8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
9/11
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006
Fate of United 93 memorial uncertain
BY KIMBERLY HEFLING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
the money to the project. The flight was en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., when the hijackers took over, probably with the goal of crashing the plane into the White House or the Capitol. Instead, the plane went down in Pennsylvania — apparently after passengers rushed the cockpit — killing the 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers on board.
WASHINGTON — Universal Pictures will donate $1.14 million toward a memorial to the passengers and crew who perished aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001 — addressing concerns of a lawmaker who has blocked legislation to buy land for the project, a group representing the families said Tuesday.
Hamilton Peterson, president of Families of Flight 95, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Universal had committed the money to the project.
The donation from Universal, which last week released "United 93," a film about the flight, brings to $9 million the private donations raised for the memorial. Organizers hope to raise $30 million to build the memorial near Shanksville, Pa., where the plane crashed.
For the past two years, Rep. Charles H. Taylor, R-N.C., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department, has blocked funding to buy property for the memorial. He has expressed concerns that the project would not receive sufficient private funding and the federal government would be asked to pick up the tab.
the parish. The studio had promised to contribute some proceeds from the film to the memorial, which is expected to cost about $58 million to build.
"We're optimistic once we have the chance to get him additional facts about our fund-raising success to date, that he may have a different perspective," said Peterson, whose father and stepmother died in the crash.
A call to Universal Pictures was not immediately returned.
Taylor could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. His press secretary has said he would not speak about the issue before it came to his panel on Thursday.
Lynn Scarlett, acting director of the Interior Department, told reporters Monday that members of her staff had met with Taylor and subcommittee members and were hopeful the funding would be made available.
Still pitying the fool
Mr. T arrives at NBC's 75th anniversary celebration, May 5, 2002, at New York's Rockefeller Center. The TV Land cable network announced Tuesday that it will start "I Pity the Fool," a series where the former"The A Team" star travels across the country dispensing inspiration and advice.
NATIONAL
An aide to the congressman dismissed the criticism, arguing that Democrats were trying to make an issue where there is none.
WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. John Sweeney's attendance at a beer-drinking, college fraternity party has drawn criticism from Democrats who accused the New York lawmaker of using poor judgment.
Congressman attends fraternity party
"The congressman is from the Capital region and has been known on occasion to venture outside of his congressional district," said Melissa Carlson, a spokeswoman for Sweeney. "They need a better strategy to see success in November than this."
"What is a 50-year-old congressman doing at a frat party at 1 in the morning cavorting with students 30 years his junior? Teaching them how a bill becomes a law?" Blake Zeff, a spokesman for New York Democrats, said Friday.
Sweeney stopped by the Alpha Delta Phi party at Union College in Schenectad, N.Y., late last Friday, a visit first reported by the college newspaper, the Concordiensis. The paper also printed a photo of the lawmaker posing with students. Local newspapers in the region posted similar photos online.
As a rule, campus-registered fraternity parties are allowed four kegs of beer that security
taps to start the event and then unplugs at 2 a.m.
John Tomlin, a sophomore who attended the party and wrote the story for the college newspaper, told The Associated Press on Friday that Sweeney "was loud, he was swearing" but he never saw the congressman consume any alcohol.
Carlson has denied suggestions in published reports that the congressman was drunk.
Tomlin, who said he drank before the party but not during it, said he didn't know if any drugs were present.
In February, Sweeney was hospitalized in Albany after complaining of severe headaches. After several weeks in and out of the hospital, he was eventually diagnosed with vasculitis, an inflammation of blood vessels in the brain, and prescribed drugs to treat the problem.
Sweeney is married with three children.
The four-term Republican represents a district that stretches from the Albany suburbs to the North Country and includes Saratoga Springs. Union College is in a neighboring district.
Democrats have targeted Sweeney in his bid for re-election. The lawmaker won a fourth term in 2004 with nearly 66 percent of the vote in a district with a mix of union workers from the capital and Republican-learning dairy farmers.
Hold on tight
Puskar/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Katie Ferchak, from top, along with classmates Marian Hinkle and Missy Conrad, of West Mifflin High School, get their first ride on the Swingshot — the new attraction at Kennywood Park this year — in West Mifflin, Pa., Tuesday. Kennywood opens for the season Saturday.
STATE LEGISLATURE
Late days blamed for lack of stadium interest
BY JOHN HANNA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA, Kan. — Olathe officials aren't likely to get help this year from the Legislature for efforts to attract a new stadium complex for professional soccer's Kansas City Wizards.
The city proposed last week that legislators rewrite state laws dealing with an economic development tool known as STAR bonds. With state approval, those bonds can be issued for large projects, then paid off with sales tax revenues generated from the new economic activity.
However, the idea isn't likely to emerge from the Senate Commerce Committee, partly because legislators are close to the end of their annual session, with Tuesday the 85th of 90 scheduled days.
"There just wasn't much interest on the part of the committee," Chairwoman Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe, said Tuesday.
Spokesman Tim Danneberg said the city still plans to pursue the Wizards, even without a change in STAR bonds laws.
The Wizards' future has been in doubt since December 2004, when owner Lamar Hunt, who also owns professional football's Kansas City Chiefs, announced plans to sell the soccer club.
In early April, Major League Soccer narrowed its choices to Olathe, De Soto and Gardner for the 220-acre complex, which would cost from $89 million to $125 million, according to a league consultant. Supporters believe the three cities offer enough inexpensive real estate, access to major highways, flat land and access to utilities.
Olathe would like to use the bonding program to construct the stadium and its amenities, then lease the stadium to the team. State law prohibits governments from using the bonds to build facilities and turning around and leasing them to a
"For us, and in all likelihood anyone, to explore putting together a soccer stadium, some type of incentive like STAR bonds would be needed." Danneberg said.
private entity.
With a $175 million budget, Olathe can't afford to build and maintain such a soccer complex, he said, adding that the city doesn't ever want to have to ask residents to increase taxes to fund improvements, as Jackson County did this year to help the Chiefs and baseball's Kansas City Royals upgrade their stadiums.
"This type of project will need to be self-sustaining in terms of revenue generation," he said.
But Olathe's proposal also put legislators in the awkward position of considering changes in STAR bond laws only a year after they rewrote them to close perceived loopholes used by developers of the Village West and Kansas Speedway projects in Wyandotte County.