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Hello stations, time for the news call. I'm at 340 this afternoon. So let's get right to them. First one. Shunley County Treasurer Rita Klein has made headlines recently with her alleged questionable use of a special fund financed by a fee on Cartag purchases. But which it all representative Bonnie Huey H U Y Huey says there was a similar incident which occurred in Sedgwick County in 1999 and 2000. Your cut goes there in the tag. Huey says House Bill 2249 which passed out of the House Ethics and Elections Committee this week would give oversight of this fund to county commissions. Second story. A Senate committee is reviewing the practice of credit scoring on insurance. Insurance commissioner Sandy Prager doesn't want to end the practice completely but does want some oversight. Your cut there in tag.

Prager says she wants to be able to review the criteria the company's use and make sure there is an appeal process for those who question their scores. And your last story. The Senate Transportation Committee has unanimously endorsed a bill to allow coroners to support public schools when they buy their tags. Senator Mark Tatigan of Clifton has says helping schools license plate says the helping schools license plate would send the proceeds to the school district of your choice but could only be used for certain purposes. Cut there in tag. The bill now advances to the first Senate. Okay, time to send them down. First line. Bonnie Huey, 21 seconds. Test them once you're destroyed. Ready? Go. Triple Ray says the average price of regular unlettered gas statewide is $1.61 a gallon. That's about 20 cents higher than one month ago.

And about 51 cents above the average price last year. At ABC Taxi in Wichita. On a June annual sales car. Soared by his 40 drivers who pay for their own fuel. Elmore says if gas rates continue to go up, they may have to eventually look at raising the rates. In Hayes business. Increased prices have an impact. In Hayes business owner Gary Shoreman says the increased prices have. Okay. In Hayes business owner Gary Shoreman says the increased price. In Hayes business owner Gary Shoreman says the increased price has an impact on his company Eagle Communications. Shoreman says he's trying to make sure it doesn't affect customers. Eagle has about 15 service vehicles to install and service cable. Digital cable and high speed internet service from Goodland to Russell. Carla Eccles, F-89 News. Okay.

All right. Come on. Turn away for the numbers. Come on. There they are. Okay. Again, we were talking about the differences between the two prices of 75 that the state pays. Right. The estimated cost for the cleanup of Wichita is $10,000. 75% of that or $7,500 will be paid by KDHE and the 25% or $2,500 will be paid by the city of Wichita. And they'll be paying through in-kind services which consist of labor, their own labor, landfills, space, and equipment. Great. Now, you mentioned, I understand that you've had, since 2000, there's been about 200... Help uplift what we can do to help uplift what we can do. What we need to see what we can do to help uplift some of the most needed companies, so far as minority participation, women-owned participation, which is only going to help our community as a whole.

And we're not looking for handouts, we're not looking for prostheticides, but just help in getting into the bidding process and nurturing these bists so that they can grow and they can help our tax base by any more employees to their base. It makes it more attractive for some of the smaller firms to bid on. minority businesses who are not afforded the opportunity to bid on some of the things that the government entities are providing. Now, it's a two-way street here. Now, some of our businesses are not ready to bid on some of these contracts or not in the position to bid on them. But yet, there are other things that I think both the school district, the city, we can look at other methods of trying to break down some of the contracts so that they're smaller in size so that it makes it more attractive for some of the smaller firms to bid on. Now, I'm not advocating that all contracts...

Okay, hold on, Darren. Ooh, that's loud. Just a second. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, sorry to breathe so heavy. It's the end of the day. We're going to tell you who's the end of the day. That's it exactly. The end of the day. And I'm just trying to get this baby on. Let's see here. Hold on a second. There's something weird on my computer. Of course there is since I need to do this quick. Hold a second. What is the problem? Oh, come on. Okay, there we are. Now. Okay, let's see if it works. Okay, you're going to give me a fantastic stellar answer, Darren. But for the tape, let me just make sure your level is okay. Tell me your name and title.

Darren, you see division director of operations. Okay. And so, Darren, how can people minority contractors or minority business owners better, if that makes sense? Better participate in the project? Better participate in the process. It's very simple for me to, and easy for me, to say that contact us. Contact our purchasing department, either in person. And we're on the sixth floor of our administrative center at 201 Northwater, where they can call the purchasing department 9-7-3-4-5-4-0, or they can visit our website, which is at usd259.com forward slash purchasing. And they'll find all kinds of information in whichever avenue they choose to learn how to do business. From an online vendor application to a paper form to a listing of all of our current bids and proposals to friendly staff that's willing to walk through the process of filling out an application and talking to you about how to do business with us.

