6A
Wednesday, March 5, 1997
NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Storms hit home with Clinton
President visits tornado victims in Arkadelphia
The Associated Press
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — His black cowboy boots kicking up bits of glass and wood, President Clinton surveyed the damage yesterday and comforted victims of the tornadoes that swept through his home state.
"I wish there were more I could say and do," he said.
Shaking his head in dismay because of the devastation that
surrounded him, Clinton said, "I've been down every one of these streets before. I've been in every one of these stores."
Bill Clinton
Clinton has toured countless disaster sites as president but never before has it cut this close to home.
Arkadelphia, situated squarely between his two hometowns, Hope and Hot Springs, was a frequent stop for politics and policy during his 12-year tenure as governor.
At least 25 were killed in the weekend storms.
the people and you know the community." he said.
"It is different when you know
While visiting Arkansas, Clinton declared Ohio and Kentucky disaster areas because of floods there.
Arkadelphia looked like a war zone yesterday.
Piles of brick and mortar replaced homes and businesses.
He announced that Vice President Al Gore and James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would visit those states today.
Cars were flipped upside down or left crushed in a destroyed shop.
People now jobless and homeless are wondering what to do next.
Karen Kirkpatrick was standing on a stark white cement slab that used to be the county tax office, her eyes watering. Clinton put his right hand on her shoulder, then embraced her and said, "Don't worry. We're going to go forward."
Obesity rates weigh heavily in U.S. cities
Kansas City,Mo., fourth in list of 33
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Can a city make you fat? The possibility is posed by a new study that ranks the nation's big cities by the weight of their residents. It attempts to draw conclusions about why fat flourishes more in some cities and less in others.
The 33-city study, issued by the Coalition for Excess Weight Risk Education, found overall that cities with high unemployment rates, low per capita income, high annual precipitation rates and a high number of food stores per capita tend to have higher rates of obesity.
Called the National Weight Report, the study found that restaurant-rich
Five Fattest Cities
1. New Orleans: 37.55 percent
2. Norfolk, Va.: 33.94 percent
3. San Antonio: 32.96 percent
4. Kansas City, Mo.: 31.66 percent
5. Cleveland: 31.50 percent
New Orleans has the nation's highest obesity rate at 37.5 percent of adult residents while outdoor-living Denver has the lowest at 22.1 percent.
Why the differences?
Ethnic food may be a fat builder in Cleveland, the survey said. And it said many people blamed the harsh winters for prompting them to eat meat, buttermilk and biscuits, and French fries to help them fuel up.
The National Weight Report is based on a list created by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Casting of Jesus role brings threats to actor
The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. — Desi Arnaz Giles said he was starring in the role of his life, but the Black actor's portrayal of Jesus Christ came at the expense of ticket cancellations and death threats.
"I have led a very complete life," Giles said yesterday. "Should somebody clip me during a performance, don't cry for me. Just rejoice because I'm ready to go home."
The controversy began Sunday after his first performance in the Park Theater Performing Arts Center's annual production of Passion Play, a story that focuses on the last days of Jesus' life.
The popular play attracts bus groups from the region, and word
spread quickly that a Black man was sharing the role with a white actor at the Union City theater.
"The first call that I got, the woman asked me, 'When is the white actor playing because I don't want to see the Black thing," said artistic director Eric Hafen, who cast Giles in the role.
"I was expecting calls but not that kind of blatant racism," Hafen said.
Officials said they have not taken the death threats seriously, but said they were troubled that the casting evoked such a response. At least two groups have canceled and another rescheduled for a day Giles is not working.
As it happens, Giles is portraying the devil this weekend in a musi-
Army lowers its standards
Fewer recruits need diplomas
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Army officials said yesterday that the Army has begun accepting more recruits who have not finished high school, a concession to an enlistment market that has tightened even as the number of inductees the Army needs has grown.
Besides lowering the standard on high school graduates, the Army is offering a range of new financial and other incentives to attract recruits, said Lt. Gen. Frederick Vollrath, the Army's chief personnel officer.
Vollrath said publicity about a rash of sexual harassment allegations in the Army, combined with controversy about a mysterious Gulf War illness syndrome, has
hurt recruiting.
More importantly, in the Army's view, are the difficulties that recruiters face in luring young people away from opportunities in business and higher education.
Vollrath said that the quality had slipped a little bit as recruiting had gotten harder. By historic standards, the quality of the force remains high, he added.
Defense Secretary William Cohen referred to the drop-off in recruit quality when he testified in Congress last week. He placed the blame on negative publicity.
"Every time you have a bad headline, it impacts recruiting," Cohen said.
Preliminary figures for the first four months of the 1997 federal budget year (October 1996-January 1997) show that the Army has scored lowest among the services on two of the three major yard-sticks by which recruit quality is measured.
Bill overcharges found
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas regulators have discovered another problem in the calculation of natural gas bills by KPL and KGE, utilities owned by Western Resources Inc.
The error probably will affect far more than the 3,800 customers of the utilities who recently discovered they had been overcharged.
The regulators said they discovered both companies had been charging customers a cost of gas figure before it was approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission.
Regulators said that the error may have been occurring for years.
The KCC and the Customer Council — Western Resources, the state regulatory agency and the Citizens Utility Ratepayer Board — have started investigating the number of bills that were miscalculated.
Previous overcharges were attributed to delays in reading meters.
The latest revelations come after Friday's disclosure by Missouri Gas Energy that it had miscalculated 135,000 bills. Missouri regulators were in Kansas City Monday to begin reviewing the company.
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The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts
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BOHÈME
The tragic romance of the
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• Part II •
March 7 & 8, 1997
8:00 p.m.
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