KANU News Retention; August 1996 Retention (2 of 2)

we're worried about that gap or continue to be but i think what it is is it highlighted its is this essentially to spend time on and i think you're going to see throughout the state will see him in school improvement plans people are in finding ways to try to help the suburbs and their schools who are going as well fb for the fourth straight year kansas schoolchildren have improved in math across the board reading remains very strong and writing is beginning to show slow improvement while officials say these are good games they admit there is still plenty of work to do on raising the scores chief among them improving the testing levels of black children and that's for instance they scored the lowest in every grade level state education commissioner eddie tompkins says they're working on it but it'll take time i do think that the standards are helping us i think they're helping us identify what would not just non they weren't in core subjects basic subjects like math and reading and writing and i think that part of it is continuing to encourage the system say if these were the kids knowing how to align are christian marge direction

or staff developed make sure that that they're being taught kids are wearing them because one thing we have found research when we teach it gives light the study also found kansas students in private schools perform slightly better in reading and math and their public school counterparts girls outscoring boys and writing at all grade levels and students from small school districts tend to do better than the ones from larger ones for kansas public radio into kansas reporters covering the gop convention governor graves said that his perspective on politics have changed dramatically since he and his wife adopted a baby daughter last year he made it clear that he wasn't the kind of person who wanted to be married to politics all his life and got four years as governor maybe enough his remarks come just twenty months into his first term at a time when his popularity as high in fact poll after poll show graves with an approval rating of nearly seventy

percent one of the highest ratings of any given that in the country even democrats and social conservatives in the kansas legislature who graces feuded with publicly can see that the governor would be unbeatable if he were up for re election this year graves is turbo won't expire until january of nineteen ninety nine if he does step down their graves says you won't see him running for higher office he says the idea of serving in congress is a little interest to him for kansas public radio this is mccain's reporting jane you look exactly the same harold you haven't changed a bit i smile and think to myself except twenty pounds thirty years and harold bald head i wonder what they're thinking about me here i am divorced to do something happily self supporting but not the person i envisioned a seventeen that i would be were milling about in a hotel for a one hundred and fifty former classmates come together again welcome back class of sixty four claims a

banner everyone is dressed in a formal best an ipod or why why are people drawn to high school reunions luongo balloons bounce against the ballroom ceiling old school photos or the big show cheerleaders and drum major at some of the whole team and the senior class officers all the stars the in crowd the ones the rest of this year and after as they gathered so self assured their table in the lunchroom but off to one side is a poster with a dozen names it's a list of her classmates who have died we're an energetic shout him a former cheerleader now twice divorced or broker her show or switch address swings above her knees and his obvious she still has great legs again she shouts is a medicaid to be together again let's hear a cheer always so wonderful dishes a woman next to me her hair is teased into a blonde beehive the kind i haven't seen since well the sixties blue taffeta breaks are ample body double chins wobble as she

smiles and eyeglass surreptitiously of a name tag etsy since obviously we graduated together your face and name are blanks to me i marvel at the different way people age patsy looks old enough to beat him his mom yet her eyes behind their glasses or happily smiling i marry charlie right out of high school she says as if are the best of friends were still together five great kids couple of grandkids to the band is getting it on now reggae here no grateful dead we go back to elvis's hound dog and bill haley and his comets like writing a bicycle the old steps comeback i see people pretty the sexiest answer our class and by gosh this retired army colonel can still gyrate he barked wanna dance is did you write a boy i had a crush on he's been married four times and the bankrupt twice but guess what i'm thrilled that has asked me to dance i remember a diary my daughter found the diary i've kept at age sixteen in

purple ink with exclamation points we read it together laughing or boring crazy mom is did you write portly now wearing glasses spins be around the dance floor i almost giggle his name had been one among many in my diary when i was inside our boy i would write i spoke with three cigarettes today and daddy doesn't know we humans have decided to allow us to circle disbarment a time to the point where we begin our journey as adults we come to finish her unfinished business can i handle about jealousy the dimpled beauty who'd maybe feel so cocky guy meet the boy who broke my heart and i discover they smeared a very interesting adult today we're union to put to rest or adolescent tanks to retake major of ourselves is like looking in a mirror where we see a double image the chubby cheeked girl on his saddle shoes is now a woman with google's at the ice was battering of grey hair has sparkle of self acceptance that i never possessed a seventeen i know who i

