The University Daily Kansan
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Monday, February 5, 2001
Sports: Kansas coach Roy Williams' outburst drives the Jayhawks to victory against Texas.
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 111 NO. 84
SEE PAGE 1B
Inside: Internationally reknown poet to read her work in Lawrence tomorrow.
For Comments, contact Lori O'Toole or Mindie Miller at 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
SEE PAGE 3A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
By Erin Adamson
writer @kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The fate of off-campus housing will be on the table again at tomorrow night's City Commission meeting.
Commissioner Erv Hodges said that while the commissioners would not vote on the ordinance until next week, commissioners would hear public input and the final ordinance would be drafted based on changes requested at the meeting.
"This meeting Tuesday is important," Hodges said.
The proposed ordinance would reduce from four to two the number of nonrelated individuals that could live together in residences zoned for single families.
Kyle Browning, liberal arts and science student senator and member of the
Delta Force coalition, said that Student Senate did not have a group organized to speak at tomorrow's meeting, but that senators would attend the meeting.
Browning said Delta Force would continue to oppose the housing ordinance.
"We're going to pass out literature about why the ordinance is wrong," Browning said. "We're going to be a general presence."
The commission first voted to keep the proposed ordinance alive and in the process of revision at its Dec. 12 meeting.
Hodges said this week's meeting would shape the ordinance.
"Based upon the input we receive, we will finalize an ordinance," Hodges said.
Hodges said it was likely the commission would vote to enact the ordinance at the third meeting. If the ordinance is approved, the public can attend either
What's happening? The Lawrence City Commission will meet at 6:35 p.m. tomorrow on the first level of City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.
PUBLIC MEETING
What it means: The commission will hear public input on a proposed ordinance limiting the number of nonrelated persons in single family residences to two.
What's next: The commission will not vote on the ordinance, but will consider public input when drafting the final ordinance.
of two readings of the ordinance.
By state law, the ordinance must be published twice. But Hodges said the readings held after the vote were a technicality for people who wanted to dispute the already-enacted law. Hodges said that citizens who wanted to speak about the ordinance should do
so at tomorrow's meeting.
Arly Allen, a member of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, said the association didn't intend to have a large presence at the meeting because the group had already presented its argument in favor of the ordinance.
The group is concerned that neighborhoods zoned for single-family use are being undermined by a shortage of affordable housing, high rents charged for family homes, declining enrollment in central-city schools and increasing cost of taxes on homes in Lawrence, Allen said.
The association said that it was the responsibility of the University to provide housing for all students to help alleviate the housing problem.
Allen said tomorrow's meeting would deal with the same issues.
CATCH 22
— Edited by Courtney Craigamile
Casinos breed coins, conflict for tribes
By Derek Prater
writer@kansan.com
Senior staff writer
From bingo to nickel slots to highstakes poker, gaming has become the most lucrative industry for Native Americans in Kansas and throughout the United States.
Four tribal casinos within an hour's drive of one another have opened up in northeast Kansas since
Dan Stromer, general manager of the Golden Eagle Casino, said the casino employed about 375 people, 15 percent of whom are Kickapoo tribal members. "There's a trickle-down effect to the economic base that is huge," Stromer said. Photo by Thad Allender/KANSAN
1996. Three more tribes have expressed interest in areas within 30 minutes of Kansas City, Kan.
The Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma had been looking into an 80 acre site north of Lawrence that would support a 660 million casino complex including a hotel, convention center and museum. However, local resistance persuaded the tribe to turn its efforts to Leavenworth County.
Casinos are bringing unprecedented revenues into tribal coffers that were nearly bare and sorely dependent on federal handouts. Reservations once nearly devoid of economic activity now have jobs and growing businesses.
But gaming operations also extol a price.
Tribal governments are able to provide their citizens with improved services, such as health care and education.
In some cases, tribal members have found themselves pitted against one another in conflicts about how the money will be used and who will control it. Allegations persist of misuse, money laudering and clandestine dealings.
Casinos come to Kansas
The Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas was the first to successfully lobby the state to negotiate a gaming compact.
In 1996, the Kickapoo opened the Golden Eagle Casino
on its reservation about 50 miles north of Topeka. The three other tribes with reservations in Kansas soon followed. The Prairie Band Potawatomi, Iowa, and Sac and Fox tribes opened Harrah's Prairie Band Casino, Casino White Cloud and Sac & Fox Casino respectively.
The allure of gaming dollars also has drawn tribes outside of Kansas wanting to get into the mix.
The Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma has plans to open a casino in Kansas City, Kan., and the Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma has declared interest in opening a casino in Overland Park.
Both of those tribes, along with the Delaware, have historical ties to the state that they claim could open the way to negotiating gaming compacts.
State officials, however, have indicated that four is
enough, and any new casino plans would face extensive legal and political obstacles.
Under the compacts, the Kansas State
Gaming Agency is responsible for regulating casino operations by, for example, conducting employee background checks and reviewing annual audits.
In addition to the state regulation, each tribe appoints its own gaming commission, which also oversees casino operations.
The four tribes in Kansas each pay one quarter of the
See REVENUES on page GA
Checkpoints curb drinking and driving
By Lauren Brandenburg
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
The Douglas County Sheriff's Department arrested two people during Saturday night's sobriety checkpoint on Highway 59 near County Road 458 south of Lawrence.
