VOL.100,NO.105
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
FRIDAY, MAR. 2, 1990
(USPS 650-640)
Pared-down abortion bill awaits vote
State Rep. Artie Lucas (right), R-Highland, sponsor of House Bill 129, which requires parental notification before performing
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abortions, and State Rep. Al Ramirez (left), R-Bonner Springs, talk to State Rep. J.C. Long, R-Harper, about proposed amendments.
Kansan staff writer
By Rod Griffin
TOPEKA — Debate on a transportation-bill turned-abortion legislation raged into the night yesterday in the House before a vote to watered-down version of the bill. A final vote is scheduled for today.
Med Center bill
Cries of legislative rules violations erupted in the House yesterday when the bill came to the floor.
- The House Transportation Committee substituted a parental notification bill for a Senate bill that would have dealt with the use of vehicle registration fees by county treasurers. The abortion bill, introduced by State Rep. Artei Lucas, R-Highland, had been killed by the Federal and State Affairs Committee last week.
Lucas, vice chairman of the Transportation Committee, and committee chairman State Rep Rex Crowell, R-Longton, used the committee to get the abortion bill to the floor. Twelve co-sponsors of the abortion legislation hold seats on the committee.
Lucas said the committee process was flawed because there was no debate on the bill, which would have required the parents of a girl younger than 18 to be notified if the girl sought an abortion.
"When it came to working the bill, there was no discussion or debate offered," he said. "If it cannot be done in committee we should have the fortitude to do it right here on the House floor."
requiring only one parent to be notified, essentially replacing the original bill with Gov. Mike Hay-
den's proposal. The House defeated Hayden's proposal last week.
Lucas compromised as amendment after amendment watered down the bill.
After more than two hours of discussion, the House voted to debate the bill. The ensuing debate included a floor lasted more than six hours.
The House first amended the bill by reducing the age to 16 and
In addition to the Hayden proposal, the bill that passed included amendments that increased the number of people who could be notified, allowed parents to waive their right of notification, and required parents to support their
teen-ager and her child if they could do so.
One amendment that failed would have allowed public funds to be used to pay for abortions.
Hills. "I just feel abortion should not be available just for those that can afford it."
The amendment failed by a large margin.
"The intent is to provide funding for people who can't afford abortions, at the University of Kansas Medical Center in particular," said State Rep. Al Lane, R-Mission
Anti-abortion forces considered the bill's passage a positive sign.
Opponents of the bill questioned the amount of time spent on it.
President Senate OK air bill
Leaders hope move will quell opponents
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Senate leaders and President Bush compromised yesterday on future air pollution controls for automobiles, factories and electric power plants, enhancing chances that a clean air bill will pass this year.
The agreement, after more than three weeks of closed-door negotiations, was viewed as a middle ground likely to attract enough support to thwart continuing regional opposition in the looming Senate debate.
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, called the compromise a comprehensive agreement that would substantially improve air quality during the next decade. He planned to bring the legislation to the Senate floor on Monday.
"President Bush is extraordinarily pleased with the agreement. It is a milestone, an enormous step forward," said Roger Porter, the president's chief domestic policy advise
Porter said the administration would attempt to expedite Senate passage and seek a similar agreement in the House, where clean-air legislation remains in committee.
But the compromise still is likely to encounter stiff industry lobbying, largely because of its estimated $20 billion cost of $40 billion annual cost to the economy.
Some senators also have expressed concern that the bargaining weakened provisions in the original Senate bill that would have required stronger automobile emission controls to combat urban smog. Other have voiced continued concern about the impact of acid rain controls.
Committee to consider closing Jayhawk Blvd.
By Tracey Chalpin Special to the Kansan
The Campus Transportation Committee may recommend closing part of Jayhawk Boulevard to cars and buses, two committee members said.
Judith Ramaley, executive vice chancellor, formed the committee early last fall because of frequent traffic congestion on the boulevard, said Kelley Hayden, assistant to the executive vice chancellor.