am thirty years after high school everyone has had their success their failures and hey we survived and he leads us in closing cheer i laughed and join him commentaries tend to focus on problems that face our society there's a good reason for that focus there's some probability that change will occur for the public has made aware of the negative aspects of our society today i want to change the usual focus and talk about a brave teenager because we will all be better off for it fourteen year old joe crawford of kansas was returning from a canoe trip with her parents her ten year old brother and two friends who were fourteen and tan gill's father stopped for gas at the convenience store and the spartans are and while there the kids went in the store to check out the candy racks sen leahy and i came running into the store with a gun in his hand and help through the kids that he needed a hostage

almost automatically jill decided she should be the one and she went forward and stanley them and the denver area by that time the police had surrounded the building and joel's parents were watching in horror from outside the store the gunman fired a shot into the wall of the store and jill said to herself while campaigning but she get common and the composure and courage of a joan of arc joe's bed ran into the store and the gunman pointed a gun at him joe very calmly told her dead gunman promised it would hurt anyone and yesterday and really believing that this was the best thing to do her father accepted the store again until the other hostages that they might as well in some snacks and soft drinks as they were all going to be together for a long time you know and surely the gunman surrendered and no one was harmed joe crawford has set a wonderful example for

children and adults alike i am sure that the experiences and teachings of a loving family loaded her strong and resolute character and by the way that the kids have time for soft drinks and snacks they had the time but in joe's brothers words we didn't take anything because we didn't want to steal or offer the crawfords from your family two hours you enhance the values upon which a good civilization thrived the kansas corporation commission is holding a series of four public hearings around the state during august to let residents comment on the proposal to establish competition and local farm markets last year federal legislation permitted the changes and this past session kansas lawmakers okayed the plan is well it's a complicated formula but essentially the idea is to raise the cost of local phone service by four dollars that he says over the next three years and decrease the

costs of interest a long distance calls calls made with in kansas the plan will make it easier for a new phone companies to enter the market by making it a level playing field rosemary foreman is with the kansas corporation commission there is expected to be this increase the local rates which the public needs to be aware of india needs to express their opinions as you will the impact of his computer telecommunications in the state the in state long distance rates will go down by approximately thirty percent over the next three years and foreman says that's why the local service rates will go up to offset the difference she says if consumers spend more than thirteen dollars against a long distance calls will save money under the new plan for kansas public radio i'm russell lewis last year kansas officials received nearly twenty three hundred complaints about some of the states five hundred nursing homes now the

legislative posada committee is out with some recommendations on how to regulate the industry better the findings while generally positive did pinpoint circle areas that need improvement such as not letting nursing homes investigate their own complaints cindy strand is the executive director of kansans advocates for better care of her nursing home watchdog group and his organization has felt that the department has not been doing their job or following the law by delegating those investigations to the staff to the nursing home staff but the audit committee wants answers too and will ask the state attorney general if it's legal for the health and environment department to delegate that responsibility to the nursing homes health officials maintain there's nothing wrong with the current procedure and say the system is working just fine i'm russell lewis at the statehouse the national citizens' alliance of michigan based environmental group is

one of more than a dozen organize asians that have been fighting for almost a year now to prevent ash grove from getting federal government permission to burn hazardous waste for seventy different types of different types ways toxic substances like arsenic lead at victory says alliance spokesman alex it substances that have been linked to increased rates of leukemia and brain damage to residents in other communities where such hazardous waste is being burned epa officials though say ash grove has already been incinerating some of those hazardous materials on a temporary basis already with no apparent adverse consequences to the people shouldn't the epa says they checked everything from how emissions from the facility effect crops grown the a bite doubt dust and fumes from ash grove affect fish in a local lakes they concluded there's no health risk and that environmental groups are stirring up unnecessary panic for kansas public

radio is is that haynes reporting they're putting the finishing touches to their makeshift stage at a podium in a clearing next to a deserted the railroad tracks just outside of baldwin city about twenty miles south of lawrence on saturday hundreds of hobo swim across america will gather here for two days of political events and social activities while the gop convention in san diego has talked of restoring the american dream the delegates here we'll talk about how to avoid it in our schools we're taught you to do things properly and the money always talks and when people have money they lay down the row now one thing about the whole wall's is that they do not necessarily follow those roles that's grandpa a hobo for michigan he's in his late sixties with david rees and

