2A
The Inside Front
Friday April 27, 2001
News
from campus, the state, the nation and the world
LAWRENCE
Natural gas line breaks; businesses evacuated
Several businesses near Seventh and Massachusetts streets were evacuated yesterday afternoon after a natural gas line was ruptured by a back hoe, said Jerry Karr, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical battalion chief.
The back hoe was being used for a construction project to expand the Lawrence JournalWorld's office building. At 3:25 p.m., the rupture filled the air with a foul smell, which caused the owner of Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St., to call for help.
Firefighters asked patrons of Free State Brewery to stay inside while they directed traffic and shoppers around the intersection. Customers in Liberty Hall, Java Break and businesses on Seventh Street between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets were evacuated until 4:30 p.m., Karr said.
The natural gas was little threat to the people who were evacuated, Karr said.
"You'd have to be exposed to it for quite some time to be affected," Karr said. "And the gas is lighter than air, so it rises."
Natural gas is odorless, he said. The foul odor of natural gas is caused by a chemical that is mixed with gas before it is used for businesses and corporations.
Karr said said that natural gas was flammable and potentially dangerous, but that the gas level was low enough that an explosion was unlikely.
Karr said the gas company could repair the punctured gas line quickly.
"It can be done in a couple of hours." Karr said. "They'll just cut that piece of pipe, put the new one in, and it's good as new."
STATE
Amanda Beglin
Graves says he will veto House budget proposal
Meanwhile, senators postponed their debate on a rival proposal.
TOPEKA — The House expected to take up a plan for eliminating a hole in the state budget, but Gov. Bill Graves declared yesterday that he was "fully prepared" to veto it.
Legislators must close a $206 million gap between expected revenues and spending already approved and signed into law for the state's 2002 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The final spending bill of the year will make the changes necessary.
Gov. Bill Graves has proposed $117.6 million in sales, cigarette, estate and insurance tax increases to help close the budget gap and raise additional money for public schools.
The governor said the House plan decreased aid to local governments, took away money for enforcement of
water quality initiatives and hurt programs for poor, elderly and disabled Kansans.
NATION
House passes bill making it illegal to harm a fetus.
WASHINGTON — Armed with the support of the White House, abortion foes moved their first bill of the year through the House yesterday — legislation that would make it a federal crime to harm a fetus.
The House, by a 252-172 vote, passed the measure after a lengthy and charged debate. Moments earlier, Republicans held off a Democratic amendment that would have stiffened penalties for assaulting a pregnant woman but not made hamming the fetus a separate crime.
In the end, 53 Democrats, more than one-fourth of the party's members in the House, joined Republicans in voting for the bill.
Republican sponsors who brought the bill to the House floor yesterday shunned the word abortion. Rather, they characterized the measure as an effort to get tough with criminals who harm "unborn children."
"This is not an abortion bill," said Rep F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "Without this bill, crimes against these innocent victims will go unpunished."
Hawaiian schools open after teacher strikes
HONOLULU — Thousands of elementary and high school students returned to class yesterday, three weeks after Hawaii's public education system was shut down by a pair of strikes.
The state's 13,000 public school teachers, who set up picket lines April 5, had returned to work Wednesday after ratifying a four-year contract that includes higher pay for those with advanced degrees.
The strike cost 182,000 schoolchildren 14 days of instruction. A separate strike by University of Hawaii faculty that also began April 5 ended with a two-year contract agreement last week.
CIA was unsure about Peru missionary plane
WASHINGTON — Shortly after a CIA antidrug team told the Peruvian Air Force about an unidentified plane over the Amazon jungle, the plane's flight pattern made the Americans question whether it was a drug plane, U.S., officials say.
Despite the Americans' expressed uneasiness, and their expectation that the Peruvian fighter would make a concrete identification before attacking, the jet opened fire on the pontoon plane within minutes on April 20.
The single-engine Cessna was flying straight, level and at a reasonably high attitude deep into Peru's air space instead of sticking low to the ground and near the border and taking evasive maneuvers, officials said Wednesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
American missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter were killed in the attack. Bowers' husband, Jim, and their 6-year-old son, Cory, survived, as did pilot Kevin Donaldson, who was wounded and has undergone surgery on both legs.
First tourist to finance outer space rocket trip
BAIKONUR, Kazakstan — The fantasy of taking a vacation in outer space will come true for an American millionaire tomorrow when he blasts off aboard a Russian rocket to become the world's first space tourist.
Dennis Tito won't have the amenities imagined by science fiction fadulists, such as orbital hotels and fast-food joints where space ships stop on interstellar hops. But his trip, starting from the same launch pad that made Soviet cosmonaut Yurt Gagarin the first man in space, could mark a new era of paid space flight.
