THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
NEWS
9A
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama greets Michaele and Tareq Salahi, right, at a State Dinner hosted by Obama at the White House in Washington on Nov. 24. The Salahis deny they were crashing the White House dinner. In any case, party crashing is a flourishing phenomenon, harried event planners say.
Events easier to crash in today's age
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — There was a list at the door, but the beautifully dressed guest in the chic, red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes wasn't on it. Still, she insisted she was a friend of the host. Not wanting to offend, the staffer at the door waved her in.
And when the woman proceeded to drink at the jewelry-store party on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills a few weeks ago, resting her body on glass cases and telling a male waiter she wanted to bear his children, it soon became clear she wasn't a beautifully dressed guest, but a beautifully dressed party crasher.
"She was wearing Louboutins!" marveled the embarrassed staffer at the door. As shed just learned the hard way, party crashing is all about looking the part.
Michaele and Tareq Salahi maintain they weren't crashing when they found their way into the White House state dinner last week, he in a tux, she in a fetching red sari. The White House begs to
differ. However this mesmerizing and alarming story turns out, though, event planners will tell you that party crashing is a time-honored tradition.
And a flourishing one, thanks
"It used to be the public heard about an event after it happened. But now, bloggers are invited"
partly to the way news of exclusive events gets out these days, says Alexandra Malloy, who heads a public relations and marketing business in Los Angeles and was present at the Rodeo Drive party.
about an event after it happened," says Malloy. "But now, bloggers are invited, and they'll blog before, during and after. They're tweeting and Facebooking on the spot. People can just show up and try to
ALEXANDRA MALLOY Dinner attendant
"It used to be the public heard
get in."
And when celebrities are due to attend
— many of them get paid for doing so, either in cash or merchandise — it simply adds fuel to the fire. "We all so interested in celebrities now. There's probably a direct
That means increased pressure on event planners to keep interlopers at bay. "You really want to protect the integrity of an event,"
correlation between that and an increase in party crashing." Malloy says.
says Leslie Stevens, a partner at the communications firm of LaForce+Stevens, which puts on at least two events a week in New York City. "So you really have to keep these people out."
For Stevens and her crew, who keep photos of a few well-known crashers just like restaurants keep photos of food critics, that means being vigilant even before the event takes place.
Because the really sneaky ones will try to get on the guest list by calling to RSVP — even when they weren't invited in the first place. They may call back under an assumed name, someone a little famous, but not too famous.
"You can't call and say you're Matt Lauer," says Stevens, referring to the host of NBC's "Today." "But maybe you'll say you're an editor somewhere."
CRIME
Accomplice pleads not guilty in case
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TACOMA, Wash. — The convicted murderer who drove Maurice Clemmons from the coffee shop where he massacred four suburban police officers waited for him in the getaway truck with a newly purchased cigar while Clemmons committed the crimes, according to charging papers filed Wednesday.
Darcus Allen, 38, who did time with Clemmons in an Arkansas prison, pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail after he was charged with rendering criminal assistance.
Prosecutors warned they might charge him with the more serious offense of being an accomplice to first-degree murder — a crime that could bring the same penalties as if he had shot the police himself: life without release, or execution.
"We will prosecute everyone involved in this murder to the greatest extent possible," said
Pierce County prosecutor Mark Lindquist
Investigators said Allen was the first among a network of friends and relatives who helped Clemmons avoid police during a frantic two-day hunt that
abdomen, the papers state.
Allen told investigators that he quickly decided he wanted no part of what Clemmons had done and bailed out of the truck at the first intersection -- but investigators said that was a lie, contradicted by other evidence.
began when Clemmons walked into the Forza coffee house Sunday morning and shot to death four Lakewood police officers.
"For some reason, this guy has a pretty big support system. That's not right."
Along with Allen, two women appeared in Pierce County Superior Court on Wednesday and were ordered held for 72 hours on $500,000 bail, bringing to six the number of people to make court appearances after being arrested for investigation of helping the killer.
One of the officers managed to shoot Clemmons in the gut before dying, but with first aid, rides and money from his associates, Clemmons was able to survive two days on the run. He was shot and killed early Tuesday morning by a lone patrolman who encountered him on a South Seattle street.
Charging papers filed Wednesday state that Allen initially told police he had nothing to do with the crime and hadn't seen Clemmons in a long time. But he eventually acknowledged driving Clemmons to the scene, buying a cigar as he waited for him to return and then speeding away when Clemmons climbed in the passenger side with a bullet in his
"For some reason, this guy has a pretty big support system," Ed.
ED TROYER
Pierce County Sheriff
Troyer, Pierce County
sheriff's spokesman,
said Wednesday.
"That's not right.
You're putting yourself up against society, the justice system and the cops."
The two women who appeared in court Wednesday were Clemmons'
friend, Quiana Maylea Williams, and his aunt, Letricia Nelson. They gave first aid to Clemmons, helped him change clothes and made arrangements to get him to other locations, police said.
Charging papers filed in their case indicate that on Thanksgiving, Clemmons talked of killing police, schoolchildren and people at an intersection.
Lindquist declined to discuss what will factor into his decision on whether to charge Allen as an accomplice to murder.
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Obama attempts to increase jobs
WASHINGTON — Unemployment worsened or stayed the same in most metro areas in October, the Labor Department said Wednesday, as jobs remained scarce nationwide.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Job seekers attend a job fair in Livonia, Mich. Unemployment worsened or stayed the same in most metro areas in the Labor Department said Wednesday.
The report comes a day before the Obama administration is to hold a "jobs summit" at the White House that will gather economists, academics and corporate executives to consider how the government can spur job creation.
The jobless rate rose in 162 of the 372 metro areas tracked by the Labor Department. The rate was unchanged in 42 areas. It dropped in 168 areas.
In September, unemployment had improved in 223 areas and worsened in only 123. The deteriorating trend mirrors the U.S. unemployment rate, which jumped to 10.2 percent in October from 9.8 percent in September.
The metro unemployment data isn't seasonally adjusted and is therefore volatile from month-
to-month. All 372 areas reported higher unemployment rates in October compared with the previous year.
The unemployment rate varied widely from city to city based largely on the dominant industry in each area, said Ernest Goss, professor of regional economics at Greighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Manufacturing states such as Michigan and Indiana were hit
hard, while Sun Belt cities in Arizona and California remain distressed from the housing bust. At the same time, Midwestern cities such as Lawrence, Kan., and Ames, Iowa, fared well partly because their economies were never as pumped up as those on the coasts. Smaller cities remain far less damaged from the subprime mortgage collapse, Goss said.
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