sports a white santa claus like be it still has comes in it from the bowl of stew he just ate grandpa or is these self dubbed the whole bowl troubadour day so you could call the hobo had drifted or even to travel but unless you want a fight on your hands never call some of us would get very area because a bomb site dole poland cape is going on eighty years of age that's the name he's known as in the hobo community he hasn't been called by his real name since he was fourteen when he first hit the railroads the wood over the next sixty years take him to every state in the union hall those he says are migratory workers were willing to labor and at menial task that pays

enough that is to allow them to continue traveling bombs he says on the other hand as simple eat freeloaders who wouldn't be seen dead walking never confused the two now the bomb this was the worst type a creature of mankind you know good to the papal no good deal of self he's looking for his next drunk and at a low temperature can get and about as far as my greatest concern about the forces and the partners that it gets says probably the town hall that's his adventure and productive and users so don't mixes up with being in a bomb oh bows got their name from the post civil war agricultural workers who'd traveled around laboring in the fields out in the gardens of private homes as they carried then they worked through a whole or their shoulders that they became known as homeboys the term was

later corrupted to become just simply hobo down to a frack water is forty eight at a hobo since nineteen seventy two that's when he left his twenty dollar an hour job at a nuclear power plant in upstate new york to roam the country by a board within a music that did that also rose work and make your money i wasn't traveling to commit myself to like five or six months we're now i can see his face judging go on my way and in county georgia one month or delves into lawns and picked apples oranges watermelon whatever we in alec baldwin where the weather is in the high eighties it's very pleasant day i mean you do this you're out in the wintertime or you're cutting back of the class or the world ten years good places to take on like arizona new

mexico oregon called florida saw me that you know he so if you call up north go down south do you regret not having a family in there he's being outspent be someone who can really mess things you never knew their people it never had choosing and facilities for people because you get a hundred dollar bush but in new hampshire don't know ok so just the sky utah roof in this deal for a direction when i was in a quandary when opponents will will have a roof over an obscure the sky and you know it's fine shaded under a tree in a place to be a quote rip you know disgruntled place peaceful places sleeping outside with just the sky is a roof with no precious of a nine to five job or a nagging wife are all part of the appeal says damn day who makes it clear he has no regrets about the way he's

chosen to live his life he also makes it clear he's know alcoholic or drug abuse or as many people might think and that if they wanted to settle down he could but simply doesn't want to being as free as a bird writing the trains is all part of the romance he says of the hobo life that's a liberty justice from ray touted his jury will be honored this week it as the new king of the hold those involved when no one knows for sure how many hope those there are around the country but it's certainly in the thousands they maintained stronger bonds and becomes a culture they have their own newspaper that is based out of bread to iowa that's also where the national whole boat graveyard is located while hoboes of being scorned and ridiculed for their unconventional lifestyle site koppelman kid says being a hobo is

nothing to be ashamed of after old it was on their backs and sweaty says that america was built we did it on a constant on that the horrible he helped to build the dams in this country the railroads and they qualify as and for barriers of our american ingenuity dowling and don thanks for the country and they should be recognized and i hope more the people of this country will grasp that the public is invited to the hobo convention this weekend to get a better glimpse of horrible life and culture and if you come you can expect for you hope most you know they promised no road kill is a dame radio this is mccain's report on

you the state department of health and environment oversees the entire kansas nursing home industry officials made unannounced visits to the facilities levy fines for violations and ensure that residents are living in safe unhealthy environments last year kansas officials received nearly twenty three hundred complaints about some of the five hundred nursing homes in the state that fifty page report from the legislative post audit committee while very technical does pinpoint several problems that need closer attention specifically letting nursing homes investigate complaints themselves before january of this year the health and environment department conducted all investigations but that changed this year for cost cutting reasons cindy strand is the executive director of kansans advocates for better care in a nursing home watchdog group because organization has felt that the department has not been doing their job

or following the law by delegating those investigations to the staff to the nursing staff the audit committee wanted clarification as well and won't now asked the state attorney general if it's legal for nursing homes to police themselves legal or not jim o'connell the secretary of the state department of health and environment says the industry often does a better job catching violations and dealing with complaints themselves raises in my mind for repeating what is already demonstrated been infected effective investigation process that the information in the report itself demonstrates that nursing homes tend to substantiate complaints more often than our own servers the audit come into the department and found ninety percent of complaints statewide or handled appropriately and within allowable time limits it also found the department's inspection program is designed to uncover significant violations of state and federal laws however officials

