6A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2007
AUTHOR (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Tiffany Williams-Jallow, Shands' publicist and 2005 KU graduate, said she appreciated Shands' courage in writing about his father's legacy.
"It is an honest look from a white man's perspective," Williams-Jallow said. "I admire him sharing his father's story with the public in places where he may or may not be very well received."
Williams-Jallow said hate crimes were still common in areas of Kansas City; her father was a victim of violent racist behavior in Lee Summit last year.
Shands and Williams-Jallow agreed that getting the message out was important to foster communication about racial issues in the U.S. They planned to tour the nation
with the book during the next year; speaking at schools and holding book signings.
The tour began Saturday in Lawrence and will continue in Olathe on Feb. 28.
Kansan staff writer Katy Blair can be contacted at kblair@kansan. com.
"To hear the experiences of someone who grew up at that time is an encouragement to continue the reconciliation process," she said.
Beth Bekher, co-owner of Signs of Life, said the book signing was a positive influence on the Lawrence community.
Edited by Carissa Pedigo
Alex Brandon/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Living it up
A bag of beads is thrown to the crowd as the Krewe of Thoth rolls during their Mardi Gras parade through the Uptown area of New Orleans Sunday.
New Jersey offers civil unions
GAY RIGHTS
Law takes effect today, makes N.J. third state to offer marriage rights to same-sex couples
BY GEOFF MULVIHILL ASSOCIATED PRESS
HADDONFIELD, N.J. — Diane Marini used to joke that she was always the bridesmaid and never the bride because, as a lesbian, she thought it was unlikely New Jersey would ever approve same-sex marriage.
Still, she and longtime partner Marilyn Maneely campaigned for gay marriage. They were among seven couples who sued the state in 2002 demanding the right to marry. While their suit didn't lead to a gay marriage law, it has led to New Jersey becoming the third state to offer civil unions to same-sex couples.
The civil unions law takes effect Monday and some same-sex couples are planning ceremonies. For couples who are not already in civil
unions from other states, however,
there is a 72-hour waiting period
after applying for a license — just
like with marriages. A few town
halls around the state planned to
open at 12:01 a.m. Monday so couples
could file their applications.
It will be a bittersweet day for Marini, because Maneely died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2005, more than a year before the case was decided.
"I'm thrilled to have been part of the whole movement to show people who didn't know what marriage meant, why it was important," said Marini, who plans to attend one couple's ceremony next weekend and probably several more in the next few months.
The state Supreme Court ruled in October that New Jersey must extend all the rights of marriage to gay couples, but left it to lawmakers to decide whether to provide those rights in the form of marriages, civil unions or something else. Lawmakers opted for "civil unions", in part because of opposition from legislators who objected on religious grounds to calling it "marriage."
Marini, a construction contractor, and Maneely, a home-health nurse, were a couple for more than 14 years after meeting at a spiritual retreat in Ocean City, Marini, who had come out as a lesbian in the early 1970s, saw the retreat as a vacation.
Maneely, a mother of five who knew how to cook for a big group, was there mostly to run the kitchen.
It was only after meeting Marini that Maneely realized she was gay and sought a divorce from her husband.
Marini restored a home for the couple and Maneely's five children in Haddonfield, a well-heeled suburb near Philadelphia.
The couple golfed, went to the beach, shuttled the kids around and went to women's and gay rights marches in Washington.
Their activism increased five years ago when they joined with six other couples in the lawsuit.
Toward the end of Maneely's life, Marini says, they felt shortchanged because they didn't have the same rights as married couples.
Marini said, as advocates for gay marriage have often argued, that the benefits of marriage come into play often when one spouse is sick. "It's a time of emergency, a time of hysteria," she said. And a bad time to explain legal rights and status to hospital officials, well-meaning or not, she said.
》FOOD SAFETY
Meat plant inspections to decrease
Agriculture Department to spread resources, inspect plants with lower risks of disease
BY LIBBY QUAID ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The first major changes to food inspection in a decade will increase federal scrutiny of meat and poultry plants where the danger from E. coli and other germs is high or where past visits have found unsafe practices.
The new policy will result in fewer inspections at plants with lower risks and better records for handling meat and poultry.
"We're just putting resources where the risk is greatest, and those
plants that demonstrate excellent control will get less of our resources;" said Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department's top food safety official.
To decide the level of scrutiny a plant should get, the "risk-based" system will consider the type of product and the plant's record of food safety violations.
A plant that makes hamburger and has repeated violations would get more inspection. A plant that makes cooked, canned ham and has a clean track record would get less scrutiny.
"There are certain food products that carry a higher inherent risk than others." Raymond, the undersecretary for food safety, said in
an interview with The Associated Press. "And there are certain plants that do a better job of controlling risk than others.
For now, the new system will be used in processing plants, not in slaughter plants. No timetable has been set for shifting to the new inspection system.
Critics say the idea sounds good, but they fear department officials are rushing a complex new system into place.
"One of the concerns is that this is simply an effort to save money in a tight budget year," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "We want to make sure a budget shortfall is not what's
driving these important inspection decisions"
Raymond says the agency's budget is not driving changes in the inspection program. "We're not going to save any money on this part of risk-based inspection," he said, adding there could be cost-savings if the changes are extended later to slaughtering operations.
The risk-based inspection system will be the most significant change to food safety inspections in a decade. The department overhauled inspections in 1996 when hundreds of people got sick and four children died after eating undercooked hamburgers from jack in the Box restaurants.