Vol. 99, No. 44 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED SINCE 1889 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Thursday October 27,1988
U.S., Soviet cooperation frees whales
The Associated Press
BARROW, Alaska — Two whales trapped for almost three weeks in the Arctic ice pack were freed yesterday by Soviet and United States icebreakers.
"The whales are loose and in the channel and headed out," said Lt. Mike Haller, a spokesman for the Alaska National Guard. "They looked good all afternoon. To look at them, you'd have thought they had their bags packed and were ready to head south."
Ron Morris of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and rescue coordinator said, "They're in the main lead, and I can't help but think they keep on
truckin'. I don't know how much more we can do."
The work to free the migrating California gray whales progressed rapidly Tuesday when two Soviet ice-breaking vessels began smashing the ice that kept the pair imprisoned. A third trapped whale is thought to have died last week.
Morris, who followed the whales by helicopter, landed a little after 8 p.m. to say that the whales had moved from the final man-made breathing hole to the path the Soviet icebreaker Vladimir Arseniev cut Tuesday night.
whailes would have trouble break air holes through the partly frozen cut, but about 4:30 p.m. rescue workers found the two whales had opened a small breathable hole and were not breathing.
Rescue officials were worried that the
One of the whales was bleeding enough to stain the water red.
Spectators watched anxiously for several moments, waiting for the whales to surface in the new waterway cut yesterday by the whales when she unexpectedly washed out the whales broke the surface.
As darkness fell, the whales were swimming back and forth in the channel. Officials were alarmed.
nightfall.
Scientists and others involved in the rescue might never know the whales' fate. Rescue officials decided not to put electronic tracking tags on the already stressed animals.
"A lot of people really didn't want to said Jim Harvey, a federal marine biologist.
Haller said plans were being made in the Soviets with a party, possibly last night.
Before the whales were freed, as the Soviet icebreakers drew near, the whales were "acting in a very excited manner, almost like they can sense freedom," said Sgt. Ian
Robertson, an Alaska National Guard spokesman.
By midday, the Soviet icecreamers were a quarter-mile from the line of breathing holes being cut by Americans working in the opposite direction, he said.
Later yesterday, rescuers began to use a tractor-like device propelled by pontoon augers to clear the ice cut by the icebreaker, Robertson said.
The breakthrough in the effort to free the whales caught in an early freeze came after more than a week of delays and disappointments.
Roof collapses at building site Workers escape unharmed
Please see WHALES, p. 10, col. 1
By Mark E. McCormick
The roof of a partially constructed building in northwest Lawrence collapsed yesterday, as workers narrowly escaped falling
Hoobler said. "I've been around here 13 years, and the most I've run across was three or four."
Hooobler said the roof probably collapsed because of a loosely supported frame. The wind wasn't that strong, it was a breeze.
Price Banks
Enthusiastic planner for riverfront shopping center
Story by Deb Gruver Photo by Phil Carvalho
Price Banks can't afford to procrastinate-
his holidays has to be one step ahead of his
hails.
That's because he is Lawrence's planning director, a job that has kept him busy for the past year.
His office window in City Hall, Sixth and Seventh streets, now peeks a view at the Kansas River.
But next year, after the winter's frost has melted from the window, he'll be able to gaze out and see the culmination of many meetings with frustrated citizens and eager developers — the riverfront outlet shopping center.
"I've spent roughly the last two years meeting with citizens with zoning complaints and developers who want their proposals to become a reality," Banks said.
Although the project has been more than enough to keep Banks busy — he attends about 15 meetings a week — he doesn't regret the effort it has taken.
"It has been fun to watch it take place," Banks said. "It's fun because there was so much opposition, and it's going to happen."
The project has been one of the biggest for Banks. Buford Watson, Jr., city manager, said that Banks has done well as the city's planner, a job vacated by Garner Stoll in
"Price has done a real good job," Watson said. "It has been an active period of expansion. He has done an excellent job working with the planning commission. On the rezoning of the shopping centers, when we were in opposition, he handled it very well."
In order to handle his workload, 45-year-old David Bauer start the morning earlier than the usual press.
Price Banks, city planning director.
"I try to straighten up my office, pick up the pieces from the day before. I take care of the debris on my desk, usually putting it on another staff member's desk," he said.
After the housekeeping, "business" officially starts at 8 a.m. when he begins working on his dayjob.
