesday in his offices in New York City.
BY VERENA DOBNIK AND
MICHAEL GORMLEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) _ In a startlingly swift fall from grace, Gov Eliot Spitzer resigned Wednesday after getting caught in a call-girl scandal that made a mockery of his straight-arrow image and left him facing the prospect of criminal charges and perhaps disbarment.
"I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work," Spitzer said, his weary-looking wife, Silda, standing at his side, again, as the corruption-fighting politician once known as Mr. Clean answered for his actions for the second time in three days.
He made the announcement without securing a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, though a law enforcement official said the former governor was still believed to be negotiating one. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Spitzer will be succeeded on Monday by Lt. Gov. David Paterson, a fellow Democrat who becomes New York's first black governor and the nation's first legally blind chief executive.
The resignation brought the curtain down on a riveting three-day drama — played out, sometimes, as farce — that made Spitzer an instant punchline on late-night TV and fascinated Americans with the spectacle of a crusading politician exposed as a hypocrite.
His dizzying downfall was met with glee and the popping of champagne corks among many on Wall Street, where Spitzer was seen as a
sanctimonious bully for attacking big salaries and abusive practices in the financial industry when he was New York attorney general. And his resignation brought at the state Capitol in Albany after days of excruciating tension and uncertainty.
"Some rules can't be broken, and when they are broken there are consequences," said state Assemblyman John McEneny, a Democrat. "In this case, one of the most promising careers I've seen in a generation."
The scandal erupted Monday after federal law enforcement officials disclosed that a wiretap had caught the 48-year-old father of three teenage daughters spending thousands of dollars on a call girl at a fancy Washington hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.
Investigators said he had arranged for a prostitute named Kristen to take the train down from New York while he was in the nation's capital to testify before a congressional subcommittee about the bond industry.
With every development, it became increasingly clear that Spitzer, politically, was finished.
Law enforcement officials said the governor — the millionaire heir to a New York real estate fortune — had hired prostitutes several times before and had spent tens of thousands of dollars, and perhaps as much as $80,000, on the high-priced escort service Emperors Club VIP, whose women charge as much as $5,500 an hour.
Spitzer had gone into seclusion on Monday while he conferred with his advisers, wife and his newly retained high-powered lawyers. When it became clear he couldn't hold on any longer, he began talking to Paterson
about the transition.
He and his wife rode in a black SUV from their Fifth Avenue apartment to his New York City office to announce his resignation — a trip whose every move was captured by TV helicopters. During the news conference, he and his wife stood inches apart, never touching as they entered or left the room.
Speaking in a strong and steady voice, he apologized for his actions and said: "Over the course of my public life, I've insisted, I think correctly, that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself."
He did not address the allegations in any detail in the less than three-minute statement, and left without taking questions.
In a statement issued after Spitzer quit, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, the chief federal prosecutor in New York, said: "There is no agreement between this office and Gov. Eliot Spitzer relating to his resignation or any other matter"
Among the possible charges that law enforcement authorities said could be brought against the former governor; soliciting and paying for sex; violating the Mann Act, the 1910 federal law that makes it a crime to take someone across state lines for immoral purposes; and illegally arranging cash transactions to conceal their purpose.
optzer, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law, could also be disbarred. In New York, an attorney can lose his license to practice law for failing to "conduct himself both professionally and personally, in conformity with the standards of conduct imposed upon
members of the bar."
It was a spectacular collapse for a man who cultivated an image as an incorruptible politician hell-bent on cleansing the state of corruption. He served two terms as New York attorney general, earning the nickname "Sheriff of Wall Street," and was elected governor with a record share of the vote in 2006.
But he also made powerful enemies, many of whom complained that he was abusive and self-righteous.
"I really don't feel vindicated," said John Faso, the Republican who lost to Spitzer for governor. He added: "One of the many things I said was that Eliot Spitzer had one set of rules for himself and one set for everyone else. I never would have imagined it could be so glaring."
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange were transfixed by TV monitors broadcasting Spitzer's resignation, and his ruin drew scattered applause from traders as they went about buying and selling stocks. One trader said some firms even cracked champagne open a ritual usually reserved for when the Dow hits a milestone.
In a statement, the incoming governor said he was saddened, but added: "It is now time for Albany to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us."
Barely known outside of his Harlem political base, Paterson has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985.
While Spitzer was famously abrasive, uncompromising and even insulting, Paterson has built a reputation as a conciliator, and lawmakers quickly embraced the new order.
>> KANSAS GOVERNMENT
Former republican to run as democrat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA—After more than a decade away from Kansas and its politics, former Rep. Jim Slattery is jumping back in.
Democratic officials confirmed Wednesday that Slattery plans to seek the party's nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, Slatterd had indicated earlier this month at a party gathering in Topeka that he was rethinking an earlier decision not to run.
He said Wednesday that he would be in Topeka next week to make a formal announcement about his plans. He declined to comment further.