faulted the department for not fully utilizing a number of enforcement options such as fines and license suspensions additionally the report states when fines are used they are often too small to deter future infractions the committee found the neighboring states have much higher feinstein kansas but the health department's jim o'connell warns higher fines don't necessarily mean better nursing homes it would be a mistake for the police and over reliance on the effectiveness of it i think one of the committee members asked you know and rightly so it finds are increased are these a cost of doing business that's going to be passed through to consumers and we won't be sure that what cost we impose an industry i'm gonna be effective in improving care simply fighting for the sake of feeling better about and aggressive enforcement action doesn't result in improvement for the residents isn't a cost justified step for cindy strand executive director of kansas advocates for better care it is a worthwhile step the opinion of our organization is that the

fines need to to be more substantial not necessarily punitive but just more substantial to make it worth the while of the nursing home to correct the problems officials with the health and environment department will now begin reviewing the findings of the report and analyze which changes need to be implemented to make the nursing home industry a safer one in kansas i'm russell lewis at the statehouse this is morning edition i'm j schafer a virtual time capsule full of history memories and if you've forgotten artifacts will be open for the public tomorrow in downtown topeka the historic j hob theater which first opened its doors to the public seventy years ago has been sealed off from the city for the past twenty years in fact until recently many people had forgotten that the old feodor even existed but now thanks to a group of topeka citizens and businesspeople efforts are underway to renovate the dilapidated structure and restore the jihad theater to its former glory it was built

primarily as a house but in nineteen twenty six and open on the sixteenth nineteen twenty six they also on the state of what some call it really is absolute treasure dr doug jernigan of topeka veterinarian is the president of his storage a hot theater incorporated a nonprofit group working to restore the structure in its heyday jernigan says the j hawk was the capital city is shining star a first rate movie and entertainment facilities it was really a speech through our production but two decades ago after years of neglect the once grand theater was literally boarded up you're welcome

james over the years many topekans have forgotten about the theater's primarily because it's out of the public's view tucked away inside the eleven story jay hauck hotel the larger building inside of which the theater itself was built although it quickly became a favorite topeka traction after it opened in nineteen twenty six jonathan says not everyone was in favor of building it thank you and according to some accounts proper society folks were afraid the theater would give downtown topeka black eye by bringing in burlesque shows and racy vaudeville acts but opposition to the jackson died down when a certain state of the art luxury device was added to the

theater air conditioning polymer that they said was the first refrigerated facility in the us and many western mississippi money to record revenues and bigger as i said and it raised in nineteen twenty six they spent fifteen thousand dollars on the refrigeration and this was over and it was a major advertising today and imagine august sixteenth nineteen twenty six i don't expect it was fifty five degrees out there people lined up to three hours just millions and a couple hours air conditioning was indeed a rarity at the time but jernigan says the j hawk also posted an expensive electric organ and fancy special effects like that was something that i actually had an apparatus around the park and i've been part of the struggle back in the seventies and that would actually project of the large part of this round circular jonathan says the theater also featured top notch

entertainment history has been on this page according to german in the theater was also the site for early political rallies and speeches including some from alf landon the former kansas governor and one time presidential nominee but perhaps the theater's biggest claim to fame is the role it played in launching the career of a female entertainers a stripper who would later become a worldwide star it's really are sisters were playing and the truth is that modern dollars that didn't perform up to that point and her older sister is part of a performance ran off and look at somebody and the mother was in topeka kansas city and in kansas city where she picked up actually it's well documented violence is true that this was a first time job of our monastery although they're already eighteen months into the project jirga knows it will take some

time to completely restore the jihad theater it will also take money an estimated three point five million dollars but jernigan says their goal isn't just to save and restore the old theater he says they're planning to make the jay hardway usable facility mr moyer of years looking at the downtown area that people use as a theater restaurant cultural arts district especially jobs instead of the retail mahler and that has been a lot of enthusiasm among the thirty thousand people coming here today and leave everything that you look at a muscular position so it's absolutely unnerving to the community not subtracting and we want to make a presentation house and nobody in the community the region can come in and the suspects but we also expect to have on the new high tech audio video teleconferencing satellite and businesses can come and yarmulkes to be used for selling or state government can make use of this facility we

