Package deals
Coaches who bring top players are not excess baggage.
See page 6.
2. （    ）
SINCE 1889
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
A
TUESDAY MARCH 4,1986,VOL. 96,NO. 109 (USPS 650-640)
Sunny
Details page 3.
Gun law will pass,
Staff writer
By Juli Warren
City Commissioner David Longhurst, who originally suggested a city handgun ordinance, said yesterday that he expected the ordinance to pass on first reading at tonight's city commission meeting.
The ordinance would require the buyer of a handgun to wait 72 hours from the time of purchase to take possession of the gun and would require that a record be kept of each purchaser.
The record would include the name, age, address and telephone number of the buyer and would be open to inspection by the Lawrence Police Department.
Longhurst proposed looking into such an ordinance after a 21-year-old KU student she herself in Oct. 2016 had bought two hours earlier,
Longhurst and Commissioners Sandra Praeger and Howard Hill yesterday expressed support of the ordinance. Mayor Mike Amyx and Commissioner Ernest Angino said they probably would vote against the proposal.
Longhurst said he thought the commissioners who had favored a handgun ordinance would support it tonight.
The ordinance would prohibit the sale of a handgun to anyone who was under 21 years old, under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, addicted to any narcotic or drug, convicted of a felony or an alcohol abuser.
Some exceptions, such as purchases by law enforcement officers and at gun shows, would be made.
"It addresses the issue in a very sensible way," Longhurst said of the proposed ordinance.
Angino disagreed, howe er.
Arginio disagree, I have. "I'm not convinced that these things solve any problem," he said.
Handguns are not the only weapons that have been used to commit suicide, he said.
Angino said he also was concerned about the added expense of enforcing the ordinance and feared it wouldn't prevent unfit buyers from getting a gun because they
Senate hears hazing debate
See GUNS, p. 5, col. 1
TOPEKA - Anti-hazing legislation needs to be enacted in Kansas to end hazing practices at some state universities, a state legislator and KU alumnus told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.
By Mark Siebert
"The fact of the matter is, it does go on and it isn't getting addressed," Burke said.
The president of the KU Interfraternity Council and a representative from the Associated Students of Kansas said they opposed the legislation because laws covering assault were already on the books.
Erik Hansen, president of IFC,
said the wording of the proposed law
was vague and would cause trouble
mostly for fraternities.
"It makes them completely wide open for a lawsuit," said Hansen, a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, 1911 Stewart Ave. "We couldn't get
enough insurance to be covered completely."
Hansen did not attend the meeting, but said he was scheduled to meet with Burke and representatives of interfraternity councils from K-State and Washburn to discuss the bill.
The bill would make participation in hazing a class A misdemeanor
the bill by the end of this week. Amendments might be needed to clarify certain sections of the bill.
"I think there's a general reluctance on the part of the committee to take the bill as it is," Frey said.
At the hearing, another KU alum-
nus spoke in favor of the anti-hazing
bill, saying it would be a deterrent
'The fact of the matter is, it does go on and it isn't getting addressed.'
Paul Burke
State Senator BJ sawwood
State Senator, R-Leawood
punishable by a maximum fine of $2,500 and a maximum of one year in jail.
Hazing includes any act of initiation into an organization that creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm.
State Sen. Robert Frey, R-Liberal, the committee's chairman, said final action probably would be taken on
Under the proposed law, civil action for damages could be taken against any participants in the hazing or any director, trustee or officer who tolerated the hazing.
The bill also says the consent of a person or knowledge of the risk of the disease is required.
and was needed to avoid a tragedy.
Often it takes a death or a very serious injury before we are aware a hazing violation took place," said Harvey Bodker, a national officer for Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. "We should not wait until Kansas has a death or a tragedy to act."
Bodker said that in the past seven years, 30 deaths have occurred on college campuses as a result of hazing. Many incidents went unreported because of vows of secrecy and threats of retribution, he said.
Nineteen states have laws prohibiting hazing. Seven more have laws pending.
Of all hazing incidents, 97 percent
involved alcohol, he said, and others involved forced consumption of food or drugs, sleep deprivation, rigorous calisthenics and mind games.
