Wetside story
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Details, page 2
Published since 1889 by the students of the University of Kansas
Thursday January 29, 1987 Vol. 97, No. 84 (USPS 650-640)
Death penalty bill defeated, but lawmakers to vote again
By TIM HAMILTON
Staff writer
After more than four hours of debate, the Kansas House yesterday voted down the bill to reinstate the death penalty by a one-vote margin.
Debate on the death penalty is scheduled to resume Monday or Tuesday when the bill is expected to be reconsidered.
Four amendments to the bill initially were passed, but the amended bill was later rejected by the House.
One amendment strikes murder, in the commission of a felony, from the list of crimes punishable by death, but makes capital punishment an option for murders arising from kidnapping, rape and sodomy.
Another amendment requires two different trials for the accused, with two different juries. One jury would decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty, and the other jury would determine the sentence. The other two amendments allow the accused to choose any legal counsel within Kansas and to donate organs if executed.
The final vote, which was not a roll call vote and not recorded, came after a speech by Rep. Marvin Barkis, D-Louisburg, Barkis, who
has supported the bill in the past, said the state shouldn't spend money to finance the death penalty when it is too poor, the elderly and the dependent.
"Until we address the issue of the quality of life as we have addressed this issue, we cannot fund the death penalty." Barkis told the House.
Barkis said that with past death penalty bills, legislators didn't have to worry about their decision because they knew former Gov. John Carlin was now. Now, he said, they have discovered the bill has far-reaching implications.
"The problem is much more com
plex than a simple solution." he said
Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence agreed that this year the death penalty was receiving more serious consideration than it has in the past.
"The vote demonstrated there are factors about the death penalty that haven't been discussed," Solbach said. "For the first time in eight years, we had an overdose death penalty its merits because we know the governor will sign it."
Sobach said some proponents of the bill voted against the bill because they put the death penalty low on their list of priorities.
"A lot of people feel it isn't a high enough priority that we can afford it now," he said. "These are tough targets and they deny penalty supporters have made."
Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence,
said. "Certain people voted against
the bill, who voted for it in the past.
"It's the money issue."
Rep. Jess Branson, D-Lawrence,
said that cuts of important social
welfare programs were of key
importance; coalition opposed
the death penalty.
"It was unacceptable to us to pass the bill in view of the cuts," Branson said.
Branson doesn't expect the same result when the bill is called up for reconsideration. She said she thought the bill would pass next time it hears in House.
At a press conference after the vote, House Speaker James Braden, R-Clay Center, said that the bill still had enough support to pass. Braden said he blamed himself for not asking for a roll call vote.
Braden criticized the Democrat proponents of the death penalty, who voted against the bill, for voting for political reasons and playing games with the bill.
Pinned In
Gareth Waltrio/KANSAN
Army ROTC Cadet Captain Kirkin Bateman, Nokesville, Va., senior, pins Cadet Captain Gregory Solem, Deerfield, Ill., senior, during a branch assignment ceremony. The ceremony last night recognized 20 graduating cadets who will become officers this spring. Solem will be commissioned as an infantry officer.
Courtesy of Spencer Museum of Art and the Letha Churchill Walker Fund "Jealousy," by Edward Murch, is one of the prints in "The Power of Women" exhibit at the Spencer Museum of Art. The 19th-century lithograph and other prints have stirred up controversy among many University women.
Medieval art exhibit moves some women to decry it as 'sexist'
By KJERSTI MOEN
Staff writer
"The Power of Women," a University art exhibit, created a controversy. The exhibit is sexist, some women say, and others say the title is misleading.
the exhibition, which ends tomorrow at the Spencer Museum of Art, displays 13 prints and four illustrated books, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries. All are by male artists and most by portrait medieval society's view of women. The exhibit portrays women using their sexuality in destructive wavs.
"It was quite obscene," said Kristine Furlough, an associate with the Hall Center for the Humanities. "Very anti-female, anti-feminine, anti-woman . . . I saw it as sexist and misogynist."