expect it to be a viable business interest to be not something that a proper pharmacy three something that pays for itself it doesn't require tax dollars and other support juergens says he's hopeful that tomorrow's open house will help generate enough public interest in the building to make its restoration a reality tomorrow's open house at the j hob theater in topeka last from ten am to four pm for kansas public radio i'm j schafer in nineteen ninety two texas billionaire ross perot watched nearly twenty seven percent of the presidential vote in kansas one of his best showings in any state that year that was four years ago now it's election time once again and that strong feeling a voter on rest is even stronger says mark morning who is running as a reform candidate for nancy kassebaum to us senate seat he never underestimate the amount of golfers of our political system out there and we collected a point about their futures and just a little bit over thirty days so there

was a lot of people are willing to fund a patient those signatures got the reform party on the kansas ballot in a record time back in june elections officials say it was one of the quickest petition drives in recent memory that vocal shelling according to either carry the reform party's state vice chair is a sign the changes coming and maybe sooner rather than later well i believe that the government is not paying attention to what the public wants you know they've already paid for by the big special interests the reform party has eleven members on the kansas ballot and either terry says there's a good chance that several could win seats this year but political observers don't think they have much of a chance at least on the local level during this election cycle curtis gans is the director of the washington dc based committee for the study of the american electorate a non partisan think tank which analyzes voting patterns he says for the reform party to be

successful it needs to have strong leadership from the top something he says it doesn't have yet we could easily capitalize on i mean it nationally james believes the reform party's effect will be slight this year with the exception of refocusing part of the campaign on the deficit but he says the reform party could make serious plays on the local

level four years from now he notes states like maine and alaska have forged ahead with third party candidates this decade he says if the electorate is willing to break from traditional political norms and believes the third and fourth party candidates are there to court voters you know cain says the reason for those type of feelings is in the past three decades the republican and democratic parties haven't addressed recorded the true feelings of voters and that's why a viable third party could strengthen in the coming years and once that happens it's changes will improve on the local level university of kansas political scientist kent collier says the key for it to work is education and advertising in the short run and for most voters to walk into a voting booth with very little knowledge

about who the candidates are in state and local races until i help they have felt confident that the people were bigger picture point of view or that they've just been carefully selected that they've been scrutinized another night either corrupt or they're not white collier says it's a myth that most kansans are republicans he says many voters are conservative with independent values and pro tap into that which is why he did so well in nineteen ninety two collier says for the reform party to be successful on the local level candidate should follow similar platforms mark morning the reform party's us senate candidate was a republican himself before he switched parties citing major problems with the impact of special interest money on politics the wichita travel agency owner has promised not to take any money from political action committees or any contributions from out of state he says this election will come down to one thing whether voters want change

or to keep the status quo it really all depends on whether people want a deal in personnel gave an organization or were they want a deal in issues it becomes the point that people actually want to deal with the issues that face america and it will have a large impact on them themselves or their children the reform party will be there and will be a big impact if you would stay in the personality and the strength of the word innovation and so forth as they weigh the issues well we may only have limited impact marrone is hoping this upcoming election will be the beginning of change at the top but his party will face tough odds since eighteen sixty or leaf i've third party presidential campaigns have gotten more than ten percent of the vote reform party members are quick to point out that one of those five was ross perot in nineteen ninety two for kansas public radio i'm russell lewis the kansas unemployment rate dropped to three point nine percent in

july the lowest it's been all year and one of the best parents reported for the month of july in the past decade for the month the job market created an extra twenty five hundred positions that thirty one thousand new jobs for the year so far angela daring is a spokeswoman for the state human resources department the economy deering says the numbers reflect a typical seasonal kansas pattern the construction industry hiring the bulk of new workers of the more than one point three million kansas workers only fifty four thousand are without jobs and kerry expects the number of unemployed to stay low in the coming months for kansas public radio i'm russell lewis we know

that the numbers on carbon and that is bob kerrey who is one of the leading lights of the democratic party in congress is expected to be just the first of many national political figures who will converge on kansas this election year k u political scientist burdett loomis we have to work reasonably competitive senate seats three a competitive house seats and so i think it can't as democrats think it's republicans can make a new treaty for our national help and have a farm pretty sympathetic years as sally thompson campaign is working on bringing senate minority leader tom daschle to kansas they're also trying to book former texas governor ann richards for a campaign appearance meanwhile the republicans are also actively blocking of their top names but with the gop presidential nominee bob dole expected to revisit