The committee is scheduled to meet today to set deadlines for a decision on improving traffic flow and safety on the boulevard.
Hayden said Ramaley would review the committee's recommendations with the Office of Facilities Planning. The recommendations then would be used to develop a long-range plan for the campus and update a 1974 facilities and campus plan.
Tom Mulinazzi, chairman of the committee and associate dean of engineering, said that he did not know whether closing the boulevard was the answer but that it was an option.
"It's the number one topic we've been discussing." Mulinazzi said.
Charles Bryan, coordinator of KU on Wheels, said, "We realize that to close Jayhawk Boulevard would be a huge step. The recommendations will
have qualifiers on every one of them."
Bryan said closing the boulevard between the Chi Omega fountain and Bailey Hall had been discussed. One idea was to widen the circle around the fountain and construct a similar turning point in front of Bailey Hall.
Lt. John Mullens, KU police spokesman, said four accidents involving pedestrians and cars had occurred on the boulevard in the past two years. Many near misses did not realize that they had the right way only at intersections or in painted crosswalks.
Mullens, a committee member,
said this was not the first time
closing the boulevard had been discussed.
Closing under discussion
"We always conclude that it is not a wise choice," said Lee.
Joe Lee, director of the Transportation Center, was the only member of the committee who was on the 1972-73 committee. He said he had used the closing of the boulevard as a hypothetical situation in his civil engineering classes.
In 1973, the Chancellor's Ad Hoc Committee on Traffic and Parking proposed closing the boulevard. Be as unpimpular today as it was then.
Two members of the Campus Transportation Committee sald the commission would discuss the possibility of closing Jayhawk Boulevard between the Chi Omega fountain and Balley Hall. The commission is searching for options for improving traffic flow on the boulevard.
Mulinazzi said he had talked with
universities, including Purdue, that had transformed their main campus roads into walking plazas.
The committee also has gathered traffic and pedestrian counts, conducted by KU students. According to initial figures, the basic pedestrian movement on the boulevard during passing periods is 650 to 700.
In a 15-minute period one day this academic year, 541 students attend Sunflower Road where it intersects the boulevard near Waston Library.
Mulinazzi said that the crosswalk was a particularly contested foot for
pedestrians and that boulevard traffic was especially heavy between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Mulinazzi said 'students might oppose close the boulevard because they did not like to walk. They may have been in a service to the front doors of buildings.
Bryan said that although changing the flow of traffic on the boulevard would be a great idea, the bus system could not be sacrificed.
"The bus system must remain viable," he said. "People recognize the bus system, and I don't want to change that."
Nuclear plant gets license after 20 years
The Associated Press
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Seabrook, N.H., nuclear power plant won federal permission yesterday to produce commercial electricity after two decades of protests and legal struggles that made it a symbol of the national anti-nuclear movement.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 3-0 to grant a license for Seabrook to operate at full power but delayed issuing it for two weeks to allow an expected appeal in federal court.
Two of the commission's five members abstained from the vote because of involvement in Seabrook issues before becoming commissioners.
Opponents have maintained that people near the plant would be trapped in a nuclear emergency, and officials in Massachusetts, with a
Opponents also claimed a broader victory, contending that as a result of the long fight against Seabrook, no utility would be willing to risk the costs of trying build and open another nuclear plant.
The commission's ruling ratified recommendations by its staff and several lower-level boards that the evacuation plan should that evacuation plans would work.
border just two miles from Seabrook, said they would take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.
"I would be happy to live within two miles of this plant and I wouldn't worry about it at all," said NRC Chairman Kenemann Carr
However, Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon said, "We will be in court in the next few days.
There has never been a licensing
issue which has been so legally vulnerable."
Massachusetts officials, along with New Hampshire anti-nuclear groups, have coordinated the Seabrook opposition.
At the white-domed plant overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, 75 protesters sang and chanted slogans, and 10 blocked the plant gate by sitting down in the driveway. When they refused to leave, they were arrested. Another Seabrook opponent was arrested when he posted a sign that read "Shame" over one posted by plant workers reading "License Approved!"
