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KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / FRIDAY, JANUARY 15.2010 / NEWS
5A
LAWRENCE
Sidewalk snow removal ordinance irritates residents
BY ALEESE KOPF akopf@kansan.com
Shovel or pay up. Those are the options Lawrence housing residents have faced during one of the most snowy winters the city has seen in years.
A city ordinance requires property owners to clear public sidewalks of snow within 48 hours after the snowfall has stopped. Residents can either shovel their sidewalks or pay a $52 court expense plus a $20 fee for the original offense. Each additional day of the violation is another $20.
However, below freezing temperatures, chilly gusts and packed ice pose a problem to those who receive notices of violation. In fact, the weather, in addition to other issues such as ownership, justification and responsibility, have many Lawrence residents in opposition of the ordinance.
Chris Moll, a senior from Overland Park, is one such resident. Moll, who lives at 11th and Rhode Island streets, returned from winter break to a notice saying he was in violation of city code and needed to clear his sidewalk within the given deadline or pay the ticket. Part of
Moll's annoyance is due to elements out of his control that made meeting the deadline more difficult.
"I was gone for Christmas and came back to a sidewalk that people had walked on for days and packed it down into ice," Moll said. After explaining his grievance to the city, a worker arrived to chip up the sidewalk, but the notice was not forgiven.
Notification is another issue that has brought complaints to the city. Some residents, especially students, were out of town when notices arrived and were unaware of the warnings. Others were unaware that
the city code even existed, let alone what it entailed.
For Moll and many others, their frustration also stems from unequal standards between the city and the public. Some residents said they felt that because city plow trucks don't have a deadline to clearing streets and sidewalks that property owners should not have to abide by one either. Moll said it took the city three days after snowfall stopped to clear his street, which in the end was done poorly.
These problems, as well as issues involving senior citizens and people with disabilities, are
normal frustrations.
Other residents feel it is a matter of ownership. Sidewalks are technically public properties because they are used by the public, and maintained and repaired by the city. This presents a conflict because property owners aren't allowed to treat the sidewalk as their personal property, but are required to remove snow.
"It irritates me that it's only considered my sidewalk when it's covered in ice" Moll said.
He said that he understood people filing complaints when they had to trek through snow mounds to walk to work or school, but that he
believed the city should do a better job of giving notices rather than fines. He also said the city should do a better job of helping those who are unable to remove the snow themselves.
RESEARCH
According to the notice distributed by the city, residents were given a 48-hour extension to the original deadline due to the severity of the storm. However, such extensions may not accompany the next big round of snowfall.
Edited by Kelly Gibson
$5 million grant supports KU medicinal plant study
BY BRENNA LONG blong@kansan.com
The snow on the ground keeps Lauren Ashman inside entering data about native plant species
in the field. This is the dirty work of the $5 million Native Medicinal Plant Research Program.
Kindscher
Along with data entry.
Ashman, junior from St. Louis, Mo., works on drying and putting the 10- to 20-pound bags of plant species in alphabetical order. Only then are they ready to go to the High Throughput Screening Lab at the Structural Biology Center on West Campus.
The project started Nov. 11, 2009, when two faculty members at the University received money from Heartland Plant Innovations, Inc., to study plants in the Kansas area. The Heartland Plant Innovations, Inc., branches from the Kansas Bioscience Authority, a center aimed at advancing Kansas' leadership in bioscience.
Barbara Timmermann, a university distinguished professor in the Medicinal Chemistry Department,
and Kelly Kindscher, associate scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey, will lead the research during the next five years.
In that time, the goal of the research is to gain credible findings and data on the local plants so various food and drug industries can understand the plants' capabilities.
"There is a big interest in bringing business to Kansas," Kindscher said. "The findings of this project could bring in herbal product to cosmetic or pet food companies."
Hayley Kilroy, graduate student from Cleveland, Ohio, said Native Americans and pioneers once used the native plants for medicinal purposes. Now that the University is looking at the plants for those uses again, it will help conserve the biodiversity of Kansas.
"Conservation is important," Kilroy said, "but when you can make money through conserving, there is a lot more incentive for it."
The researchers face a long process of identifying, collecting and studying the plants for their medicinal uses and effectiveness. Kindscher and Timmermann said they were looking at hiring up to 12 new employees to handle maps, data and research.
Kindscher and students collected plants this summer from
Douglas County and several areas of Western Kansas. The plants now sit in a lab waiting to be dried and cataloged.
