VOL.100.NO.110
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
FRIDAY, MAR. 9, 1990
Infection hits fraternity member
By Steve Bailey
Kansan staff writer
NEWS:864-4810
A member of Sigma Nu fraternity suffering from meningitis is critically ill in a Kansas City hospital, a Watkins Memorial Health Center official said yesterday.
Charles Yockey, Watkins chief of staff, said he was notified of the illness about 8:30 a.m. yesterday by Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, Mo.
Jeff Zielke. St. Francis sophomore, was in critical condition at midnight, a hospital nursing supervisor said.
Yockey said only those people who were in close contact or living with the student were at risk from the illness. Classmates, professors and casual acquaintances are not at risk of infection. Those in contact with
other Sigma Nu members also are not at risk.
"This is nothing like the menses epidemic we had recently where everyone was at risk," he said. "We know what the problem is, and we know who needs to be treated. The chances of anyone else contracting the infection are slim. The main thing is that those who were exposed need to know that they were exposed."
'This is nothing like the measles epidemic we had recently where everyone was at risk. We know what the problem is, and we know who needs to be treated.'
All 80 members of the fraternity and the student's close associates are being treated with an antibiotic as a preventive measure. Yockey said.
The antibiotic, Rifampin, normally is prescribed for tuberculosis but as a systemic agent it is not used.
Chartes Yockey Watkins chief of staff
Because Watkins does not use Rifampin frequently or keep large
quantities of the drug, it has to collect about 800 capsules from the Douglas County Health Department and local pharmacies.
Fraternity members and Ziekle the close associates have been instructed to take two capsules every 12 hours for 48 hours.
Meningitis is a bacterial infection that spreads much like the common cold. Infectious bacteria enter the
meninges, membranes that enclose the brain and spinal cord, and they become inflamed. The inflammation can be extremely painful and can produce life-threatening complications.
"The reason everyone is worried is because meningitis has an extremely high mortality rate." Yockey said. "A significant number that do survive have neurological complications such as paralysis,ge brain damage."
Meningococcal infections are not highly communicable but can be contagious in closed living quarters, such as a fraternity or sorority house.
The incubation period of the infection is usually about five days. Initial symptoms are similar to those of upper respiratory infections and include cough, headache and nasal discharge. These symptoms are followed by a severe headache, vomiting, stiff neck and in some cases, coma and death.
Early recognition of the disease is vital, and treatment includes hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics.
Poindexter's trial begins with dramatic statements
WASHINGTON — John M. Poindexter died to Congress and ripped up a key presidential document to rewrite the history of the Iran-contra affair, a prosecutor argued yesterday at the beginning of the former
The Associated Press
national security adviser's trial.
The defense said Poindexter always acted legally and followed Ronald Reagan's orders to help the Nicaraguan rebels.
John Poindexter
Webb said Poindexter later congratulated North on lies that the prosecutor said worked like a charm.
Dan Webb also told jurors that former White House aide Oliver North would testify that on Poindexter's instructions he lied to Congress by denying that the Reagan administration was secretly helping the Nicaraguan rebels. North is expected to take the witness stand today.
But defense attorney Richard Beckler denied that Poindexter ever led to Congress, and he told jurors that the judge allowed the orders of President Reagan.
Pointexter tore up a presidential finding that authorized a 1983 arms shipment to Iran only because he felt he was protecting the president, and instead using testimony Pointexter gave Congress about the Iran-contr affair.
What was driving this man was not a conspiracy but the orders of the president of the United States, Becker said.
Poindexter worked to help arm the contras when Congress shut off military assistance because Reagan wanted to continue, the defense lawyer said.
Reagan wanted it done within the law and it was done within the law, Beckler said, telling jurors he would video lestores of the former president's testimony taken last month in Los Angeles.
sion in 1987.
"North appears to have embarked at that time upon the calculated course of attempting to assist his former colleague and co-defendant
... by prevaricating on various issues," Greene said.
The document stated that the arms sale was part of a plan to gain release of the hostages.
Poindexter and North tried to cover up a 1985 shipment of U.S. arms to fran and the diversion of
'John Poindexter and Oliver North decided to rewrite the history of the Iran-Contra affair.'
Dan Webb prosecutor
As the proceedings got under way, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene ruled that when North was called to testify, prosecutors might ask him about seeing Poindexter rip up the Reagan finding.
The judge also suggested that Nathan had changed his story on that subtitle.
profits to the Nicaraguan rebels to avoid tarnishment of the Reagan administration. Webb said.
"John Poindexter and Oliver North decided to rewrite the history of the Iran-contra affair," he said, after it was exposed in the fall of 1986.
."They did not want the Iran-contra events as they occurred to be revealed. But they got caught."
North testified at his trial last year that he saw Poindexter destroy the politically embarrassing document. At a Dec. 13 pre-trial hearing in the Poindexter case, however, he said that he did not believe that Poindexter had ripped up one after watching Poindexter's congressional testimony on national televi-
Poindexter is charged with conspiracy, obstruction and making false statements to Congress about the U.S.-Iran arms sales and the Reagan administration's covert support of the contras at a time direct military aid was banned by Congress.
AP chooses Roy Williams as Big 8 coach of the year
By Molly Reid
Kansan sportswriter
The Associated Press yesterday selected Kansas coach Roy Williams as Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year.
"What that really means is our players have done a great job." Williams said. "I'm not trying to sound humble or unappreciative, but I'm doing a great job and they have made me look good in the process."
