THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2006
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3A
OBITUARY
Systems specialist dies in car wreck
Steven Haight died Saturday from injuries suffered in an automobile accident on Interstate Highway 24, north of Lawrence. He was 36 years old.
Haight was a systems specialist with the University of Kansas Computer Center. He moved to Lawrence in the fall of 1988 from his family farm near Lane. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University in 1993
Haight is survived by his wife, Jennifer; two children, Austin and April; two brothers and his paternal grandmother.
and worked at the Computer Center for almost 13 years.
Visitation was Wednesday night at Warren-McElwain Mortuary. Funeral services will be held there at 2 p.m. today. Burial will be in Oak Hill Cemetery.
CAMPUS
Catherine Odson
Chi Omega helps girl get to Disney World
Fouryear-old Rainy Cook visited Walt Disney World this week, thanks partly to funds raised by the University of Kansas chapter of Chi Omega for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
"We just got an e-mail from her mom saying they're at Disney World right now," Mallory Hammersmith, Chi Omega president said. Hammersmith said the members were looking forward to seeing pictures when her family returns.
The chapter raised more than $5,000 in September to pay for the trip.
Cook is expected to visit the house after her trip, but Hammersmith said it would be dependent on Cook's health.
Cook has a cyst on her brain stem that was too big to remove, said Jessica Elkouri, fall philanthropy chairwoman for Chi Omega. Because of the cyst, Cook experiences between eight and 20 seizures every day, Elkouri said.
Elkouri said raising the money for Cook's trip was a wonderful experience for everyone involved.
"Both our house and Rainy benefitted," she said.
Chi Omega has raised more than $10,000 in the past two years for Make-A-Wish. In 2004, the chapter sponsored 8-year-old Elora's trip to Walt Disney World.
Catherine Odson
"We look forward to doing it each and every year," Elkouri said.
STATE
Sprint reveals new division's name, logo
KANSAS CITY. Mo. — After months of secrecy, Sprint Nextel Corp., said Wednesday that its local telephone division will be named Embarq when it separates this spring to become its own company.
Besides the name, the company also unveiled the new logo, an arrow-like symbol in three shades of green.
Embarq will be the fifthlargest local phone company in the country.
The company will remain based in Overland Park on a part of Sprint's corporate campus.
The Rev. Fred Phelps prepares to protest outside the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka Wednesday. Phelps addressed the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee after the protest. A senate bill would restrict protests at funerals.
It is likely Embarar will feel increased competition from its former parent as wireless services continue to eat into traditional wireline businesses.
The Associated Press
Phelps denounces proposed bill
ACTIVISM
Orlin Wagner/The Associated Press
CARL MANNING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
"The bill is invidiously discriminatory against only our religious message, violates only our First Amendment rights, and appears to be the product of passion, prejudice and pandering — targeting only our church," Phelps said.
TOPEKA — Brandy Sacco fidgeted and fought back tears as the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. told senators why he and his followers have a legal right to picket funerals of slain soldiers, such as her husband.
"We can't be lawfully moved out of sight of our target audience," Phelps said Wednesday to the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. "You have no legitimate public interest here."
In recent months, Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church members have picked funerals of soldiers around the nation, often with placards stating "Thank God for IEDs," and "God Hates America."
Phelps and his church contend U.S. troops are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors homosexuals.
The proposed bill says nobody can picket or have a protest march within 300 feet of any entrance to where a funeral service is being conducted one hour before, during or two hours after the service. The committee heard from nearly a dozen witnesses but took no action on the measure.
Similar legislation is being considered in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and West Virginia, all prompted by Phelps' funeral protests.
The current law says only that it is illegal to picket "before or about" a funeral service. Phelps said that has been "authoritatively construed" in Topeka to be 90 feet. Supporters of the bill say the law is too vague and a specific distance is needed.
He also characterized a military funeral as "a patriotic pep rally and recruiting depot for the military."
As he talked, Sacco listened, at times shaking her head in disbelief as her husband's wedding ring hung from a neck chain. Earlier, she shared her views about Phelps' group after her husband, Sgt. Dominic Sacco, 32, was killed in November.