Stephen Goddard, curator of prints at the Spencer Museum of Art, said the exhibit was a celebration of the medieval society's view of women.
It should have included a comparison to the moden view of women or complementary information. Furlought said.
The exhibition was a propaganda for 15th-century attitudes toward women, she said, adding, "It presents only the male side."
"It was not meant to antagonize anyone," he said.
"We wanted to present the long, unfortunate tradition of viewing women that way," he said. "I saw no problem with revealing it and looking at it from an academic point of view."
The exhibition was meant as a background for an 1896 lithograph the museum recently acquired, Edward Munch, a Norwegian artist.
The lithograph represents a typical late 19th-century view of women as "femme fatale," Goddard said.
Many women, however, saw the problem as the choice of "The Power of Women" as the exhibit's title.
"The Power of Women" was a popular theme with 15th- and early 16th-century artists and writers, Goddard explained, adding that he had not expected the museum's visitors to misunderstand the title.
"What we see is medieval men's fear of women's sexuality," she said.
Furlough said, "I assumed the exhibit was positive, enlightening, in support of women. It turned out quite the contrary."
"The title has a very positive ring to it, whereas the prints certainly don't," he said.
Goddard agreed the title choice was unfortunate
Elizabeth Schultz, professor of English, said the prints in the exhibition represented an assumption about the role of modern women had real power.
"The exhibition did not recognize the fact that women in the past and present are essentially powerless," she said.
Susan Noakes, chairman of women's studies, said, "The exhibition represents a historical view of women."
Radioactive waste proposal gathers support in Kansas
Bv TIM HAMILTON
Staff writer
State Rep. Keith Roe has joined the fight against the storage of low-level radioactive waste in Kansas.
The state representative from Mankato recently introduced a bill in the Legislature that would ban the use of radioactive waste in Kampai.
Within five months a developer will be chosen to select a site in either Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas or Louisiana for the storage of low-level radioactive waste.
These five states are members of the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact. According to the federal Low-Level Waste Policy Act of 1980, one of them must be selected to receive a storage site for wastes generated in those states by Jan. 1, 1988.
In all of the compact states, citizens have organized to protest and fight the storage of low-level radioactive wastes in their state.
A bill has been introduced in the Arkansas State Legislature to pull the state out of the compact, an act which by a $125,000 fine under federal law.
Many residents fear Kansas will be the state selected for the site because of two studies that list counties containing eligible sites for disposal in the five states.
According to the second study, Kansas has more counties with sites geologically eligible for storing low-level wastes than the other states. It is likely that Kansas has larger sites within those counties than the other states.
This has many Kansans, such as Roe, worried and up at arms.
the legislature that would prohibit disposal and storage of waste in Kansas salt formations. The bill is aimed at preventing the selection of salt mines near Lyons, which is in central Kansas, as a site for storage.
State Rep. LeRoy Fry, D-Little River, has introduced another bill in
Although Rice County was not included in the second study as an eligible county, it could still receive the site because the compact commission, which is composed of a member from each state, could decide to allow the developer of the site to select the host state and site. The developer, however, would have to prove the site is acceptable.
"It would prohibit a site if we could get it passed into law," said Fry, who is also armed with a 3,000-signature knife and a ruffin" up our feathers a little bit.
Marsha Marshall, director of the Kansas Natural Resource Council, said the council had received more response from the public on this issue than any other. Citizens began taking interest last year when the compact sold a public meeting in November 1986 in Little Rock. Ark
"At that time lots of citizens started calling our office and were very angry," she said. Citizens realized the decision to place the site could be made without public input, she said.
Laura Menhusen, president of the 500-member North Central Citizens Group, which opposes waste storage in Kansas, and Marshall said the compact had many problems in its implementation; burial, interstate transportation of waste and the fairness of the compact.
"There is no question that Kansas is not the highest volume waste producer in the compact." Marshall says of the project, an effort to most, accepting waste from
out of state."
Raymond Peery, executive director of the compact, said all the states in the compact generated about the same amount of low-level waste. He said some citizens had information on levels of waste production based on outdated figures.