Are you sure you don't work in marketing? Oh, yes. Actually, I do. There it is. Now, talk to me about, now, were you surprised at Michael's request to have more participation? Is this something new, or is this something that you think? Have you looked at this in the past? I'm asking you five questions and one. But the bottom line is, I'm just curious if this is something that you think needs to be done. Mike and I have a good working relationship. So, you know, I have an idea of what Mike's interest are in terms of how we can better improve the capabilities of our minority in women owned businesses to improve their standing. So, this is not something new, but we're all interested in that. For on. A lot of things. What do you know? My sister was not to trust people. I can't. Well, I don't know. I learned a lot of things. And let me step in right in here just for a second,

because it will be quieter. Okay. What did you learn today? Well, I learned not to trust people. I can't. Well, I don't know. I learned a lot of things. Some things I already knew, because I've had trouble before. Had somebody come into my house and what I was going, you know, my sister was, Airbnb took money out of her purse and her checking account and cleaned us out at the bank. But I didn't get it back. The insurance paid for it. That was lucky. It was just like, but fraud. And I think, I just really realized there was so much different things that you have to worry about in fraud. A lot of things. What in particular, say a lot of things again, I'm sorry, say a lot of things. A lot of things. Such as, what did you learn specifically today? What was going on? Well, let's see. I have to think about this. Direct mail. Well, yeah. Direct mail is one.

I just get so much of it. And in Publishers Clearing House, I've sent to them for years, you know, and finally my daughter says, don't send any more money to them. If you want to send the, you know, send the letter back, okay, but don't put your money in it. And said, don't put any money in anything. So I've been doing that. And that's helping. I think I'll, I congratulate this quit, sending things to me. Thank you. Appreciate your time. What is your name? I'm Carla Eccles from KMUW. Hi, master's. What is it? Nor. Master's. How do you spell it? N-O-R. What did you learn today? Was this a worthwhile meeting? Oh, yes. It's very good. There's a lot of things that I need to tell my children to and my other sisters and brothers. So that's why I got so much of these. What is your daughter? Was there something about security numbers, a direct mail that you really felt was beneficial? I don't know. I don't know offhand, but yeah, there were a lot of beneficial.

I'm going to go home and look at it again and make sure I'm not doing any of that. We do shred everything. Yeah. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff and my uncle too. And they had, like she said, boxes of stuff that little pens, little fake jewelry thing, and just tons of it. So if you would say you would not, you try and make sure that you'll get caught up in consumer fraud. Right. Yeah. I want to be aware. Okay. You would say I want to be aware and not be caught up in consumer fraud. Have you seen it? Do you want to know? If you would say, you know, I want to be aware so that I'm not caught up in consumer fraud. Oh, I want to be aware. So I'm not caught up in consumer fraud. But thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. No armasters. That's why I got so much of these. I don't know offhand, but yeah, there were a lot of beneficial.

I'm going to go home and look at it again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff and my uncle. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff and my uncle too. And they had, like she said, boxes of stuff. And they had, like she said, boxes of stuff. And they had boxes of stuff that little pens, little fake jewelry thing, and just tons of it. So if you would say, so have you say it? Just tons of it. So do what now? If you would say, tons of it. So kind of consumer fraud. Oh, I want to be a, just tons of it. So I want to be aware.

So I've not caught up in consumer fraud. But thank you. I have business of art. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff and my uncle too. And they had boxes of stuff that little pens, little fake jewelry thing, and just tons of it. So I want to be aware. So I've not caught up in consumer fraud. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff and my uncle too. And they had boxes. The stuff that little pens, little fake jewelry thing, and just tons of it. So I want to be aware. So I've not caught up in consumer fraud. Unbelievable.

Check, check. Smart, smart seniors, but it's still happening. What I was told is once we solve how to deal with one kind, the crooks, then, and get a new one. The latest is taking the letter, the, your mail. They were, you put your check, put it on the mailbox. They combine, take that off. Somehow can read the number. They can go to your bank, or they can... I call it guiding lots of cases. And then, of course, some of this had to do with seniors. Morning, always to pay their bills. And therefore, it would come, and you've seen these. This is a bill. You forget the little bitty print for the next four years. Twelve o'clock, Kansas. I've been involved with them since November. Send any more money to them. In Publishers Clearing House, lines I've sent to them for years, you know. And finally, my daughter says, don't send any more money to them.

