4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY, MAY 9. 2006
SPEAKER
Attorney General Kline bemoans state of the law
Amanda Sellers/KANSAN
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline gestures to the audience during his speech at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics on Monday night. Kline spoke specifically about his relationship with the business community. The event was co-sponsored the KU College Republicans.
BY ANNE WELTMER
aweltmer@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Phill Kline said he firmly believed in the principle of self-responsibility in lawsuits Monday night, claiming that many are wrongfully won today.
Kline, the Kansas attorney general, said in a speech at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics that when he was in law school at the University of Kansas, he learned that a successful suit had to prove the defendant had the ability to cause harm, actually did cause harm, and the damages caused could be defined monetarily.
Of those three "pillars of juris prudence," he said "none of them have to be proven today" in order to win a case.
He said the current problem was that courts, the media and citizens all relied on the concept of "fairness," rather than the law, and fairness could be different for each person. He said that the Constitution was fair and the law it established should be followed, rather than the morals of individual idees.
He said that as a result people could pick and choose where they would bring a lawsuit — and find a judge with similar beliefs.
Kline said he didn't believe it was right for the government to sue on behalf of individuals and keep the money for itself.
For example, the government sued tobacco companies, but the cancer victims didn't receive the damages because they were dead. The government kept the money.
During his time as attorney general, Kline said he was careful not to use "press release litigation" to scare companies into settling so their stock values were not affected by accusations that might be true.
"When corporate America violates the law, I'm in their face," he said.
He said he sued an oil conglomerate for intentionally overestimating its oil reserves to raise the value of its stock, which hurt the stockholders.
If he had told the public he was investigating before he was sure the company had done wrong, he would have hurt the stockholders anyway because the company's credibility would have been hurt no matter what.
He said he tried to protect the elderly, "trusting" people of Kansas from scams and tried to keep the state from overregulating professions.
He said the government should provide more opportunities for a selfmade man to start his own business without so much hassle and money
that it's nearly impossible.
Lennea Carty, Andover junior, reacted to his speech by saying she thought he was misrepresenting his work in office.
"There's so much he twisted," she said. "He didn't put things into realistic economic perspective."
She said he made it sound like he was protecting the poor, but in reality he was favoring the rich and hurting the small towns in Kansas with his actions.
She said when she drives through Kansas, is seems each small town has a Wal-Mart now, which she said has destroyed the local businesses that Kline talked about protecting in his speech.
with fewer scheduling conflicts.
Edited by Frank Tankard
project, which has a bag of "They voted with both their feet and their minds to make this building a reality." Hemenway said.
Student will pay the remaining costs of the project, which is budgeted at $2.78 million
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Center
Melva Landrum, Minneapolis, Minn., senior and senior student coordinator for the Multicultural Resource Center, said the new building would give the center the space it needed. She said more organizations would be able to use the center
"It shows that the University is committed to diversity and multiculturalism," Landrum said.
Landrum said that having the center connected to the Kansas Union would allow more students to walk in and learn about the center. She said the center was open to all students, not just ones of color, and that it was beneficial for students to be exposed to other people and different issues.
- Edited by Gabriella Souza
Homeless CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Even though the Salvation Army is moving away from downtown, Dalberg doesn't think this will be a problem.
"The program has switched to moving people out of homeless and becoming housed and permanently housed."
"The program we're going to operate is different than it is now," he said. "The people in the program will not be the people in downtown currently. It won't necessarily be the single men hanging around downtown."
For the rehabilitative program, Dennis Stine, a homeless
For the rehabilitative program, Dennis Stine, a homeless man, said he would have to see it first before he could believe it.
man, said he would have to see it first before he could believe it.
"We need to be taught math, Internet skills, learn how to read," he said. "Even if you want to work at a pizza shop, you need to know computer skills these days. They need to pick up where some of these people left off, which could be ages 13 or 14."
But some of the homeless are unhappy about it moving away from downtown.
"Downtown is the hub for where it's at for the homeless," said Guitar Dave, who wishes to keep his last name anonymous. He said places like Jubilee Café, the drop-in center and LINK were all a part of the downtown area.
Junice Café serves breakfast for the homeless at the First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St., twice a week. LINK, Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen, is open every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for lunch. It is located in the basement of First Christian Church, 1000 Kentucky
St. The Community Drop-In Center is at 214 10th St.
Paul Shipley, co-coordinator of the Center for Community Outreach and Olathe junior, said there was a possibility that numbers would go down, but he said moving the Salvation Army was a good idea especially since "it's ridiculously small for a town like Lawrence." Shipley could see transportation problems for the homeless to make it to Jubilee Café every Tuesday and Friday mornings at 7 a.m. He said they currently served a lot of homeless people in the mornings.
But Dalberg said that a homeless person would have no need to come out to the Salvation Army unless he or she was in the program.
The Salvation Army will not be designed to house someone for only one night. He said things were going to be completely different.
Because of limited space at the corner where it's currently located creates a problem for extending it though, which is one of the reasons the Salvation Army wants to move.
There's just not enough space for all the programs we offer and want to offer, Dalberg said.
"Women and children have no business being out on the streets," Stine said. "They should be taken care of no matter what. Most of them do not become homeless because of something they did. Guys like us are typically responsible for why we have become homeless."
Guitar Dave and Stine both agreed there needs to be space for the homeless families.
Taking care of families is one of the focuses for the new site.
"There's a huge gap in services to homeless families and no one is doing anything for them so we hope to fill that void because right now they have no place to go," Dalberg said.
— Edited by Vanessa Pearson