Sheriff Rick Trapp said he was pleased that the majority of people were driving responsibly. His office will conduct five more checkpoints between now and October. The Kansas Department of Transportation just gave the department a grant totaling close to $6,000 to help with the costs of the checkpoints.
Trapp said his department had not conducted a checkpoint in years, and he thought it was time to do so. He said the department arrested four or five people Thursday night and three or four Friday night on charges of impaired driving, and this concerned him.
"That shows that we have a serious problem here," he said. "I think
Trapp's office publicized the checkpoints, he said, because it was appropriate to do so according to previous court decisions. Legal questions have arisen in the past about checkpoints. Trapp said he had decided his office would publicize the checkpoints as a department procedure, which he said the Department of Transportation had recommended.
it's very high. It's certainly higher than we want in this county."
Trapp said he hoped the checkpoints and their publicity would spread the word about the seriousness of drinking and driving, which he said was the leading cause of death for people between 15 and 24 years old.
Although some people question whether police have the right to stop motorists who have shown no signs of breaking the law, John Liezerz, Topaka junior, said he was in favor of checkpoints.
"I think they're a good thing because we don't need drunk drivers out on the road," Liezwit said. "A thing that could potentially save a life is in everyone's best interest."
The Douglas County Sheriff's Department conducts a sobriety checkpoint near the intersection of Highway 59 and K-10. The checkpoints are part of a newly implemented plan to help curb drunk driving in Lawrence.
Photo by Thad Allander/KANSAN
Hayley Rumback, Wichita junior, agreed that checkpoints were a good idea overall, but also said checkpoints might infringe on a person's rights in some circumstances.
"I think if they were more targeted and police were stopping everyone between the ages of 18 to 21 or something like that, I could see where it could be an issue." Rumback said. "But I haven't heard of that. I don't think it's a terrible infringement."
Liezert said he could understand why people might consider the checkpoints an inconvenience, but he said saving lives was more important.
Trapp had announced the checkpoint's time and location earlier in the week to try to keep drivers from being inconvenienced. Trapp said part of the reason he chose the location on Highway 59 was that people could be quickly stopped and moved through the checkpoint.
At the checkpoint, officers stopped 136 cars, said Lt. Kathy Tate. The cars moved through quickly. Once a car had stopped, officers introduced themselves, explained that the department was conducting a sobri-
ey checkpoint, asked if drivers had drank anything that evening, asked for their driver's license, asked if the address on the license was correct and then sent the drivers on their way.
"Basically what we're trying to do
is get impaired drivers," one deputy explained to a motorist at the checkpoint as he ended his conversation. "Here's a brochure on what we're doing. We're just asking you to be careful. Have a nice night."
— Edited by Joy Pilgreen
Patrol keeps fieldhouse safe for fans and players
By Amanda Beglin
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
For a few sweet minutes, Allen Fieldhouse is quiet.
Nearly three hours before the game starts, public safety officers are at the fieldhouse beginning their safety rituals.
But the fieldhouse employees aren't the only ones preparing to be inundated when the doors open for game day — the KU Public Safety Office is, too.
Basketball fans wait patiently outside, the fieldhouse walkways and seats are empty and the loudest noises are the concession stand employees wriggling plastic cups out of their bags.
Officers check the aisles between the seats for anything that may threaten the safety of the spectators.
Every trash can, closet, supply room and recycling station is checked for suspicious objects. Every locked door is tested with a knob turn, every bathroom is searched by an officer of the appropriate gender.
Sgt. Troy Mailen said the crowd was "generally pretty good with letting people through."
But problems sometimes arise, and the public safety officers' halftime assistance may have saved a man's life recently.
They also are responsible for assisting home and visiting basketball teams and officials to their locker rooms. Two officers walk with the officials, and officers line up in front of a roped walkway to protect the basketball players at halftime and nostgame.
Earlier this season, a man existing behind game officials at halftime had a heart attack and collapsed. Mailen said. One of the officers, an Emergency Medical Technician, attended to the man immediately.
"She began CPR until three more officers got to them, and he was revived," Malen said. "He was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. They had to shock him three times."
Mailen said the man had thanked the officers many times since the incident, and the man attended the next game, Mailen said.
So far, Mailen said, the basketball season had been relatively quiet.
"The last dangerous thing we really found was during the football season," Malen said. "There was a five-gallon gas can near the top of the stairs at the stadium, and it was full. There were kids running around near it, so we removed it."
Lt. Schuyler Bailey, event commander during home games, said most of the 28 officers patrolled the fieldhouse during the game. They are stationed throughout the seats, walkways and fieldhouse perimeters.
Bailey can oversee the whole process from his command post — a mobile police station parked near the south end of the fieldhouse — with the use of police radios, telephones and a television tuned to the game.
"I go where I'm needed, but I'm usually on the phone or radio at the command post," Bailey said.
Meanwhile, Mailen can be found behind a video camera near the top of the stands. Amid the Phog, he videotapes his officers interacting with the crowd. If a fight breaks out among the fans, Mailen records the incident in case the conduct of the officer or feisty fans is questioned later.
Mailen can eye the crowd with his camera. Recently, without taping the incident, he noticed a student shining a laser pointer at a visiting team's free-throw shooter, so he sent an officer to ask the student to stop.
— Edited by Jason McKee
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