If you want to send the, you know, send the letter back, okay, but don't put your money in it. And said, don't put your money in anything. So I've been doing that. And that's helping. I think they'll gradually disquit sending things to them. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff, and my uncle, too. And they had boxes of stuff that little pans, little fake jewelry thing, and just tons of it. So I want to be aware, so I've not caught up and consumer fraud. I think we'd be doing... Send again. Inaction access to our accounts. You're beloved seniors and persons with disabilities and even every Kansas. From these national and international scam artists who are trying to come in and gain access to our accounts.

Trick us into sending their money through Western Union or direct money transfer. So we are here with the VAT, have to send that message out. Hopefully this consumer education will save people from the horror of being ripped off by what is an international criminal syndicate. Thank you, Brian. Now you did mention it's going to be a real thing. Brothers and disabled of Kansas are being targeted across the country and across the world by those wanting to come in and take their funds. We, Kansas, need to... I'm sorry I heard that door. Come and take their funds. Yeah, come in and take their funds. We, Kansas, need to be ever... The Nigerian scam to the El Gordo Lottery, to telemarketing boiler rooms in Toronto, to the fishing that's taking place on the internet. It's all designed to find those Americans who have fluid funds and are somehow at that time gullible. And some of them are so sophisticated the scams that you don't have to be very gullible to fall for them. You can easily fall for them.

And the best way to counteract them is not to try to repair the damage after it's done. We have limited resources to do that. We'll let people know ahead of time what these scams are. And to be wary and to watchful. Be watchful when these scams come along. What are the things you mentioned with social... The deal with the randomly generated number that ties only to your deal, your driver's license number. That's what everyone needs to do. Because social security numbers right now are marketable. It's actually very important to a lot of people right now. And you need to carefully guard it, or you could be the victim of identity theft. The duck tastes deficiency. And from his vantage point, Remyander from Cal's... For $10 you can go down and get a deal with it. For $10 you can go down and get a deal with the randomly generated number that ties only to your deal, your driver's license number. That's what everyone needs to do. Because social security numbers right now are marketable. And you need to carefully guard it, or you could be the victim of identity theft. Hi, what is your name? I'm Carla Eccles from KMUW.

Hi, what's your name? Thank you. My dad got caught up in a lot of that stuff, and my uncle too. And they had boxes of stuff that little pans, little fake jewelry thing, and just tons of it. So I want to be aware, so I'm not caught up and consumer fraud. Your name from Direct Mail, solicitations by writing to the Mail Preference Service, PO Box, and Relief from this Direct Mail. There's actually a post office box that you can write to, and you can get yourself taken off that Direct Mail. Oh, have you said it last part against the post office? I know I've been here before. You can request removal of your name from Direct Mail, solicitations by writing to the Mail Preference Service, PO Box, 643, Carmel, New York, 10512. That's the Mail Preference Service, PO Box, 643, Carmel, New York, 10512.

If you didn't get that number down, you can call everything from the Consumer Protection Laws of Kansas to how to file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division, how to get in contact with the Better Business Bureau, what to do if they're unauthorized, charges show up in your checking account or your credit cards. And if anyone wants to call us at 1-800-432-2310, we can send them that brochure or they can get online at www.ksag.org, www.ksag.org. And they can download that brochure and see what our 64 pre-recorded messages have to offer Kansas consumers. You're seeing more mail coming to your house, many of them, I think, more postcards saying, call us and we can do this and so service for you. If you're getting buried in this mail, if you're inundated and you'd like some relief from this Direct Mail, there's actually a post office box that you can write to and you can get yourself taken off that Direct Mail. Everything from the Nigerian scam to the El Gordo Lottery, to telemarketing boiler rooms in Toronto, to the fishing that's taking place on the Internet, it's all designed to find those Americans who have fluid funds and are somehow at that time gullible.

And some of them are so sophisticated the scams that you don't have to be very gullible to fall for them. You can easily fall for them and the best way to counteract them is not to try to repair the damage after it's done. We have limited resources to do that. We'll let people know ahead of time what these scams are and to be weary and to watchful when these scams come along. With more scenes and more pages, Eugenides could have shown us this transition and made it believable, but he did not, he just told us it happened. Being both a bit long and a bit rushed at the end leaves me thinking the story needed to be 600 pages and wishing it was told in 400. Ultimately we end up with a compromise and a pretty good one at that. Of the new fiction I've read this year, Middlesex ranks up there toward the top. Too much here in this Iraq resolution, but I think those of us that are here have to continue talking about this.

