4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1,2007
》 PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN
Todd Vanderlin/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A publicity stunt for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" scares many in Boston and leads to one arrest. A devise consisting of lights on a circuit board was placed at various locations throughout the city.
Cartoon's promotion results in arrest
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Police later said they made an arrest.
Highways, bridges' and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
"It's a hoax — and it's not funny," said Gov. Dev Patrick, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have."
Boston police said Wednesday night that one person had been arrested.
Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of
Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", a surreal series about a talking milk shake, a box of fries and a meatball.
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement.
It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland; Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said. As soon as the company realized the problem, it said, law enforcement officials were told of their locations in all 10 cities.
The marketing firm that put them up has been ordered to remove them immediately, said Phil Kent, Turner chairman.
Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger, "Keint said.
There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other nine cities spotting similar devices.
Austin police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said the marketing company told the department about the devices Wednesday afternoon and was working with the city to remove them.
"We apologize to the citizens of
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he'll seek to punish those responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years in prison per count. He said he was "prepared to take any and all legal action" against the company and its affiliates "for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's incidents."
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We Can't Do It Without YOU!
Visions for the future City hires consulting firm to review current zoning codes
》 LAWRENCE DEVELOPMENT
BY MATT ERICKSON
The city has brought in a team from the national consulting firm PlaceMakers to explore ways to make Lawrence's developing areas emulate the style of its downtown area.
Lawrence may soon be taking a new approach with development and growth - or perhaps it could be called an old approach.
"Right now, you could not create a downtown." Hack said "Our existing zoning codes do not allow the kind of mixed-use codes that we would like to see."
PlaceMakers will meet with several city organizations and will welcome public input. A workshop schedule is available at lawrenceks.org. PlaceMakers calls the workshop a "charrette," which Brown said means a quick-moving, intense process involving lots of public input.
Dan Warner, long-range planner for the city, said the workshop would create an alternate zoning code that developers could choose to use over the existing code.
Hack said the city wants members of the public to participate—including University of Kansas students.
No one would be forced to use the new codes and the city would still need to approve the new codes after PlaceMakers helped draft them.
PlaceMakers specializes in the concept of "new urbanism," or "traditional neighborhood design." Hack said. The concept involves grid-like streets and mixed-use areas, where residences and businesses could coexist, rather than winding cul-desacs and strictly defined residential and commercial areas.
In other words, new developments could resemble Lawrence's downtown area in many respects.
"An awful lot of people graduate and come back to Lawrence to live," Hack said.
Brown said the group would try to produce a coherent plan that would allow developers to create "compact, connected, diverse, walkable" neighborhoods.
Ben Brown, PlaceMakers public relations representative, said the group envisioned neighborhoods where people could walk from their homes to the corner grocer, a coffeehouse or a newspaper stand.
"We think too many communities are planned around cars now, instead of around people," he said.
"There's much more of an atmosphere of predictability," he said.
"What we get at the end of this process is still just a product from PlaceMakers," Warner said.
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@ kansan.com.
Edited by Mark Vierthaler
MAINTENANCE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
unfairly punish commuters
"When someone pays their turn-pike toll, they don't mind paying because they know that money is going to maintain the roadway," Watkins said. "This is a slippery slope we're talking about going down."
Nicole Corcoran, Sebelius' spokeswoman, disagreed.
"Even with this small increase over several years it's just a few pennies per mile, the Kansas Turnpike will still be below the national average," Corcoran said. "Those few
extra cents are more practical than the sort of substantial tax increase that would be required to meet the needs of Kansas students."
The needs of the University are rather large. A November 2006 report released by the Kansas Board of Regents determined that the University and the University of Kansas Medical Center require $284.7 million in repairs.
"I admire the governor for thinking outside the box and coming up with some new ways to address deferred maintenance," Hemenway said. "This is a serious and sincere effort to solve the problem."
money," he said he was happy with the government's interest in the University.
Kansan staff writer Joe Hunt can be contacted at jhunt@kansan. com.
While Chancellor Robert Hemenway admitted that "some would say there is never enough
Edited by Jyl Unrum
FILMMAKER (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Jacobson, who was director of photography for "CSA: Confederate States of America," said many students are impatient to make films; that's why film history, theory and different genres are introduced first.