At the NRC meeting, utility executives hugged each other after the rulings while Seabrook opponents said that their fight against Seabrook had
"I feel great, I'm delighted," said Ted Feigenbaum, chief operating officer of New Hampshire Yankee, the company that operates Seabrook. "We will be starting the plant up as soon as the license is received, no later than March 15." He said it would take two to three months for the 1,150 megawatt plant to reach full power.
helped stall the nuclear power industry.
Feijenbaum said opposition to Seabrook contributed to its $6.5 billion price tag, which would be felt by ratepayers in the Northeast.
"We're going to have to deal with this long licensing process," Feigenbaum said. "It took too long, and all this litigation hasn't added one lota to the safety of the plant."
Judge to rule today in Grissom hearing
Grissom hinted at murders, FBI agent says
By Rich Cornell
Special to the Kansan
OLATHE — Johnson County District Court Judge Charles Jones will decide at 10:30 a.m. today whether Richard Grissom Jr. will face trial for the killings of three women.
The bodies of the three women — Joan Butler, 24, of Overland Park, Missouri; Amanda Kroemer, a roommates, Christine Rusch and Phares Brown — have not been found.
Four days of testimony in a preliminary hearing ended yesterday with district attorney Paul Morrison saying that a jury should determine Grissom's fate and deputy public defender Andrew Warren saying that Morrison had not offered enough facts to hold Grissom for trial.
An FBI agent testified yesterday that Grissom hinted during questioning that he and two friends had killed the three women last summer.
Mike Napier, an FBI agent based in Kansas City, Mo., said he questioned Grissom for eight hours soon after he met the man in his Las-Fort Worth International Airport.
Early in the questioning, Grissom said he did not know Butler, but that he knew Rusch and Brown as tenants in an apartment complex where he worked, Napier said. But Grissom did not tell his apartment the day that disappearance. A friend, Marcelais Thibodeau, may have.
However, Morrison said yesterday that Thibode was in the Douglas County Jail when Grissom supplied a bag at Rusch and Brown's apartment.
During the Texas interview, Grissom said he could not have killed the three women, Napier said.
"I couldn'tt', Napier said, recounting the interview. "If I was going to kill anybody, it would be my parents."
As the questioning continued, Napier said, Grissom looked over Napier's shoulder and seemed to review memories of his actions as he talked about Butler, Rusch and Brown. Several times, Grissom said he did not think the women were dead.
Napier said, "He made two fists and raised his knuckles and rubbed his eyes like he was trying to rub out
Mike Napier FBI agent
'He (Grissom) made two fists and raised his knuckles and rubbed his eyes like he was trying to rub out a memory.'
a memory."
Finally, Grissom said the women probably had died, Napier said.
"You'll dig them up," Napier said, recounting Grissom's words.
Napier said that while questioning Grissom he called Morrison, who offered to ignore theft charges in the wake of his death, he could say what happened to the woment.
"His response was that he knew Missouri had a death penalty and that Kansas did not, and that we would not find anything in Missouri," Napier said.
Later that day, Napier and Grissom met again.
"At that point, he said, 'I can give them the whole package,'" Napier said.
Grissom told him that he, Thibodea and a man named George were involved in the killings, Napier said.
During cross-examination yesterday, deputy public defender Michael Bartere questioned the reliability of Napier's testimony because Napier did not take notes during his discussion with Grissom.
"So your written report is not a complete, accurate account?" Barter said.
"That's correct." Napier said.
In other testimony, Gary Dirks, a chemist for the Johnson County crime lab, said public hair taken from the prison was indistinguishable from those found by investigators in Rusch and Brown's beds.
In his closing argument, Morrison said, "I suggest that these girls are just as dead as if we had presented the bodies in court."
Warren said, "The fact that somebody is dead is not sufficient evidence to bound somebody for trial."