"Those guilty of participating in dangerous hawning will have to acc
Last summer a KU fraternity,
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was suspended
for two years for hazing violations.
The fraternity, 1301 W. Campus Rd,
is not recognized as an official
University organization during the
probation.
Bob Nugent, a spokesman for ASK, said he supported the intent of the bill, but he told the committee he thought greek organizations and University administrations dealt with having problems in a timely fashion.
"IImplementing this law is not going to be a significant deterrent."
Hansen said the proposed law could damage the fraternity system. It would be difficult for fraternities to have alumni sit on house board corporations if the alumni were going to be liable for actions over which they had no control.
Burke said the bill probably would have to be amended to clarify that only people who were aware of hazing violations would be considered responsible.
The one that got away
Mary Burger/KANSAN
Supreme Court denies hearing of Craft case
United Press International
Christine Craft, a former newscaster at KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Mo., got a vote of confidence yesterday from the only woman on the Supreme Court, but lost her appeal for damages in a lawsuit against her former employers.
Craft's last chance at receiving the award was the Supreme Court. It takes the votes of four justices to grant a hearing. Yesterday, the justices upheld the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's decision to throw out a $350,000 award for damages by refusing to hear the case. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cast the only dissenting vote.
O'Connor said in a brief statement that she would have heard the case. Neither O'Connor nor any other justices had further comment.
Justin Korner, 6, tells a big fish story to his father, Steve Korner, of Eudora. The two were fishing recently at Clinton Lake
Craft, 41, sued Metromedia, Inc., her former employers, for alleged sex bias and fraud. And although she asserts her suit has helped women in broadcasting, her former boss said he wasn't so sure of that.
Ridge Shannon, former news director at KMBC-TV while Craft worked at the station, said the case drew attention to hiring practices in broadcasting, which could be good or bad. Shannon is now a journalism graduate student at KU and supervises radio-television-film students who work at TV30.
Craft, who now works for KBK-TV in Sacramento, Calif., said the Supreme Court ruling was disappointing. She encouraged other women to fight discrimination by employers.
He said Craft didn't have a good case to begin with, which will only hurt women seeking awards in similar cases.
"I'll have to take solace in the fact it's made a big difference for a lot of women in the industry," she said.
In 1983, a federal jury in Kansas City, Mo., awarded Craft $500,000 in her suit against the company but a federal judge threw out the decision and ordered a new trial. The judge said the $500,000 award was excessive.
In the second trial, a jury in Joplin Mo., also ruled in Craft's favor, awarding her $350,000 in damages. The Circuit Court dismissed that award in June.
Shannon said he supported the Supreme Court's decision. He said he thought more meaningful decisions came from appellate courts and the Supreme Court because they didn't use a jury system.
The appeals court decisions in the Craft case, he said, will be a guide for and will uphold the rights of news directors.
Shannon was the news director that hired and demoted Craft.
Kansas reporter Lynn Maree Ross contributed information to this story.
Astronauts seek safety results
Four say hazards undisclosed
The Associated Press
SPACE CENTER, Houston — NASA's astronauts were not informed that engineers had been concerned for more than two years about the safety of the space shuttles' solid-fuel rocket boosters, four veteran shuttle commanders said yesterday.
Astronaut Henry Hartisfield, one of four astronauts who broke a monthlong silence to talk to reporters, said he learned about a potential hazard involving o-rings that seal joints on the boosters only after the shuttle Challenger exploded Jan. 28.
Hartsfield, Vance Brand, Gordon Fullerton and Joe Engle, a 1952 graduate of the University of Kansas, said they were never made aware by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of all the many parts of the shuttle that are called "criticality 1," parts whose failure would mean a catastrophic loss.
"I was angry about it and still am," he said.
Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch and a flame was seen shooting from the side of one of the two boosters.
Challenger exploded unexpectedly. "I was angry about it and still am," he said.
The space agency allowed the four astronauts to be interviewed at Johnson Space Center.
Fullerton said the astronauts did not have time to examine each system aboard the complex shuttles, and, in flying the shuttle, there was an implied trust in the engineers.
None of the four would agree there was a flaw in NASA's launch decision process, as has been charged by the presidential commission investigating Challenger's explosion.
Hartfield said he thought such a decision was premature but was concerned about reports that critical engineering questions about the boosters never reached the top levels of NASA.