kansas several times before the fall the republican candidates won't have to work very hard to get a tv show out with their leading political figure the big question though is whether president clinton will make kansas this year i honestly i think that bill clinton will see most of kansas from about thirty thousand feet this year k u political scientist burdett loomis says kansas will be low on the president's list of priorities as he works hard for his own re election bid the best kansas can expect gomez says is a short trip from the first lady the kansas public radio this is mccain's reporting the san diego a celebration for privileged people reminds me of some medicine i recently gave my dog park we're meeting they sure did a good job of sanitizing their sleeves if you just watched it on television you'd only see the predefined front they put on for show you wouldn't hear how they want a constitutional amendment to outlaw all abortions

even in case of rape or incest even to save the life of the mother this is despite the fact that a majority of republicans as well as a majority all americans are pro choice you wouldn't hear how the tobacco companies the richest and best protected drug pushers in america are giving their highest campaign education's in history most of the two republican candidates you also wouldn't hear about the huge contributions from any other corporate sponsor like the drug and insurance companies whose large stacks of cash ensured that congress including many democrats will defeat any substantial health care reform like when they kicked president clinton's teeth him for trying to fulfill his campaign promises to get insurance for thirty seven million americans you would hear them to reclaim the need to get government out of our business but evidently they regarded as the government's place to be in a doctor's office to control a woman's right to abort a pregnancy and in the hospital to control a person's right to die with

dignity and in our living rooms in case a person wants to smoke a joint in the privacy of their own home and in our bedrooms in case an adult was to sleep with someone of the same gender yes freedom was a big theme of this report and convention freedom according to bear rules and it's important to understand just how gleefully the radical religious wrong would trample our constitutional rights if they have their way now they already control the gop even though their numbers are less than one third of the party it's amazing how little of this reality filtered through the prime time viewing mostly the speeches were pious platitudes about god and freedom in america when colin powell got off the cliches and talk about political issues he sounded more like a democrat advocating affirmative action abortion rights he got no applause when he mentioned ending corporate welfare of course black republicans are

at best delusional to begin with only two percent of the delegates were black and with good reason it's been a long long time since the republican party has done squat for blacks that goes for gay republicans as well and when you come right down to any minority except the poor endangered rich white males bob dole give a cold and cool mc overly long acceptance speech that did nothing to overcome his images and minogue foley he's trying to tell us the same fairytale that reagan told about tax cuts and supply side prosperity even though he has spoken against that foolishness for years there are two big differences now the voters gave reagan his chance and he got us trillions of dollars in debt so they are not likely to fall for it again the other differences the door has zero charisma it includes many flaws what persuaded voters to go with don't we can be sure that buchanan is already running for president in the year two thousand with a party in the extreme right wing's control he might just get the nomination they

can paper over their true nature forever bob dole pointed out the exits to those who believe the party isn't open to every race and religion but those delegates were honest there would've been a stampede out of the hall this is franklin the lawsuit filed in shawnee district court target six major tobacco companies and related entities the suit claims both the addictive quality of nicotine and tobacco marketing aimed at children are the principle reasons for the high number of tobacco related deaths attorney general carla stovall says more than four thousand kansans die every year from smoking while more than eleven thousand children take up the habit i'm filing a thing because the tobacco industry i believe is engaged in a lawful act including negligence still conspiracy deceptive consumer practice isn't that has violated state anti trust lies stovall says the state pays about one hundred million dollars a year through medicaid to treat smoking related illnesses although she didn't put a dollar figure

on the amount they could get she said it could be more than a half billion dollars kansas is the eleven state to file lawsuits against the tobacco industry by russell lewis at the statehouse flanked by more than three dozen children attorney general carlos stovall began her remarks by saying the lawsuit is not about freedom of choice but rather targeting an industry that she says has violated multiple state and federal laws it's greed for money and grooms children for its future profits rename your everywhere and classes in magazines and newspapers and on many many other birds the fact is to convey to young people to tobacco use is desirable it is socially acceptable to say it's healthy it's in society and what they often tell it and people and that had testified in

front of them as a smoking is addictive and at least of cardiovascular disease when cancer emphysema and the debt stovall estimates the state spends more than one hundred million dollars a year on smoking related illnesses the suit filed in shawnee district court will attempt to get back millions of dollars spent over the years on medical treatment kansas is the eleventh state to sue the tobacco industry at least a half dozen more expected to do so in the near future stovall says it's time to get tough with big tobacco and that's why she filed the suit the tobacco industry i believe is engaged in an unlawful conduct including negligence still conspiracy to sets of consumer practices and that has violated state antitrust laws as a direct result of those violations their products and killed more cancers the aides homicide suicide i'm a real access and drug and alcohol use combined an estimated four thousand kansans die each year from smoking related illnesses but the