"Over the past century or two, millionaires have opened the public's access to dozens of activities which now entertain and thrill millions," said James Oberg, a U.S. expert on the Russian space program.
The California tycoon is flying to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket along with cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.
Chinese officials angry about Bush's comments
BEJING — China said yesterday that already badly strained relations with Washington were damaged even further by President Bush's blunt warning about America's will to defend Taiwan.
"The Chinese government and people are strongly indignant and opposed" to Bush's comments, Foreign Ministry representative Zhang Qiyue said. She noted that Bush's "mistaken remarks" came on the heels of an American arm package to Taiwan, announced Tuesday, which China strongly opposes.
In strong remarks aimed at Beijing, Bush told The Associated Press on Wednesday that U.S. military force is "certainly an option" if China acts on its long-standing threats and strikes Taiwan. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949, and China doesn't rule out using force to assert control over the island it claims as a breakaway province.
"This shows that it has drifted further on a dangerous road," Zhang said, referring to the United States.
The Associated Press
Walk aids AIDS awareness
By Livi Regenbaum
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Something as simple as walking could help save a life.
Association, said the association sponsored the event to help make students aware of the disease.
The Douglas County AIDS Project will have its annual 5K AIDS Walk on Saturday at the South Park Gazebo.
Sidney Hardgrave, executive director of the AIDS Project, said she hoped the walk will raise support and serve as an awareness tool about the risks of HIV and AIDS.
"Our goal is to raise $10,500," she said.
Hillary Dunn. Dallas junior and vice-president for public relations for the Panhellenic
"We have done this for a couple years, and we have always felt that being aware of AIDS and HIV was important," she said.
The Centers for Disease Control reported that people under the age of 25 contract at least half of all new HIV infections in the country and the majority of young people are infected through sexual contact.
Hardgrave said the most important way for people to prevent themselves from contracting HIV through sexual intercourse was to use condoms. If students are using needles for drug use,
tattoos or piercing, the needles should be sterile and not shared.
Pledge sheets for the walk can be picked up at the Douglas County AIDS Project, 2518 Ridge Ct.; Paradise Cafe, 728 Massachusetts St., and Waxman Candles, 609 Massachusetts St.
Sarah Wilson, Derby sophomore and AIDS Project volunteer, said that if people raised $25 or more in pledges, they would get a T-shirt. Students who don't get any pledges they can still participate in the walk to support the AIDS Project, she said.
Registration begins at 9 a.m.
and the walk starts at 10 a.m.
Hardgrain said she expected 200
to 250 participants.
Edited by Doug Pacey
Officer shares China experience
Continued from page 1A
"I've always been impressed with him," Josh Vignery said. "That kind of helped me with the incident, because I knew how much he knew and how much training he had had."
"I'm sure they already had pride in their country, but I hopefully was able to instill that in them some more if I could," Vignery said.
Vignery said he hoped that the men and women in his audience yesterday came away from his speech not just impressed with him, but that they learned something, too.
He said he hoped more than anything, that he taught the audience to be prepared if they chose a life in the military.
"You never really think it's going to happen to you." Vignery said. "Hopefully, they know that when they serve their country, then they can expect for things
like this to happen."
As for his career in the military, he said it was by no means over. He said not even an experience such as his 11 days as a hostage of politics could keep him from his love of flying and the Navy.
"A lot of people have asked me if I was going to get out of it now," Vignery said. "I tell them 'No, I'm not going to leave,' I love flying. Ever since I've been in grade school I've wanted to fly."
- Edited by Jennifer Valadez
ON THE RECORD
A KU student reported his Toshiba laptop computer missing from his room on the seventh floor of Oliver Hall between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, the KU Public Safety Office said. The computer was valued at $1,700.
A security officer reported three KU students bringing six machetes into Robinson Center at 9:20 p.m. Wednesday, the KU Public Safety Office said. The students said they were using the machetes for play practice. A public safety officer explained they could not bring machetes to campus without special permission, the report stated. The students agreed to take the machetes home.
A KU student's driver's side window and door lock were damaged between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 2200 block of West 26th Street, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated
The rear window of a KU student's Volkswagen Jetta was damaged between 1 and 4 a.m. yesterday in the 1700 block of Vermont Street, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated at $300.
A KU student's driver's side door lock was damaged between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 1200 block of West Campus Road, Lawrence police said. The damage was estimated at $300.
KU Water Polo will practice at 2 p.m. Sunday at
■ Ki Alkido Club will meet from 10 a.m. to noon tomorrow at 27 Robinson Center.
the Robinson Center pool.
KU Traditional Karate Club will meet from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at 207 Robinson Center.
ET CETERA
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