monday, february 2, 2004
news
the university daily kansan
9A
Legislators looking to trim constituents' waistlines
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — The state budget isn't the only place where legislators are looking to trim some fat.
Citing statistics that show obesity is the second-leading cause of preventable death, behind smoking but ahead of alcohol, some Kansas lawmakers this year are looking for ways to encourage people to adopt better eating and activity habits.
It's a weighty issue that's being addressed in at least 20 other states, with most of the focus on schoolchildren.
One of the biggest problems for politicians is that besides mandating changes in school lunches and pushing physical education classes, there's not much they can do to legislate thinness.
A first step, some say, is raising awareness of the public health problem.
problem.
"People don't think about the long-term effect of super-sizing their fast-food meals, especially for children," said Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, ranking Democrat on the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.
"There has to be at some point the realization that excess weight is just not good for longevity of life."
Haley, one of 17 Kansans who attended a National Governors
Association meeting on obesity in Chicago last year, said he came away from the three-day conference excited about tackling the issue.
issue.
"I'm calling on everyone in the Legislature and all facets of society to approach this issue seriously," he said.
It's a problem that goes beyond Kansas.
Two years ago, the Internal Revenue Service began allowing taxpayers to claim weight-loss expenses as a medical deduction. Around the same time, the World Health Organization issued a report that shifted focus from the amount of food people
Among its recommendations, the WHO suggested limiting food advertising aimed at children and limiting fats, salt and sugary sodas.
eat to the types of food they consume.
A recent national study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the research firm RTI International shows that 20 percent of Kansans are obese and 60 percent are at least overweight.
Kansans spent $657 million last year on obesity-related medical problems, the study said, of which $281 million was financed by Medicare or Medicaid.
The Kansas Department of
Health and Environment said 57 percent of the state's non-Hispanic white population is overweight or obese, as is 65 percent of the state's Hispanic and black population.
Worldwide, 300 million people are obese and 750 million more are overweight, according to the International Obesity Task Force, a component of the World Health Organization. And the American Obesity Association estimates that nearly one-third of the U.S. population is obese.
People are considered obese if they have a body mass index of 30 or higher, while overweight is a BMI of 27 or greater. Body mass
index is calculated using a complex formula that takes into account a person's height and weight.
Obesity increases the risk of developing such conditions as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease and cancer of the breast, prostate and colon, the American Obesity Association said.
KDHE plans to further study the issue in schools with the help of funding from the nonprofit Sunflower Foundation, which provides grants for improving health in Kansas.
Art honoring disaster victims to be installed at Cosmosphere
The Associated Press
WICHITA — Artisans are creating a stained-glass remembrance of the victims of space disasters that incorporates shuttle tiles from the Challenger and Columbia missions and concrete from the Apollo 1 launch pad.
The 8-by-11-foot creation is about a year away from installation at the entrance of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, which is home to one of the world's most significant collections of American and Russian space artifacts.
Rayer's Bearden Stained Glass in Wichita is creating the piece to commemorate astronauts who died in the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia missions.
The piece will depict an astronaut in a spacesuit with arms outstretched and an American flag in the background.
"We're getting to be part of history. This piece, when completed, will be here for a long time."
Rendy Rayer
CEO of Rayer's Bearden Stained Glass
When finished, Kansas wheat will lie at the astronaut's feet, while above the astronaut will be flying rockets, stars and worlds yet to be discovered.
It takes its name from Kansas' motto, "Ad Astra per Aspera," which means "To the stars through difficulties."
"I'm anxious to see it. I'm excited to have it," said Jeff Ollenburger, the Cosmosphere's president and chief executive.
Ollenburger said the placement of the piece at the entrance of the museum is significant.
"Visitors — right before they go in the museum and learn about the history of space exploration — will walk beneath this memorial which is all about those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to make that story possible," Ollenburger said.
Randy Rayer, chief executive of Rayer's, said he will be proud to have the artwork featured there.
"It's something that every one of us who are involved in it want to show their children and grandchildren."
Employees volunteered much of their own time to research and design the artwork, Rayer said.
More than two-thirds of the cost of the window has been absorbed by the stained-glass company.
"We're getting to be part of history. This piece, when completed, will be here for a long time," he said.
NATION
NATION President to seek Iraq intelligence probe
WASHINGTON—President Bush, under mounting political pressure, will sign an executive order to establish a full-blown investigation of U.S. intelligence failures in Iraq, a senior White House official said Sunday. The investigation will look at what the United States believed it knew before the war against Saddam Hussein's regime and what has been determined since the invasion. Former chief weapons inspector David Kay has concluded that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction, a chief rationale for the U.S.-led war.
The Associated Press
Bush budget highlights his campaign themes
WASHINGTON - President Bush is sending Congress a $2.4 trillion budget that emphasizes the major themes of his re-election campaign - bolstering the military to fight terrorism, strengthening homeland security and making his sweeping tax cuts permanent. But the spending plan released
The Associated Press
today, covering the budget year beginning Oct. 1, is constrained by deficits projected to top a half-trillion dollars this year.
Ceremony remembers Columbia shuttle crash
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — One year after Columbia broke apart and fell in flaming streaks from the Texas sky, NASA workers who launched the shuttle and its seven astronauts and then gathered up the remains of the disaster stood united in sorrow yesterday at the precise moment of destruction.
The first anniversary of the catastrophe was a time for everyone rocket engineers, debris searchers, school children, space enthusiasts, even football fans to pause and remember.
Almost all of the mourners who attended the ceremony held a long-stemmed rose. After the brief outdoor service, they tucked the red-, yellow-, peach- and ivory-colored roses into the white fence surrounding the memorial.
— The Associated Press
Airline cancels flight bound for Super Bowl
WASHINGTON- Continental Airlines canceled a Sunday evening flight from Washington to Houston after security concerns were raised by the Homeland Security Department. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Flight 1519 was canceled "due to security concerns and threat reporting about that particular flight."
The Associated Press
WORLD
Suicide bombers kill at least 56 in Iraq
IRBIL, Iraq — Two suicide bombers with explosives wired to their bodies struck the offices of the country's two main Kurdish parties in nearly simultaneous attacks yesterday, killing at least 56 people and wounding more than 235 in the deadliest assault in Iraq in six months. The attacks struck in the Kurdish heartland and took a heavy toll among senior leaders of Iraq's most pro-American ethnic group.
The Associated Press
For Tracy, a design engineer at Garmin who happens to be an avid runner, it was a dream project. She teamed up with engineers at Timex $ ^{\circ} $ to develop a high-tech sports watch that uses Garmin GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to give athletes nearperfect speed and distance information. Talk about exercising your creative muscles. And it happens every day at Garmin, where our engineers design, build and test real products.
Products like GPS mapping devices used by pilots, hikers, bikers, boaters and travelers, plus cool consumer electronics like PDAs and GSM/CDMA wireless phones.
We're looking for more engineers, like Tracy, to design software, electrical and mechanical components for exciting new products. Sound like a dream job? It's real.To learn more about Garmin and see a listing of current job opportunities, go to www.garmin.com.
COOL PRODUCTS; COOL TECHNOLOGY; COOL PEOPLE;
Send your resume to: GARMIN, Atm: Human Resources, 1200 East 151st Street, Olathe, KS 6062 (913) 397.8200 fax (913) 397.0835
© Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries © Timex Corporation
---
10