University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 19, 1987
9
National parties to run debates
League of Women Voters say they will continue tradition
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Republican and Democratic national chairman, muscling out the League of Women Voters, announced yesterday that their parties would run the presidential candidate debates in the 1988 elections — but the League vowed not to quit.
I think they're trying to steal the debates from the American voters, not the League of Women Voters'
Woman Voters
— Nancy Neuman President of the League of
Democratic leader Paul Kirk and GOP chief Frank Fahrenkopl named a 10-member bipartisan commission that will conduct next year's, and all future, debates. They said the parties will not hold debates during the primaries.
The League of Women Voters has been conducting the debates since 1976. After the party leaders' announcement, League President Nancy Neuman said the organization would continue the practice next year in the primaries and the general election.
In a joint statement, Kirk and Fahrenkopf said, "We applaud the League for laying a foundation from which we assume our own responsibilities.
But Neuman charged that party-sponsored debates would be low-risk events that would be "little more than a political pillow fight." She said she doubted they would include major third-party candidates, as the League did with John Anderson in 1980.
"While the two-party committees will be sponsors for all future presidential debates between our party nominees, we would expect and encourage the League's participation in sponsoring other debates, particularly in the presidential primaries."
She indicated that sexism, while not the major issue in the dispute, was part of the problem.
"I do feel the League is patronized a little bit," she said. "Now the parties have said, 'You did all the hard work. Now let's take them over.'"
"I think they're trying to steal the debates from the American voters, not the League of Women Voters," she said. "The debates are the only thing left that are not managed by the candidates or campaign consultants."
The League of Women Voters already has announced eight debates, four among Democrats and four among Republicans, during the primaries, with the first scheduled in Manchester, N.H., prior to the New Hampshire primary. The second debate will be held in Nashville, Tenn., before the "Super Tuesday" Southern primaries.
The League also planned four debates during the general election, three between presidential candidat
e between vice presidental nominaries.
At a news conference, however, Fahrenkopf and Kirk emphasized that all the potential candidates in the contest had a concept of party-sponsored debates.
The two parties and our candida-
ses see eye to eye. Falhrenkopf
suit.
But the leaders conceded that neither party nor the commission had the power to force the candidates to participate in or to prevent them
from taking part of a League-sponsored debate.
"We can't give a 100 percent guarantee," Fahrenkop said when asked if party sponsorship would assure candidates would take part.
Fahrekent and Kirk will lead the commission. Other members include Washington lawyers Richard Moe and David Norcress; Rep. Barbara Vucanovich, R-Nev.; former Sen. John Culver, D-lowa; Nebraska Gov. Katie Eberron Jordan, former head of the Urban League; Pamela Harriman, chairman of Democrats for the '90s; and Sen. Pete Wilson, R-Calif.
The party chairmen said they hoped the commission would have a plan—including a forma and dates for debates—ready before next year's national conventions. Final decisions and approval would come after discussions with the two presidential candidates.
Party leaders had little to offer in the way of suggestions for debate formats, pending the commission's work.
Kirk, however, said, "We win no engage in a debate on debates," which has been a problem and added, "We might want to get away from the staid formats ... perhaps more one on one."
Star Wars defense possible by 1994, private group says
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A cost-effective and fully operational "Star Wars" missile defense is possible by 1994, but only if the United States decides to proceed with the plan this year, a private research group said yesterday.
That level of effectiveness would be enough to make the Soviet Union uncertain whether a first
The George C. Marshall Institute, which issued a Strategic Defense Initiative report in December that seemed to trigger much of the Reagan administration's new push for SDI research, said an immediate decision, along with streamlined management and procurement procedures, would make it possible to have a partial system ready by 1992 and a full system by 1994.
The institute, which estimated the cost of a full-scale system at $121 billion, with $4 billion of that for initial deployment, said a fully implemented system could be 93 percent effective.
strike could succeed, the scientists said.
They also said the kind of defense suggested — rockets that would slam into and destroy a missile or warhead upon impact and with no explosion — could meet a key SDI test of cost effectiveness.
The report suggested the following three-layer, weapons-based system, each using heat-seeking missiles:
—A space-based fleet of rocket- tooting satellites that could attack missiles in the boost phase, the critical tour or five minutes when a pod of warheads and decoys is still attached to a missile.
A -ground-launched mission known as ERIS that could go after warheads and decoys 60 to several hundred miles above Earth.
Brazilian train crash may be a human error, official says
—A ground-based missile to hit warheads about 20 to 25 miles above Earth when decoys have fallen back because of atmospheric drag.
ITAQUERA, Brazil — Human error was the most likely cause of a commuter train collision that killed 46 people and injured 89 people east of Sao Paulo, a railroad official said yesterday.