"They choose to abuse these rights by harassment of a grieving wife and family. Such a lack of common decency should not be protected by law but punishable by the law," she said, her voice at times choking.
"The hardest thing I ever had to do in my life was to listen to their nonsense," Sacco told reporters after the hearing.
As for Phelps saying he was sharing his religious views, she said, "I didn't ask him to share his God with me because we obviously don't have the same God." Shortly after her husband was killed she received phone calls saying he "would burn in hell," she said. The calls stopped after she filed a complaint with police, she said.
Also backing the bill was Rep. Lee Tafanelli, who spent last year in Iraq as a lieutenant colonel in charge of a Kansas National Guard battalion that had two soldiers killed by enemy fire.
"This bill provides full opportunity for anyone to exercise their freedom of speech and their other constitutional duties," said Tafanelli, R-Ozawicki. "But more importantly, this bill gives a family the right to some privacy during their darkest hour, to grieve, honor and pay their respects to their loved on. This is a right they have earned and that they deserve."
ON THE RECORD
A 22-year-old KU student reported his blue Samsung cellular phone stolen from Eudig Hall at 3:19 p.m. Monday.
A 38-year-old KU employee was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital at 12:08 p.m. on Monday when she injured her shoulder reaching up for a screen in a classroom in Wescoe Hall.
ON CAMPUS
- Dennis Dailey, retired KU professor, is holding the first of ten sessions on Human Sexuality in Everyday Life-from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. today at the ECM Center. The course is $40 for students and $50 for non-students.
- Business students Alex Sphar, Erin McDonald and Jen Sherwood are giving a lecture entitled "A Class Exploration of Embraer and the Brazilian Aeronautics Industry" at 12 p.m. today in Bailey Hall 318.
- Hannah Britton, assistant professor of women's studies and political science, is holding a seminar entitled "Implementing Gender: Using National Institutions for Improving the Status of Women in Africa" at 3:30 p.m. today in Bailey Hall 109.
- Wallace Johnson, professor of East Asian languages, is giving a lecture entitled "Nature in Traditional Chinese Thought" at 4:30 p.m. today at the ECM Center.
♦ The KU Opera are presenting "Falstaff" at 7:30 p.m. today in the Robert Baustian Theatre at Murphy Hall. Another performance will be held Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 for students and $15 for adults.
THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS
JAYWALK IS CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR POSITIONS AS ESCORTS AND DESK MANAGERS ESPECIALLY FROM MALES
Go to the Student Senate office (Room 410 in the Kansas Union) for an application or e-mail David Charles. JAYWALK Volunteer Coordinator, at dc.charles@yahoo.com for more information
If involvement in helping maintain campus safety for community service is of interest to you, JAYWALK is certainly the right choice.
KUs newest journal, Comma, Splice has extended its submission deadline
February 2, 2006
These community service hours are good for such groups as Rock Chalk Revue and Lewis Hall.
Submissions must be sent as either doc format or in the body of an email. Questions and submissions can be sent to kuswat@yahoo.com
Creative Writing
submissions of any genre of creative writing are welcome
-we are a faction of KU Student Writer's Association,The (KU SWAT)
-Up to five pieces or 13 pages of submission welcome
PAID FOR BY KU
Relay For Life
A Team Event to Fight Cancer
Relay for life kick-off meeting February 2,2006@7:30pm Student Recreation & Fitness C
Questions? Contact Stacie at 1.800.359.1025 http://www.acsevents.org/ku/rlf
Sign up your team online at www.acsevents.org/ku/rlf
Student Relays Committee
Kansas Athletics Focus Group
Wednesday Feb. 9th, 5:30pm
Monday Feb.6th, 8:30pm Tuesday Feb.7th, 5:30pm
E-mail src@ku.edu to sign up
Free Pizza!
A Woman President If Not Now, When?
Carol Moseley-Braun 2004 Presidential contender, Former U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Senator (D-IL)
SLAB
Tuesday, February 7 | 8:00 p.m. at the Dole Institute
February 7th Higher Education Day
with the Student Legislative Awareness Board
On February 7, travel to Topeka to meet with your Elected Officials and inform them about issues affecting students and higher education.
For more information contact Josh Bender: jbender@kui.edu
Make a difference for the University and students across the state.