After 10 years of acting, theater and pyrotechnic work, Riggs is back
Jacobson said education can teach the basics of filmmaking, but once students leave film school, they "pay their dues" and start over again.
"A film says something, it can teach us something, it has something to show us," Riggs said.
Riggs said his passion for making movies started when his parents purchased a video camera.
at the University of Kansas finishing his degree. He said the adaptation of jonson's play, based on the idea that humans do more to corrupt themselves than the devil could, is planned to be finished this year.
SNOW (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Kansan staff writer Brian Lewis-Jones can be contacted at bljones@kansan.com.
"I had been acting in junior high. The possibility of having a camera was amazing," he said. With his cousins and siblings, Riggs created a Western using the camera's pause button for editing.
Schlageck, Manhattan junior, said. "I hope I get to go sledding and build some snow sculptures."
Edited by Jyl Unruh
Schlageck arrived on campus prepared, sporting a cap and gloves. Others weren't prepared.
Brett Epp, Waco, Texas, junior, rode his bike to campus and said
"I'll just leave my bike in studio and walk back down the hill," he said.
he wouldn't be able to ride it home because of the snowfall.
Kansan staff writer Kyle Carter can be contacted at kcarter@kansan. com.
National Weather Service forecaster Kyle Poag said it was unlikely for snow to continue today. He predicted a total of one and a half inches of snowfall in Lawrence.
— Edited by Mark Vierthaler
》 SENATE PROPOSAL
Bi-partisan resolution gets support
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Two senators
HARTINGTON — Two senators — a Republican and a Democrat — leading separate efforts to put Congress on record against President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq joined forces Wednesday, agreeing on a nonbinding resolution that would oppose the plan and potentially embarrass the White House.
Carl Levin (D-Mich.) had been sponsoring competing measures opposing Bush's strategy of sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to the war zone, with Warner's less harshly worded version attracting more
Sens. John Warner (R-Va.) and R- Va.
"I think it's a mistake to put timetables on difficult missions because an enemy can adjust."
guage saying the troop increase is against the national interest, and it drops an earlier provision by Warner suggesting Senate support for some additional troops.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wants to begin debate Monday on the new measure, bypassing committee review. Levin's original resolution would no longer be considered.
"I want to work with the Republican leader in setting up a
GEORGE W. BUSH
President
Republican interest. The new resolution would vow to protect funding for troops while keeping Warner's original language expressing the Senate's opposition to the buildup.
Levin replaced Warner as chairman of the Armed Services Committee when the Democrats took control of the Senate in January. Their resolution could gain more support from members of both parties than their separate versions had been attracting. It lacks Levin's lan-
process for making sure people have the ability to offer their amendments," said Reid (D-Nev).
The resolution is likely to pose a threat to the White House because of its potential appeal to Republicans
"It's been a hard work in progress," Warner said of his resolution, which has been struggling to win support of 60 senators so as to prevent a filbuster.
who have grown tired of the nearly four-year war and want a chance to express their concerns.
Warner had attracted at least seven other Republicans who were inclined to vote for his resolution.
In an interview with Fox News,
Bush took issue with McConnell's statement that his plan needs to be successful over the next six to nine months.
"I think it's a mistake to put time-tables on difficult missions because an enemy can adjust," Bush said. "On the other hand, I certainly understand the urgency in Mitch's voice. I also understand the skepticism on Capitol Hill. I mean, no doubt, there's a lot of pessimism there today."
In a statement after the president's interview, McConnell avoided mention of a specific time frame, but he stressed that the U.S. commitment in Iraq "is not open-ended."
"We will know in a relativety short period of time whether or not the Iraqis are committed, and initial results are positive," McConnell said "Of course we would need to reconsider our strategy if this effort fails."
Bush also criticized a proposal by Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois, to have all U.S. combat forces out of Iraq by spring 2008. "I say that it's important to succeed and that failure in Iraq will cause chaos," Bush said. "My admonition to those who are speaking out is let us back the troops and let us hope for the success" of their mission.