4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2006
The craft of costuming
Nicolette Niosi/KANSAN
Suzannah Johannes, Powhattan senior, works in the costume shop in Murphy Hall. Johannes was creating costumes for the University Theatre's production of Aristophanes' "A Congress of Women." Performances begin next month.
COURTS
Attorney interprets statute
BY ROXANA HEGEMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WICHITA — Sedgwick County's top prosecutor testified Wednesday that health care providers and others should not substitute their own judgment and fail to report all consensual sexual activities between underage minors.
"There is no right to privacy when a crime has been committed," Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston said.
Foulson is a co-defendant in the federal lawsuit brought
by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The New York advocacy group is challenging the constitutionality of a 2003 opinion by Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline that the state's mandatory reporting law requires health care providers to report consensual sex between similarly aged minors.
In Kansas, the age of consent is 16.
Foulston testified that Kline's opinion had no effect on her office.
In its lawsuit, the Center for Reproductive Rights contends
Kline's office contends in the lawsuit that only "significant sexual conduct" such as vaginal or anal intercourse and oral sex among willing adolescents must be reported.
the Kline opinion discourages adolescents from seeking counseling or medical treatment such as contraception while violating their right to informational privacy.
Foulston takes an even stricter interpretation of the state's forced reporting statute.
ual activities between underage adolescents. That would include a boy touching the breast of a girl, or either adolescent touching the genitals of the other.
She testified that the law requires reporting of all illegal sex-
The state's forced reporting law requires professionals who deal with children including doctors, dentists, teachers, school administrators, social workers, psychologists, firefighters, law enforcement and day care workers, among others — to report suspected instances where a child was injured due to abuse or neglect.
POLITICS
"There are some that, frankly, whose policies would make us look more like Europe than we should, and that is kind of a centralization of power," Bush said in a visit Wednesday to tax-averse New Hampshire. "The surest way to centralize power is to take more of your own money to Washington."
Bush signs bill defends budget
He defended his budget blueprint for the coming fiscal year in the face of critics from both parties who say he is shaving too much from Medicare and other programs. He said his critics are thinking like free-spending Europeans.
BY NEDRA PICKLER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bush's proposal for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 asks Congress to trim Medicare spending by $35.9 billion over five years, allowing the program to grow at a rate of 7.7 percent instead of 8.1 percent currently projected.
WASHINGTON President Bush signed a measure Wednesday that trims Medicaid and Medicare spending over the next five years, but he said Congress must make bigger changes as baby boomers retire.
Bush said programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are the biggest long-term challenge to the budget. Even after the cuts he signed into law, the growth rates projected for the programs are not sustainable, he said.
"That will leave future generations with impossible choices — staggering tax increases, immense deficits, or deep cuts in every category of spending," the president said.
"It is the difference between slowing your car down to the speed limit, or putting your car into reverse," Bush said both at the White House and before the Business and Industry Association in Manchester, N.H.
The bill he signed is a left-over measure from his 2005 agenda. The measure aims to trim $39 billion out of the budget over five years, partly through small cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and student loan subsidies.
The bill also:
Renews the 1996 welfare overhaul bill.
Cuts $11.9 billion in student loan subsidies.
Aims to raise $10 billion in new revenues from auctioning television airwaves in wireless companies.
- Includes $1 billion in new spending to extend an income subsidy program for dairy farmers.
The $39 billion in cuts in the bill are generally small — a 0.4 percent cut in total Medicaid money and 0.3 percent cut from Medicare over five years
— compared with deficits expected to total $1.3 trillion or more through 2010. But Bush said it will save an average of about $300 per taxpayer over the five years.
Democrats said the measure was an assault on college students and the elderly and disabled who rely on Medicaid to pay for their health care. They said the bill, which was written in private, was evidence of the undue influence of corporate interests such as insurance companies and drug manufacturers.
Tanner's
Introduces...
College Night!
A New Party Every Thursday!!
D.J., Dancing, Karaoke, Live Music,
What's it gonna be??
Thursday, February 9th- Jägerettes
from 11pm to 1am
Thursday, February 16th- Jack Daniels Party Crew
from 11pm to 1am
Come on out to the Hottest new College night in Lawrence!
Present this flyer at Tanner's to receive 1/2 off any appetizer!! (Only valid in Lawrence)
three special Announcements from ECM
New Mexico Alternative Spring Break Questions? Details? Go to ecu.ku.org and click alternative spring break.
And, the Wal-Mart Choice? Having shown "High Cost of Low Prices,"snd the perspective is presented in the viewig of Why Wal-Mart Works,"Sunday,February 12,7 p.m., at ECM with panel response
"Living With A Choice
On Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m., students gather around a ??? explain if spirituality anda faith perspective can provide a way to live or an alternative to a life directed by over-consumption...open to all.