United Press International
The trains collided during a heavy rainstorm Tuesday afternoon at Itaquera, 17 miles east of Sao Paulo. A railroad official said a train bound to Rio de Janeiro ran a red signal light at a track near the fourth car of an outbound truck
Rescuers worked through the night with blowtorches and powersaws, cutting into the wreckage to free trapped passengers. Civil defense
"So far we have 46 people confirmed dead, with another 89 still in hospital," said spokesman Joao Caro da Costa of the state owned Brazilian Urban Transport Co., the rail company known as CBTU.
workers initially set the death ton at 51, but said some unidentified bodies may have been counted twice.
Railroad director Telmo Porto said operator error most likely caused the crash. "We don't know why the officer ran the stoplight." Porto said.
Porto said the signaling system around Sao Paulo was among the best in the world and in good working order. "Our technicians say the system has a failure rate of once in every 400 years, at the worst," he said.
The engineer, Roberto Pereira, interviewed in his hospital bed by a Brazilian television crew, said he slammed on his emergency brakes when he saw the red trackside signal.
But the brakes "just took some time to grip. I don't know why." he said.
Most of the crash victims were low-income workers traveling between Sao Paulo, South America's largest city with about 15 million inhabitants, and the university town of Mogi das Cruzes. 50 miles east
It was the worst rail crash in Brazil in many years. Twenty-three people died in 1969 at Cajamar near Sao Paulo in a two-train collision.
U.S. and city agents crack down on Philadelphia drug dealers
United Press International
"We want to push the drug dealers out of the communities they have terrorized and give the communities back to the people," Meesse said, who also toured the North Philadelphia neighborhood where the arrests were made.
PHILADELPHIA — Agents arrested 26 suspected drug dealers and sought 30 more in the largest cooperative drug sweep by federal and local authorities in the country's history, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meele announced yesterday
"The federal government is dedicated to nothing less than neighborhood reclamation." Meese said. "We will investigate, we will indict, we will convict."
He said the Neighborhood Drug Dealers Project, the joint program that culminated in the sweeping arrests, would be used as a model for similar drug busts throughout the country.
Police began rounding up suspects late Monday, with at least 26 in custody by yesterday evening. Most were arrested for selling cocaine. Authorities described those arrested as middle-level drug dealers who sold the drugs to street dealers.
The arrests were after a federal indictment of 56 people after at least seven months of undercover operations.
Most of the suspects were charged with selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school or for selling drugs after a previous drug conviction, both of
which carry a penalty of at least double the normal federal sentence. Meese said.
After announcing the arrests, Meese, U.S. Attorney Edward Dennis, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Tucker and a host of other authorities toured the neighborhood to demonstrate how the action had "cleaned up" an area where drug dealers once plied their trade in broad daylight.
Although federal drug enforcement efforts normally target multi-state, or international crime and drug rings. Meese said, the Philadelphia drug sweep marked the first federal intrusion into neighborhood drug dealing.
Pope may face angry homosexuals, few Catholics, church officials say
United Press International
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II will face anger in San Francisco's gay community and will visit a Bible Belt state that is only 2 percent Catholic on his tour of the United States this September.
The city is widely viewed as the risiest stop on the papal tour, with Vatican sources fearing anti-pope demonstrations similar to protests that marred his 1985 trip to the Netherlands. San Francisco's gay community remains angry about the Vatican's Oct. 30, 1986 document on homosexuality, which bluntly calls homosexual behavior "an intrinsic moral evil," "self-indulgent" and "disordered."
theme for Columbia, S.C., in a region dominated by fundamentalist Protestant churches. Only 2.2 percent of South Carolina's 3.4 million residents are Roman Catholic, state church officials said.
Some church officials fear trouble when the pope stops in San Francisco, where the large and militant gay community is outraged over the Vatican view of homosexuality as a "moral evil."
The pope will take part in an "Ecumenical Year" program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
San Francisco was scheduled to be the Pope's last stop on the tour, but Detroit was added because fears rose about that city.
Church leaders say interfaith relations also will be the pope's main
February 15-28 Exhibit:
February 22
Lecture:
Exhibit:
"Anne Frank and Her Diary"
Museum of Anthropology
Museum hours: 8 a.m.—5 p.m.
Monday—Saturday
1—5 p.m., Sunday
"Democracy and its Defense""
On the Recora
2 p.m., Jayhawk Room, Kansas Union
Co-sponsored by: The University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology, the University of Kansas Hilliell, Lawrence Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Relations Bureau of Kansas City.
A KU student was reported missing Wednesday afternoon by her roommate after she missed an afternoon class and did not return to her residence, Lawrence police said.
Two polish sausages, valued at $2 apice, were taken from the faculty in Stauffer Flint Hall between four Fice and 4:30 p.m. Monday. KU police said.
A student's unattended book, valued at $27, was taken about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday from Summerfield Hall, KU police said.
- Three books, valued together at $95.85, were taken from a student's room at Templin Hall sometime between Thursday and Sunday, KU police said.
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