Usually, phone calls are either from Lawrence residents upset about zoning problems or the Chelsea representatives. The most current issue facing the riverfront project has been the traffic situation for the project. The city staff has heard several traffic plans regarding access to the project.
To allot time for solving problems,
you should remember that his day is unplanned for what Battista called, the "day of the sun."
"I spend a good part of the day dealing with problems that just walk in the door," Banks said. "We call those 'brush fires' — problems we haven't anticipated."
"We try to be problem-solvers instead of regulation-enforcers." Banks said
"The rest of my day is spent responding to phone calls," he said.
About 9 a.m.. Banks said that the phone calls start coming in.
Throughout all this, Banks said that he has tried to listen.
He spends the morning bouncing off complaints, and tries to get out of the building for lunch. He said he had to get away from City Hall.
One of the hardest parts of his job, Banks said, is trying to please many different
Recent attempts to approve a downtown development plan in the past two decades ran into fierce political opposition from neighborhood and preservationist groups. The most recent mall project, which called for the closing of two downtown streets, was rejected by the developer. The defeat of three incumbent commissioners also resulted from the controversy.
people. He said that Lawrence citizens have many political interests that lead to City Hall. He tries to keep the planning office out of partisan politics.
In his opinion, planning should not be divided along party lines because careful guidance of city growth should benefit all of Lawrence
"What candidate would openly minimize planning?"
If office politics gets to be too much, he tries to take a long lunch and go jogging.
repeat performance of the morning.
Apart from his duties as planning director, Buford Watson, city manager, said that Banks is also just a fun person to have around City Hall.
"He has a great sense of humor," Watson said, "Energetic. He's a person who gets into business."
Pam Mattson, Banks' secretary, said the same.
"Well, I've been around for five-and-a-half years, so I must like my job," Mattson
For example, while sporting reading glasses at the Tuesday night Lawrence City Commission meetings, Banks is ready to work with job Schumm and the rest of the commission.
Mattson, who attends Banks' planning group at the University, knows how that his workday does not end at 11.
Please see BANKS, p. 19
Soviets to launch shuttle tomorrow
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union said yesterday it will launch its space shuttle Buran on an unmanned mission this week, following months of delays similar to those that plunged in danger voyages of its U.S. counterport.
"Buran" is Russian for snowstorm, an appropriate name since the first snow of the season fell this week in Moscow.
A government commission set the launch for 6:23 a.m. Moscow time ataturday (10:23 p.m. CDT Friday) after receiving reports from specialists following several thousand tests f the Buran and its booster rocket, ne Energia, the official news agency 'ass reported.
Soviet media did not say how long Buran's mission would last. If the test flight is successful, a mission briefing would be sent to Mr. Soviet officials have not said when.
Preparations for pouring nearly 2,000 tons of liquid hydrogen, oxygen and hydrocarbon fuel into Energia, piloted as the world's most powerful booster rocker, are to begin today. The rocket will carry more than 100 tons of cargo into Earth orbit, and up to 20 tons to the planets Mars and Venus.
Soviet officials have said the first flight would be pilotless to prevent accidents like the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion of the U.S. shuttle Challenger. Seven astronauts were killed in that blast.
State-run television yesterday showed the white delta-shaped Buran, with its name emblazoned in red, attached to the Energiae a launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikoncr Cosmodrome on the Central Asian steps of the republic of Kazakhstan.
Launch was originally planned for the first half of this year, but was postponed as technical problems arose, officials said.
Fraternity to abolish pledgeship end hazing
By David Stewart kansan staff writer
A KU fraternity will abolish its pledge system after this year in response to a national anti-hazing fraternity's president said yesterday.
Jim Greenfield, president of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, 1942 Stewart Ave, said yesterday that the ZBT Supreme Council abolished leadership nationally for ZBT chapters at a meeting last month in Chicago.
Members of the Supreme Council will meet with local ZBT members in Lawrence this weekend.
University Daily Kansan PROFILES/Wednesday, October 26, 1988
Greenfield said that ZBT had pledges this semester and would continue to have them in the spring, but he added the new system during Fall 1989.
Greenfield said the decision was made in response to a nationwide anti-hazing movement.
"The message to all the fraternities is that hazing is out," he said. Greenfield predicted that other fraternities would follow suit.
Please see ZBT, p. 9, col. 6
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