On Friday, the senator who led the opposition to that Iraq resolution rose to deliver a lengthy and stinging critique of how the administration has handled both Iraq and North Korea. But first West Virginia Democrat Robert Bird addressed the presiding officer. Mr. President, I hope the senators will listen. Only a few other senators were on hand. One of them, Arizona Republican John McCain, was clearly annoyed that Bird was launching into a speech criticizing in Iraq policy that McCain supports in the midst of an ongoing debate over a massive spending bill. Mr. President, I raise the point of order that the debate is not germane at this time during the first three hours of the debate. But McCain was overruled and Bird was allowed to speak. It's the uncomfortable role of a true patriot, he said, to question the administration's decisions on Iraq while as he put it, the drums of war are beating. Bird, who's the dean of the Senate, cautioned against what he called a fever pitch of war rhetoric coming from the White House.

He also warned the U.S. is being seen abroad in his words as a belligerent bully. I am sure that many of our friends around the globe wonder why diplomacy can remain an option with a regime as treacherous and threatening as North Korea, and yet can be taken off the table when it comes to a much weaker Iran. I wonder if the administration has calculated carefully enough the ramifications of a military solution in Iraq not only in terms of dollars, but also in terms of bloodshed and hardship in the Middle East and terrorist attacks at home. Bird went on to declare that the Iraq resolution, which he called a serious mistake, imposed no oath of silence on Congress or the American public when it comes to questioning the administration's decisions on Iraq. And he recommended against what he termed precipitous action by the U.S., U.N. arms inspectors in Iraq, he said, should be given enough time for a thorough search. As Bird spoke, the few remaining senators drifted out of the chamber, leaving him alone on the floor. Later, Arizona's McCain shrugged when asked about Bird's speech, senators, he said, will be senators.

We've already had the debate, but certainly senators, if they don't like the results, they're never prohibited from talking about it some more if they want to. Do you think it will make any difference? No. No. It makes no difference whatsoever. I think American people know that the senators had their debate and decided. Still, when tens of thousands gathered here over the weekend to protest a war with Iraq, they did so at the doors of the U.S. Capitol. David Wilman, PR News, the Capitol. The time is 19 minutes past the hour. In the next half hour of morning edition, American environmentalists worked to preserve salmon, trout, and other fish in Russia. The bottom line is that if you really want to win, you want something to be here in 10,000 years. You've got to think way beyond our national border. You have to think at a global level.

On the next fresh air, a human being died that night, a South African story of forgiveness. We feature a conversation with psychologists, Pumla, Gaboto, Marikazela. Join us for the next fresh air. It's all thanks considered here on KMUW Wichita F-89. Good afternoon, I'm Carla Eccles. We'd like to say thanks to our day sponsors for Friday, January 17th, William and Clara Harker, Happy Anniversary.

Claudia Windy tonight, low around 15 degrees right now in the Wichita area, 27 degrees. It's 4 o'clock. At 4 o'clock, I'm Carla Eccles, KMUW News. Services to the disabled were cut today because of state budget restraints. Shawnee County District Judge Frank Ties heard arguments yesterday in a lawsuit aimed at the cuts, but there's been no ruling. The suit asks him to bar the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services from reducing its reimbursements to groups that serve the developmentally disabled. Opponents argue that the cuts will hurt both service providers and their clients. An attorney for the state countered that budget decisions belong to the executive and legislative branches and shouldn't be subject to court interference. When the state's Democrats gathered to choose a new party leader next month, Governor Sibelius has a nomination.

A Sibelius spokeswoman says the new governor has asked Overland Park lawyer Larry Gates to be the chairman. He'd have to be elected by the state Democratic Committee when it gathers February 28th in Topeka. No other candidates have been prominently mentioned to succeed Tom Sawyer of Wichita, and governors traditionally are accorded the right to name their own chairman. Sawyer was elected last November to the Kansas House. More people filed for bankruptcy in the state last year than in 2001. New figures show that 14,977 people filed for bankruptcy in Kansas that compares to 13,940 a year earlier. Hughes Avadillo has chief deputy clerk for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. He says most of the filings are chapter 7 filings for liquidation. They total 12,099 for the year. Another 45 were filed as chapter 11 business reorganization. About 2800 were filed as chapter 13 personal reorganization. The state also has 22 farms file under chapter 12 farm bankruptcy. Cloudy and windy tonight, a low temperature around 15 degrees, partly cloudy and windy tomorrow with the high around 38, a low around 17.