"Now it's more evenly distributed based on the fact that all states have nuclear power plants except Oklahoma," he said.
Protest leaders said options to waste burial included storing the waste above ground, passing legislation for burial and withdrawing from the compact
"Whether we get out of the compact or not we'd like to see on or near site 'power plant' storage" "later, then it's not out of sight, out of mind."
Marshall said the Natural Resource Council also may support withdrawing from the compact and storing waste as Texas has done.
"The initial emotional reaction is
the "get out of the compact.""
Peppe
At the last meeting of the compact, on Jan. 16 in New Orleans, to adopt a proposal to select a developer, Peery said strong opposition to shallowland burial of nuclear waste was held by the Senate and Kansas representative on the commission and Kansas Director for the Division of Environment.
"He brings to the table the prospective of the citizens of Kansas," he said. "I've had interaction with some of the groups and we've held public meetings." We encourage them to voice their concerns before any action is taken."
Marshall couldn't agree more.
"What you get down to is a political decision, if the people don't accept it then it won't fly," she said.
DLA uses secret ballot vote to choose possible mall site
By PAUL BELDEN
Staff writer
If Lawrence must have a shopping mall, the Downtown Lawrence Association wants it to be on the east side of the city and 800 blocks of Massachusetts Street.
Jim Bateman, president of DLA,
said the results of a secret ballot at
last night's DLA meeting would send
a strong message to the Lawrence City
Commission. He said the commission
supported a mail on the 600 blocks of Massachusetts, Vermont
and Kentucky streets.
For the location of the mall, the 700 through 800 block site received 126 votes, the 600 block site received 117 votes, and unspecified other locations received six.
Carolyn Shy, the director of the Main Street program for the DLA.
said the DLA had only 126 members. She said a weighted voting system was used, which accounted for the discrepancy in numbers.
Neither Shy nor Bateman, owner of the Window Seat, 1007 Massachusetts St., would explain how the weighted voting system worked.
Jack Arensberg, owner of Arensburg's Shoes, 8225 Massachusetts St. said, "A mall on the 600 block of Massachusetts would be the death knell for downtown, just as surely as a cornfield wall would."
Arensburg said he opposed any mall in Lawrence.
Lawrence Litwin, owner of Litwin's, 830 Massachusetts St., said "I can't believe anyone in their rational thinking is blocking off Massachusetts Street."
He said such an action would mean
the demise of downtown Lawrence.
The ballot offered DLA members three choices: the 600 block site, the 700 through 800 block site, and "other" followed by a blank.
Some DLA members complained that the ballot did not offer the choice of no mail in Lawrence.
Duane Morris, owner of Morris Sports, 1016 Massachusetts St., said the commission had considered the 700 through 800 block site for a proposed mall years ago.
Batman said members who opposed any mall site could write their opinions on the ballots, but those opinions would not be counted, he said.
But Shy said the DLA was operating under the assumption that a mall in Lawrence was inevitable.
Budget ax descends on college brochures
Staff writer
By JOSEPH REBELLO
Information about the University of Kansas and its programs may be a little less accessible this year because of a cutback in some KU publications.
Three pamphlets and one directory put out by University Relations will be put on hold for the next year, and some schools are considering suspending publication of their newsletters. These moves are in response to the 3.8 percent reduction in University Press requests requested by the Legislature.
At least two schools have announced they will stop printing their paper.
The KU Architect, a newsletter published once every two years by the School of Architecture and Urban Design for its alumni, will not make its scheduled appearance this year, as Clark, assistant dean of the school.
"It means that we won't be in as close contact with our alumni as we'd like to be, and that may affect our
See PUBLISH. n. 6. col. 3
INSIDE
Nothing but net
With 5 seconds remaining in KU's win over Iowa State yesterday, KU's Lisa Braddy took a wild, underhanded, 15-foot shot and hit nothing but net. See story page 11.
Faking it
Officials of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant staged a fake nuclear accident to test their plan of action for an emergency. See story page 3.