As underdogs, the Jayhawks won the Dodge-National Invitational Tournament during the preseason and jumped to the top of the national college basketball polls. They ended the season ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press college basketball poll with a record of 28-3 overall and 11-1 in the Big Eight Conference. After the NIT, Kansas never fell below No. 4 in any of the major college basketball polls.
It also was announced yesterday that Williams is a finalist for the 1989-1990 Associated Press College Basketball Court of the Year. Williams leads the 10 finalists with seven votes. His nearest contender is Jim Calibour of Connecticut, who has 15 first place votes.
Kansas was chosen by many analysts to finish at the bottom of the conference. Instead, the Jayhawks are entering the postseason for a tournament seeded third with a classicalical to second-second place Oklahoma.
Williams said he was concentrating more on other things rather than the award.
Williams has his eyes on other post-season trophies.
"I would rather have 15 or 20
points to spread around this weekend," he said referring to the conference tournament that begins tonight in Kansas City. "I would give it up to win the Big Eight right now."
Williams said being named Big
Eight Coach of the Year had a lot to do with his circumstances and his training.
"I think it had a lot to do with the surprise of the success of the
See COACH. d. 7
Winging it
Using a stair for a ramp, Chuck Cornelius of Lawrence practices jumps on his skateboard. Cornelius was passing time doing stunts in front of Wescoe Hall yesterday while waiting for friends.
Financial aid company's mail must go through, judge rules
Bv Kathrvn Lancaster
Kansan staff writer
The U.S. Postal Service cannot continue to withhold mail from a California-based company that offers financial assistance to college students, a California court ruled yesterday.
U. S. District Judge Judith Keep of the Southern District of California ruled that by withholding mail, the postal service endangered the financial viability of the company, the mobile council on Financial Assistance. She chose to extend a preliminary injunction against the company.
For $60, the company promises to match students to scholarships for which they might be eligible. Postal authorities and the Better Business Bureau have questioned the business practices of the Academic Council.
Brett Mauser, Lenexa junior, said he had sent money to the company but stopped payment on his check after a complaint under scrutiny by the postal service.
The thing that three me was how professional their filier was." Mauner wrote of the filier.
Karen Shichman, assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, said that postal authori- ties were continuing with administrative proceedings against the company.
Postal authorities have filed an administrative complaint in Washington, D.C., alleging that the company falsely represented itself as a governmental agency in its mailings, she said.
The company could not be contacted yesterday. The company's answering machine still advises calling a mail to a Washington, D.C. address.
Two weeks ago, Monica Howe, manager of the company's information center, said the Washington office had been closed two weeks earlier.
The postal service was granted a temporary restraining order Feb. 13
After reviewing the case, the Department of Justice will decide whether to appeal yesterday's decision, said Shichman, who represented the postal service.
However, flu symptoms usually get better. Meningitis symptoms usually become more severe.
Symptoms of meningitis
KU students can find financial aid information at the reference desk at Watson Library, the Office of Finance or the Lawrence Public Library.
Jerry Rogers, director of financial aid, said that for $12, KU students could receive computerized scholarship information.
Meningitis is a serious bacterial infection that can cause painful complications, and in some cases, it results in coma and death. The infection usually begins with a normal upper-respiratory infection and can have symptoms common to the flu.
Students suffering from the following symptoms should contact a doctor immediately:
- Severe, progressive headache
- Severe vomiting
- Suffered
Neurological disorders such as confusion or delirium
Transportation plan
The Associated Press
Policy calls for more fees, tolls
WASHINGTON — President Bush announced a new transportation policy yesterday that calls for more user fees, toll roads and local government aid that would help establish the United States as the world leader in transportation.
Bush and Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner unveiled the long-awaited policy, "Moving America Into The 21st Century," to urge law enforcement officials, many of whom already had found reason to criticize it.
The policy set out some key goals:
Maintain and expand the nation's transportation system by shifting major responsibilities onto local governments and encouraging more private investment.
■ Ensure that the transportation system supports public safety and national security.
- Keep transportation businesses strong and competitive by deregulating the trucking industry and further facilitating other transportation sectors.
- Foster a sound financial base for transportation, emphasizing user fees as the key element to financing investment share of transportation expenditures.
- Protect the environment and the quality of life by reducing pollution emissions by motor vehicles.
- Advance U.S. transportation technology for the 21st century by encouraging research into high-speed rail, train, aircraft and vehicles, tiltrotor aircraft and vans and computer systems that use computers to increase safety and efficiency.
Senate says no to tightening clean air bill
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Senate, in its first major vote on a compromise clean air bill, last night rejected 65-33 a proposal to tighten controls on toxic air pollution after Senate leaders said the proposal threatened their agreement with the White House.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D.N.J., called his amendment, which would have required additional controls on toxic automobile emissions, necessary to protect citizens from cancer-causing chemicals.
But the measure, opposed by the Bush administration because of its reported $1.5 billion price tag, was described by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as a deal-breaker, meaning that its passage would cause a compromise agreement with the Bush administration to fall apart.
The clean air bill is the first in 13 years to tighten federal air pollution control laws. It calls for sweeping curbs on smog-causing pollution from automobiles and industrial plants and requires new cuts in acid rain pollutants from coal-fired electric power plants.
A similar bill remains in committee in the House.
In other action yesterday, the senators:
Approved by voice vote a requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency take into account carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming, when making urban transportation flow studies.
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