bigger problem according to stonewall is more than eleven thousand children pick up the habit annually and she says there's one reason for that advertising stovall says the tobacco industry spends more than six billion dollars a year promoting the product and a good portion of that is aimed at children such as the colorful cartoon character joe camel whenever my primary reasons for filing his lawsuit is to hold the aggressive marketing of cigarette products to our young people start to get attention of our young people to try to get to the advertising the glamour races used to teenagers unlike other states such as mississippi where the governor and attorney general disagree whether the state should sued tobacco companies canada's governor bill graves is banking attorney general carlos stovall even to the tune of working with the legislature to find extra money to fund the fight she had come seeking my permission she came to advise me and for me of what he was intending to do and as i said i'm i am supportive of my attorney general i think

that if she has decided this is the best interest to stay i will i certainly trust kansas's lawsuit is similar to other states and that the attorney general's office won't actively work on the case instead to private firms will handle most of the litigation on a contingency basis meaning if the state loses it won't cost residents anything but if kansas wins the fertile get a small percentage of the winnings which could run as high as a half billion dollars stovall says cases of this magnitude drag on for years and type resources so there's no value to letting state employees get involved to a corpsman is the program director for the kansas chapter of the american lung association we're really interested in seeing the kids not begin smoking advocates are smoking to stop and we think that if the tobacco industry is something instead of that the advertising that they came toward the children act that will really help the kids the tobacco industry has consistently fought legal attempts spending billions of dollars in the process and dragging out legal proceedings for years

tobacco executives maintain their product is not addictive the state lawsuits amount to nothing more than an extra tax on tobacco in the industry has sued some states who have filed against them saying the lawsuits are unconstitutional but state officials are optimistic that several recent court decisions will help their case two weeks ago in jacksonville florida jury davis seven hundred fifty thousand dollar judgment against a tobacco company for causing health problems to a smoker and in another case the liquor company a smaller tobacco for admitted their product is addictive and give ten million dollars to five states to repay medicaid costs stovall says if the kansas lawsuit goes to court it will be at least three years before it actually gets their i'm russell willis at the statehouse last week at the republican national convention in san diego kansas governor bill graves told reporters he may not seek a second term in nineteen ninety eight that announcement stirred gop faithful who are enjoying great his approval rating as high as eighty percent grace

last week it said changing priorities in his life such as his newly adopted daughter put politics in perspective but speaking with reporters tuesday graves cleared up any misinterpretation and in fact the osceola wanted to interview if you want to assess the scenarios under which i my god i would rate them from warner to the most exhilarating scenarios under which i see myself running again you can probably rate them as much as eight nine or even tan gray says he has fund raiser activities underway as well as policy and political analysis to set the stage for his possible run for reelection grey says is as intent for now to run in nineteen ninety eight but that may change i'm russell lewis at the statehouse our effort is to get comparable helpful information that's an awful user friendly into their hands before they go into the marketplace and trying to purchase insurance products

folk says the democrat from here in kansas statehouse i voted against raising the speed limit i worried about highway deaths and the freedom to risk life with speed isnt in our constitution besides a federal mandate a fifty five mph was already stretched to sixty five on interstate and lose unfortunate that most kansans grow upwards of seventy mph a few times kansas nearly lost highway funding because studies showed too many other for speeding and then and only then you'd see jerry dot unmarked police scarf county sheriffs and highway patrol swarming our highways like maybe he's attracted to the honey of federal dollars this summer i haven't seen much patrolling of the road i travel and i've traveled the speed limit signs are changed along with the attitude about speedy one day ago the turnpike east from lawrence at a steady seventy mph and in twenty miles i was passed by a dozen

car i passed only one around here it is much better was like the old days smiled claude anderson as he returned from a spin in his nineteen fifty nine cadillac he slammed the door and big bugs off the headlights this car was built for speed he reminded me now if only guess would go down to around thirty cents a gallon i wished traffic fatalities would go down i said the first of just days after raised the speed limits for march and april showed increases traffic fatalities in both kansas and missouri well i for one am glad it's a free country and i'm glad to have the federal government off my back said call well seems we've tried to the federal government on our back for every fellow kansan in a car on our tails i said where speeds crazed blamed switching tailgating bunch of dry why it's as though the whole state is auditioning for los angeles

