wednesday, march 31, 2004
news
the university daily kansan 7A
Criminal records online for a fee
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Criminal records of people convicted in Kansas are now available online from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
For $17.50 per search, Internet users can access data from Kansas court convictions from as far back as 1939.
KBI spokesman Kyle Smith said yesterday that the service will speed up requests for public information while reducing the time it takes KBI employees to retrieve the records.
Smith said the KBI receives about 60,000 requests for criminal background checks each year from people not affiliated with law enforcement agencies or the courts.
They comprise about half of the requests each year — mostly from the newsmedia — for information from the Kansas Central Repository database, which has more than 700,000 records on more than 2 million arrests and court actions.
Smith said he doesn't expect the number of requests to rise significantly because of the new service.
The fee is paid regardless of whether any records turn up from the request, Smith said. Anyone caught misusing the information could face criminal charges, he said.
Most information about adults' convictions in Kansas is available through the Web site.
Data not available include juvenile offenders' records, successfully completed diversion agreements for adults and arrests that did not result in convictions after one year.
Smith said only about 10 states, including Oklahoma and Texas, have criminal background checks available over the Internet.
Dave Sim, administrator of the KBI records section, said fees in other states for the records range from $3.50 to $30 apiece.
Bush reverses decision, Rice will testify
National Security Adviser will testify publicly under oath The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush agreed yesterday to do what he had insisted for weeks he would not: allow National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly and under oath before an independent panel investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The White House also agreed that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would answer questions together and in private before the entire commission.
The turnabout reflected administration concern that the president's strongest point with voters — his leadership in the war on terror — could be eroded if the high-publicity dispute over Rice's testimony lingered.
"I've ordered this level of cooperation because I consider it necessary to gaining a complete picture of the months and years that preceded the murder of our fellow citizens on Sept. 11,2001," Bush said.
the nation "must never forget
"I've ordered this level of cooperation because I consider it necessary to gaining a complete picture of the months and years that preceded the murder of our fellow citizens on Sept. 11,2001."
President George W. Bush
the loss or the lessons of Sept. 11 and we must not assume the danger has passed," Bush said in short remarks in the White House briefing room. He took no questions.
The commission's Republican chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, said that he welcomed the decision and that the White House shouldn't be concerned that the testimony would violate the principles of executive privilege or separation of powers.
we recognize the fact that this is an extraordinary event," Kean said. "This does not set a precedent." He said there was still no time set for Rice's public testimony or for Bush and Cheney's
Bush is stalking much of his reelection bid on his performance as president after the 2001 attacks.
private appearance.
But former Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke — in a best-selling book and testimony before the Sept. 11 commission last week — contended the president had been slow to act against al-Qaida before the attacks and compromised the anti-terror battle afterward by going to war in Iraq.
Opinion polls suggest support for Bush's handling of the war on terror has declined.
Two surveys out this week show the president's approval ratings on that issue are now in the high 50 percent range after being in the mid-60s for months.
Although the erosion has not hurt Bush in one-on-one polling against Democratic rival John Kerry, the White House saw a brewing problem.
It waged a vigorous counterattack on Clarke's credibility. But the many hours Rice spent rebutting Clarke in the news media only raised anew the criticism of the White House's refusal to let her testify publicly.
Even Republicans began saying the administration's argument on separation of powers should
Commissioner Slade Gorton, a former Republican senator from Washington state, said he was delighted at Bush's change of heart, but he added: "I think the White House would have been better off if it had made the agreements sooner."
be tossed aside.
The administration had wanted to restrict any access to the president by the commission to just one hour.
That limit was relaxed earlier this month, even as the White House continued to insist that Bush and Vice President Cheney would meet only privately and only with the commission chairman and vice chairman.
It was the president himself who decided over the weekend that the criticism needed to be muted with an agreement, McCllan said.
The agreement set several conditions.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, in a letter to the panel, stipulated that the commission must agree to seek no more public testimony from any White House official and that Rice's appearance would not be viewed as a precedent.
Rice previously appeared before the panel in February, in a private meeting of which no transcript was made.
Bush and Cheney will appear before all 10 commissioners in a single, joint session, with one commission staff member present to take notes, Gonzales wrote.
The commission accepted the White House conditions.
Commissioner Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska, said the president and vice president will not be under oath.
And Gorton confirmed there would be no time constraints on their appearance.
Commissioner Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said Rice should address Clarke's charges, including one that the Bush administration took too long to develop its anti-terrorism strategy.
"There are some key questions to try and answer, Roemer said. "Was there an urgent priority in the Bush administration in fighting terrorism? How quickly was the decision made?"
A group of relatives of Sept. 11 victims said they were pleased the commission would be able to question Rice in public, but lamented the commission would not do so with other White House officials.
Bomber allegedly bought supplies in Kansas
The Associated Press
McALESTER, Okla. — A worker at a farmer's co-op in Kansas says he initially didn't tell the FBI what he knew about the sale of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to bombing conspirator Terry Nichols because he feared for his safety.
Jerry Showalter, an employee of the Mid-Kansas Cooperative Association, testified Monday at Nichols' state murder trial that he was involved in the sale of 2,000 pounds of the fertilizer to someone on Sept. 30, 1994 — more than six months before the Oklahoma City bombing.
"I was trying to tell them that I didn't remember it. I felt like I was giving the truth then, but I was not."
Prosecutors allege that Nichols used an alias to purchase the fertilizer, which was a key ingredient in the bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people. A few weeks after the bombing, Showalter told FBI agents that he didn't specifically recall the transaction.
"I was trying to tell them I didn't remember it," Showalter said. "I felt like I was giving the truth then, but I was not."
Showalter testified that he was scared.
"This. I'm a nervous wreck right now." he answered.
"What were you afraid of?"
prosecutor Sandy Elliott asked.
Showalter said he sold the material at the co-op's McPherson branch to a man who identified himself as Mike Havens, an alias linked to Nichols. But Showalter said he could not identify Nichols as the buyer.
Three days after the bombing FBI agents searched Nichols home in Herington. In the home, the agents found a receipt issued to Mike Havens for the Set. 30 purchase
Testimony in the case is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
FBI agent Louis Michalko testified Monday that the man known as Havens bought more ammonium nitrate fertilizer from the co-op than almost anyone else in the year before the bombing.
Michalko said he reviewed about 132,000 sales tickets from the co-op to find others who purchased fertilizer from Jan. 1. 1994, up to the date of the bombing.
He said his analysis determined that Havens purchased 4,000 pounds of fertilizer during the period, the highest amount after a local county experimental field and a school district.
Havens, listed as buying 2,000 pounds of the material on Sept. 30 and another 2,000 on Oct. 18, 1994, had the second- and third-largest single purchases. He was the largest buyer at the co-op's McPherson branch, Michalko said. Havens was the only major fertilizer buyer who paid cash. Others placed purchases through accounts.
Nichols is charged with 161 state first-degree murder charges.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
- He is already serving a life prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy convictions for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers in the bombing.
The state charges are for the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus.
Prosecutors allege that Nichols and coconspirator Timothy McVeigh gathered components for the ammonium nitrate and fuel-oil bomb and built it.
The government says the bombing was a twisted plot to avenge the deaths of about 80 people exactly two years earlier at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.
McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.
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