8A
NEWS
》CALENDAR
Leap-year babies jump at chance to celebrate
BY RUSTIN DODD
rdodd@kansan.com
Rachel Anne Seymour/KANSAN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2008
Sarah O'Neill, Lenexa sophomore, celebrates her fifth birthday today. O'Neill is 20 years old,
but her actual birth date is Feb. 29.
Sarah O'Neill celebrates her fifth birthday today, and O'Neill is a sophomore in college.
No, the Lenexa native isn't the world's youngest college student.
"I'm making her blow out a cake with five candles," said Allie Hasting, O'Neill's Chi Omega sorority sister and Littleton, Colo., sophomore.
O'Neill isn't alone.
She's a leap-year baby.
Like thousands of other people, O'Neill has the misfortune of being born on Feb. 29 - a day that comes around once every four years.
According to the Honor Society of Leap Year Babies, an organization started in 1997 by Peter Brouwer and Raenell Dawn, both leap-year babies, to promote leap-year baby
"I think it's more entertaining for everyone else than it is for me," she said.
On O'Neill's 16th birthday – or fourth if you're talking literally – her parents threw a surprise party. Among the gifts were a baby rattle and Barbie dolls.
awareness, the United States is home to approximately 200,000 leap year babies — or leapers.
"I think my parents felt bad for me," O'Neill said.
Brouwer and Dawn maintain a Web site full of facts and information about leap-year babies.
Brower said the real goal of the Web site, www.leapeyearday.com, was to put an emphasis on leapers.
"We sort of blow it out of proportion," Brouwer said. "They usually don't get a day to celebrate. We make them feel special."
Brouwer's organization also addresses the problems leapers face. Brouwer said most software didn't recognize that Feb. 29 was an actual day, and many law enforcement agencies were oblivious to the day as well.
"We get stories every year about people who have had problems with police officers, because the officers think they are lying about their birthday."
And while being a leap-year baby may be a pain, having leap years in our calendar is a necessity, said Barbara Anthony-Twarog, KU professor of physics and astronomy.
"Wed be finding ourselves a little further and further behind, with respect to the seasons," Anthony-Twyer said.
The reason is simple. It takes approximately 365.25 days for the Earth to revolve around the sun. Thus, every four years, one extra day must be added to balance the calendar.
"That mismatch was noticed thousands of years ago," Anthony-Twarog said.
But Anthony-Twarog said leap-year math was a little more complicated than most people realize.
Science aside, O'Neill said having a leap year birthday was a nuisance.
What day do you celebrate?
The Earth actually takes slightly less than 365.25 days to revolve around the sun. To correct this problem, years that are divisible by 100 are not leap years - unless they are also divisible by 400.
"All the way through elementary school, I hated it," O'Neill said. "Everyone wants to have their birthday. It only comes around once a year, and I could never say, 'it's my birthday.'"
O'Neill said she would do most of celebrating on the 28th, but she always opened one present on March 1.
O'Neill said she was 8 years old when she realized she had a rare birthday.
Every time she had a birthday party or brought birthday cookies to elementary school, O'Neill had to explain that it wasn't her real birthday.
Then comes the most daunting question for leap-year babies.
"That'd be my birthday, actually, if I had one."
—Edited by Jared Duncan
{The Place To Be Cool}
Look & Lease Weekend Special! March 1st and 2nd ONLY No Money Down with a signed Lease!!!! (For 2008-2009 School Year) *A Savings of $250!!!*
- All inclusive rent and utilities
Our LuxURY amenities! All inclusive rent and utilities Private shuttle bus to campus every 40 minutes Resort style pool Private bedrooms and bathrooms Free continental breakfast
www.LegendsPlace.com
785-856-5848
816 W.24th Street Lawrence, KS 66046 785.749.5750 • zlbplasma.com
KU vs KSU
FEB. 24 - FEB. 29
DONATE PLASMA
AND WIN KU GEAR
BASKETBALL POSTER SERIES
Two (2) donations required. Fee and donation times may vary.New donors bring photo ID, proof of address and Social Security card. ZLB Plasma Good for You. Great for Life.
LOOK FOR THEM IN BIG XII HOME GAMES AGAINST...
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Iowa State Jan. 23
Nebraska Jan. 26
Missouri Feb. 4
Colorado Feb. 21
Colorado Feb 16
K-State Mar.1
Texas Tech Mar. 3
》 INCARCERATION
American prison rate at all-time high
BY DAVID CRARY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.
NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.
The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.
The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.
"We're seeing more and more states being creative because of tight budgets," she said in an interview. "They want to be tough on crime. They want to be a law-and-order state. But they also want to save money, and they want to be effective."
Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are pressuring many states to consider new, cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the recent past for fear of appearing soft on crime.
The report cited Kansas and Texas as states that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate population. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than reimprisonment for offenders who commit technical violations of parole and probation rules.
"The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens," the report said.
While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.
"We need to be smarter," said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We're not incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes. But we're also probably incarcerating people who don't need to be."
According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.
The largest percentage increase — 12 percent — was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate population has increased by 600 percent.
Four states — Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut — now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.
"These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to the full report. "Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become productive workers and taxpayers."
The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of almost 230 million American adults.