Write down the Wichita area 27 degrees. Support for NPR comes from the Kellogg Foundation, helping people help themselves by investing in individuals, their families and their communities. On the web at www.wkf.org. It's 407. Major support for selected shorts has been provided by Houghton Mifflin, publishers of the best American short stories. And by Barnes & Noble featuring Reader's Advantage, a membership program for book lovers, information at local Barnes & Noble stores and on the web at www.bn.com. It is the custom of Vietnamese, especially of the old school of manners, not to tell you things that are unpleasant to hear.

The world need not be made worse than it is by embracing the difficult things. Welcome to Selected Shorts, a celebration of the short story, a program of new and classic short fiction read by some of the leading artists of the American theater. I'm Isaiah Shefford, artistic director of Symphony Space in New York City, where the selected short series originates. These programs are produced for radio by WNYC New York. In the next hour you'll hear stories by Robert Olin Butler and Myra Alpersson, read by Alvin Epstein and Isaiah Shefford. Most of this program is devoted to a very moving story, the trip back by Robert Olin Butler.

Butler's novels include The Allies of Eden, Wabash, Sun Dogs, Country Men of Bones, They Whisper and The Deep Green Sea. And his newest novel is called Fair Warning, a novel. His published short story collections are called Tabloid Dreams and a good scent from a strange mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. This story was read on stage at Symphony Space by the distinguished actor and director Alvin Epstein, who holds the distinction of having read the opening story on the opening program of the very first season of selected shorts in 1984, Edgar Allan Pose, The Telltale Heart. Alvin's career has included creating the role of Lucky in the original American production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting Fogodot, with Bert Law and E.G. Marshall, as well as playing Peacham in the first New York staging of Brecht and Vile's Three Penny Opera. For decades he's been associate artistic director of the American author, and he served a stint as artistic director of the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre as well.

As you're about to hear, a remarkable thing happened at the climax of Alvin's reading of Robert Olin Butler's The Trip Back. Now, we don't go in for over-emotional acting on selected shorts. Our rehearsal and performing style is generally crafted and controlled and not over the top. But this superb actor on this evening was visibly and audited by the emotional power of the story's ending, and he allowed himself to experience it fully while a visibly moved audience experienced it with him in stunned silence. I hope this extraordinary moment comes across on radio. Here reading The Trip Back by Robert Olin Butler is Alvin Epstein. I am just a businessman, not a poet. It is the poet who was supposed to see things so close and to remember, perhaps it is only the poets who can die well, not the rest of us. I drove from my home in Lake Charles, Louisiana to the airport in Houston, Texas to pick up my wife's grandfather.

And what is it that I experienced on that trip? What is it that struck me as I got off the interstate highway in Beaumont knowing the quick route to the airport as I do? I was driving through real towns in Texas. One was named China, another known, one was liberty. If I was a man who believed in symbols and omens, I would have smiled at this. I was passing through liberty to pick up my wife's grandfather, whose own liberty my wife and I and the man's nephew in San Francisco had finally won after many years of trying. He was arriving this very day from the West Coast after living 13 years under communist rule in our home country of Vietnam. Perhaps a poet would think of those things about liberty, Texas and my wife's grandfather and write a memorable poem, though maybe not. I am ignorant of these matters. Maybe it is only the bird taking flight or the frog jumping into the pond that the poet is interested in.

All I know is that for me, I drove the two-lane highway across Texas and I just noticed the businesses, the little ones that seemed so Vietnamese to me, in how the people always look for some new angle, some empty corner in the marketplace. I noticed the signs for stump grinding and for house leveling and for mud pumping. The different stands along the way, fireworks, fruit and vegetables, hubcaps and antiques. The Paradise Club had a miniskirt contest and the bait barn had a night crawler special and Texas winners had a baseball trophy sale. There was a donut delight and a future star twirling academy and a hand-painted sign on a post saying that the finest porch swings were a mile down this dusty road. The mattress man said on his sign right underneath his business name.