"We go out in teams and gather all our plant material." Kindscher said. "I love the field work."
In previous years, Kindscher and others collected plants for the main purpose of researching and replanting native prairie. But the grant has narrowed their focus to the medicinal uses of specific plants.
Quinn Long, doctoral student from Franklin County, Mo., said the team would collect multiple samples from different areas for each species. Then they can study how differences in location change what chemical compounds are present in a plant. Long said different stresses, such as drought, could increase medicinal compound.
Because the program started in late fall. Timmermann's lab doesn't have as many samples to study. However, that will change as spring arrives and more plants can be collected.
"It would be great if we found the next best cure," Kindscher said. "But we are not directly focusing on that or the money."
Edited by Taylor Bern
INTERNATIONAL
U.S. relations with China hit series of roadblocks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wilson Liang, 17, is worried that enrollment cuts will make it difficult for him to attend Berkeley. College applicants are facing one of the toughest years ever to gain admission to the nation's public colleges and universities as schools grapple with deep budget cuts and record numbers of applications.
tions. Google itself said it will stop censoring its search results in China and may pull out of the country completely — an indication that China's massive market may not be the irresistible draw that it has been.
BEIJING — Barely two weeks into the new year, U.S.-China relations are being roiled by old tensions over Taiwan, Tibet and trade, along with new irritations including Google's charges it had been hacked and Pentagon concerns over the People's Liberation Army's massive buildup.
Allegations this week from Internet giant Google Inc. of hacking from inside China prompted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to say she had "very serious concerns and ques-
will likely be the first trip wire, Washington has approved a $6.5 billion package that includes helicopters, PAC-3 air defense missiles, and a possible design study for building submarines.
A Chinese missile test on Monday is already being interpreted as a deliberate show of anger over the sale, according to analysts.
The weapons announcement has sparked repeated complaints from Beijing, which regards the self-governing island democracy as its own territory to be unified by force if necessary. China has responded to previous Taiwan arms sales announcements by suspending military contacts.
The sharper tone also was underscored by unusually frank comments from the commander of American forces in the Pacific, who characterized China's massive military buildup as aggressive and aimed at limiting American freedom of movement in the region.
A Chinese missile test on Monday is already being interpreted as a
Disagreements are ever-present, but there are "very few chances that they will lead to the actual change in the relationship," said Zhu Feng, professor with School of International Studies at Peking University.
The launch adds to steps prompting Pentagon concern, including China's repeated confronting of U.S. Navy surveillance ships
U. S. arms sales to Taiwan
deliberate show of anger over the sale, according to analysts.
Beijing's new military capacities "appear designed to challenge U.S. freedom of action in the region," the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral Robert Willard, said in testimony before Congress on Wednesday.
in the South China Sea.
China regards the 74-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner as a separatist and protests loudly each time he meets with a foreign head of state. Beijing has punished foreign leaders who meet the Dalai Lama
A meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama, possibly coming in May, also threatens to disrupt ties.
College applicants face tough year
EDUCATION
with monthslong rifts in bilateral relations, even canceling a major summit with the European Union after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met him in December 2008.
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
SAN FRANCISCO College applicants are facing one of the toughest years ever to gain admission to the nation's public colleges and universities as schools grapple with deep budget cuts and record numbers of applications.
BEAT THE BOOKSTORE Buy & Sell College Textbooks "The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill"
As cash-poor state governments dash budgets, colleges are capping or cutting enrollment despite a surge in applications from high school seniors, community college students and unemployed workers returning to school.
The increased competition means more students will be turned away, forced to attend pricer private institutions or shut out of college altogether.
Wilson Liang, a senior at San Francisco's Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, said he worries that enrollment cuts at the University of California will freeze him out of its flagship Berkeley campus.
"I know the competition is very high," said the 17-year-old Liang, who would be the first
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person in his family to attend college. "There are a lot of smart people out there."
Colleges that previously accepted all qualified students are becoming selective, while selective schools are becoming more so. Most community colleges have open-access policies, but demand for classes is so intense that many students can't get the courses they need.
"We're hearing a lot of panic."
said Gerna Benz, a partner at California San Francisco Bay Area College Planning Specialists. Benz said business at his Oakland-based college counseling firm has tripped over the past year.
Benz is encouraging more families to consider private colleges, which may be more expensive but offer less crowded classes and the chance to graduate in four years.
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