Mike Gaughan, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said party officials had been courting Slattery since last year to take on Roberts.
"He intends to make the race. He's been talking to Kansans disappointed with the way Pat Roberts has been inattentive to Kansans' needs in Washington," Gaughan said.
Lee Jones, who ran unsuccessfully in 2004 against Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, is the only Democrat to file for the office.
Slattery, of Topeka, represented the 2nd District of eastern Kansas in 1983-94 and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1994. He had been mentioned as a potential Senate candidate but said in November he wouldn't challenge Roberts.
He's currently a lobbyist for a Washington, D.C., law firm.
Jackie Cottrell, Roberts' chief of staff, said the senator's campaign would draw a distinction between someone who serves the public and someone serving special interests.
"Slattery's entry into the race showshowdesperatetheDemocrats are to get a candidate." Cottrell said in a written statement.
Corrie Kangas, political director for the Kansas Republican Party, said Slattery "abandoned" the state after losing to Republican Bill Graves in the 2004 gubernatorial race.
"He's the poster-child for fat-cat lobbyists who has come back for no apparent reason, other than to run against a widely admired senator," she said. "Sen. Roberts is well positioned. He's not taking anything for granted."
Roberts served in the U.S. House representing western Kansas for eight terms from 1980-96. He has been aggressively raising money for an expected Democratic challenge. In January, his campaign said it had nearly $3 million in cash available to mount his bid for a third term.
Other factors are on Roberts' side, too.
Nearly half of the state's voters are registered as Republicans, and they outnumber registered Democrats by about 322,000. No Democratic presidential candidate has carried Kansas since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and no Democrat has won an election for the Senate since 1932.
Jones, 56 is a former official with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers who lobbied in Topeka and Washington.
He lost the Senate race in 2004, receiving only 27 percent of the vote against GOP incumbent Brownback. He didn't even win the primary but picked up the nomination from party leaders when the political unknown who had defeated him dropped out.
MEDICINE Anesthesia awareness still a major concern
Patients say it feels like being trapped in a corpse: They wake up during surgery, unable to move or scream. Some remember hearing their surgeons talk, and a few recall feeling intense pain.
Some experts have said special brain-wave monitors were the best way to prevent anesthesia awareness. Now, in a big setback for efforts to prevent it, the first large, independent test of the monitors shows they are no better than older technology.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis compared two groups of about 1,000 patients each, all
deemed at high risk of waking up during surgery because of health conditions, medication or other factors.
One group used the leading brain-monitoring system, which uses electrodes on the forehead to measure brain waves and software to calculate likelihood of consciousness. The other used an older device that analyzes exhaled anesthetic gas.
Anesthesiologists watched for movement and changes in vital signs and followed protocols to maintain patients' depth of sleep, adjusting anesthesia levels as needed. Patients were interviewed after their surgeries about what they remembered.
ENVIRONMENT
Associated Press
EPA raises ozone restrictions amid health concerns
BY H. JOSEF HEBERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The air in more than 300 U.S. counties is simply too dirty to breathe, the government says. It is ordering a multibillion dollar expansion of efforts to clean up smog in cities and towns nationwide.
Scientists say the federal action, which will lower ozone limits, is still not enough to significantly reduce heart and asthma attacks from breathing smog-clogged air, and they want the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a more stringent requirement.
Electric utilities, oil companies and other businesses have lobbied for leaving the smog rule alone, saying the high cost of lower limits could hurt the economy and noting that many communities still haven't met requirements set a decade ago.
The EPA at a news conference Wednesday planned to direct that air must contain no more than 75 units of ozone, or smog, for every billion units of air in order to be considered healthy The current maximum concentration is 80 to 84 parts per billion.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnso decided to take the middle ground when it comes to smog.
have as long as a decade to comply.
The EPA gives states years to meet the needed reductions, and areas with the worst pollution are likely to
Ozone is a product of nitrogen oxides and other organic chemical compounds from motor vehicles, power plants, manufacturing and industrial plants. As it comes into contact with the sun's rays it is seen as smog, aggravating respiratory problems for tens of millions of people.
An estimated 85 counties of the more than 700 that have monitoring stations exceed the current 80 parts per billion concentration, according to the latest EPA calculations. More than 320 counties exceed the tighter 75 parts per billion standard.
Health experts say smog under
the current ozone regulation — even in areas where the limit is being met causes hundreds of premature deaths among the elderly and health problems for thousands of young children and people with respiratory illnesses.
"its disheartening that once again EPA has missed a critical opportunity to protect public health and welfare by ignoring the unanimous recommendations of its independent science advisers," said William
Clean air advocates called the latest EPA reduction a move in the right direction — but also a political compromise that does not go far enough.
Becker acknowledged that the tighter the standard the more difficult it will be to meet, but he said: "The public deserves the right to know whether the air they breathe is healthy"
Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
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