"If it did happen that way, I am troubled." he said.
Brand said he thought the astronaut corps should have been advised about the engineers' concerns about the boosters.
"Normally we are informed about such safety issues," he said. "It was an oversight that none of us knew about this."
Brand said if he had heard of such a safety issue, he would have asked for a briefing. If he had determined it was not safe to fly, he would have asked that the problem be fixed.
When asked whether that meant he would have refused to fly until a correction was made, he replied: "The first thing to say is how are we going to get this fixed."
He said no one liked to step down from flying, but after getting all the information, he would see what he thought about it.
Brand said it was understandable why the Challenger crew was not informed about concerns some engineers had about the effects of the launch day's cold weather on the booster seals.
Hartfield said he thought NASA was under no extraordinary pressure to launch any of the shuttle missions. He said that before one of his flights he was given a choice of proceeding in spite of a computer problem, or waiting for the problem to be fixed. He decided to delay the flight and said there was no pressure to change his decision.
"The crew should have been aware of it, but there's a reluctance at the last minute to get the crew involved in engineering controversies," he said.
But Brand said that pressure to launch could have played into the decision to fly Challenger.
"As long as I have been here we've had pressure from the schedule," he said. For the crew most of that pressure is to get trained in time for the mission.
Fire sweeps embassy, kills 15
United Press International
The fire erupted at 4:30 p.m. in the Cemica Tower office building in the Chacoab business district of eastern Caracas, authorities said. Witnesses said they saw people trapped in the building become engulfed by fire.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Fire swept through a 14-story Caracas office building housing the Chilean Embassy yesterday, killing at least 15 people, officials said. The Chilean ambassador to Venezuela was missing and presumed dead.
At least seven people who climbed to the top of the burning building were plucked from a rooftop water tank by police helicopters and carried to a nearby park. Hundreds of
The fire raged for several hours while many members of the Caracas diplomatic community gathered near the 14-story building and waited anxiously for word on the fate of the Chilean diplomats. The embassy is on the building's 13th floor.
people gathered in the streets below to watch the dripping survivors hauled to safety.
Chilean Ambassador Carlos de Costa-Nora was missing and presumed dead, said Pedro Torres Agudo, investigative police director.
"Apparently the Chilean ambassador is dead, but we cannot confirm it because the bodies are burned beyond recognition," he said. "During the next few hours, with the help of representatives of the Chilean Embassy, we will try to identify the bodies."
Nine bodies that were burned beyond recognition were recovered from embassy offices, authorities said. The bodies of four other victims were recovered in other parts of the large office complex.
Authorities said other employees of the embassy could be among the 15 people known to have been killed in the blaze.
Two Chilean diplomats — identified by the embassy as Miguel Angel Ortega Urrea, an embassy assistant, and Ernesto Jose Alcaino, in charge of protocol, jumped to their deaths from the burning office building, authorities said.
'Shuffle' writer plans to sell song
Bv Frank Ybarra
Staff writer
The writer of a song about the KU basketball team said yesterday that he wouldn't take the rap for violating National Collegiate Athletic Association rules and planned to start selling the song next week.
Mike Kirsch, co-owner of Gammons, 1601 W. 23rd St., said he had consulted his attorneys and had decided he would not follow the Athletic Department's recommendation that he stop playing the rap song called the "Javah shuffle."
The department requested last week that the song no longer be
The names of the basketball team's five starters and some reserve players are mentioned in the song.
The rule states that a university or the student involved would have to take some affirmative action to stop the use of the names.
But now, Kirsch said, he will start selling the song through mail orders
played at the private club because, according to NCAA rules, a player's name can not be used for commercial purposes.
Kirsch said last week that he probably would stop playing the song after he learned it could violate the rules.
some time next week. The song will be on a cassette and will cost $4.
Rick Evrard, director of legislative services for the NCAA, said the players named in the song were not free from being cited for rules violations just because the department bad written the letter to Kirsch.
An NCAA eligibility committee might have to interpret the rules and determine whether the players or the University had taken enough action to stop the song, he said.
Gary Hunter, assistant athletic director, said the department plann-
See SHUFFLE, p. 5, col. 1