you always exaggerates a glossy photo challenge him on that and we agree on a test we told wichita and headed northeast on the turnpike i cranked my will drop to seventy and caught a ball into the passing lane only he didn't pass the two of us drove side by side at the new kansas believe it a truck barreled up behind this flashing light cardboard down from behind honking and drivers throwing frustrated hands in the air at the first rest area several cars activated sped past the coastal on the party's trying unsuccessfully to have is all of the bass just before employ seventy seven miles from wichita called finally passed me the accumulated traffic behind us was forty seven trucks one two and three trailer rigs swiping by caused airline and sixty four cars one of them was a highway patrol lights flashing cotton i pulled over

or cotton are near gotten to get he said to a stern lecture about traffic flow welcome to the new kansas i said it's a bumper car paradise out here all right and many blood but since it's my right i'll speed like a new engine go head eyes and speed and i figure i am privileged in this state where you have legislators think that living in a free country means life you become cheaper every day the new welfare law ends a six decade federal guarantee to the poor to provide assistance and it encourages recipients to become more independent and reinforce parental responsibility the measure turns control of welfare over to the states limits lifetime benefits to five years and requires adults to begin working after two years in kansas officials say the legislation will mean positive changes carney hubble is with the department of social and rehabilitation services after a couple years of all of the large increase in funding and we may carry

some of the dollar over from your years it will be to put together a five year plan to bet you that the dollar they can to repay the federal government ever well i think they've report that wi fi and how carefully the program howell says their case loads had been going down since nineteen ninety four which means the state will get more to spend on job programs for welfare recipients the state is scheduled to get about one hundred million dollars a year for the next five years and she says it's likely the state will see more in the future for kansas public radio i'm russell lewis the herbarium of the university of kansas is a morgue care law the corpses of four hundred thousand great plans plans my god it is botanist greg freeman tall lean and mustached his tone is as flat as a tour dates but there's an unmistakable intensity a friend has told me that the intensity drives a hot magma of emotions to the service whenever craig loses a credible i like all the herbarium the morgue because the rows and rows of steel cabinets full of dead

plants and folders credit isn't entirely happy with my apply minorities place however scientists use these vegetal states to trace the family tree of plant life on earth was doubly cabinet to stare at records craig special interest he studies the lines of connection among various pieces in the desert southwest and mexico so the reporter attractive he says summers ugly as a monk fans that the next cabinet an awful smell pours out he jokes who of the wet dog and hair beard tugging specimens stink the plant he says gets its name from harry filament within its flour another cabinet contained plans that require special coffins care for example are duckweed plants retrieved from standing or slow running water they're so small three hundred elephant and a half inches of snow mustard jar the impact of run mcgregor

for whom the herbarium is named extends far beyond the forty thousand personally collected specimens of calm flowers mcgregor was ancestor to generations of graduate students and producer of two major works of great plains floor the man has a bottling grasp of the thirty five hundred dairy plants flowering plant species craig says you can join any plant from north dakota to texas from the rocky mountains to eastern kansas and who at least get it into the genius craig himself aspires to be a walking field guide and getting there he says it occurs to me that he's playing a game of racquetball against himself there herbariums clients are as diverse as its collections such as academics they include law officers working crime scenes need to identify plants and state officials who an early warning about emerging many pasts craig fails to mention one of his roles i hear about it from his racquetball body who says craig's called on to conduct environmental studies that are related to new development he can go out there and tell you which plants in the pad the

road are rare and which ones aren't craig has a strong feeling for what's been lost and no i'm not talking about rocket ball you sense that in the way he described the kansas landscape from yesteryear he says go back to the aging fifties or eighteen sixties and just imagine the settlers were walking through town and broken landscape as close as you can get and that was in the foothills what would have had unlike your fancy nothing prairie forest i was in washington the other day and i needed to score some doping and so naturally i stopped by the white house george li imam they pulled me into the gerald ford mark closet to blow a joint was from chiapas rubble read we didn't inhale much course it doesn't take much to their rival red to get you fly man we were laughing like children when chelsea stopped by to show us her school science project a crystal meth lab in the interest of objective scientific inquiry we can get

our own personal testing and chelsea's methodology where russia man i mean we found this cleanse experiment to be provable and provable to the closet spinning man and i don't know if it was the stuff or was that suddenly this little cloud appeared above us and we heard the voice of eleanor roosevelt from beyond the pale year should be ashamed of the ghost get busy get back to work she scolded oh man she was really bring us down but then another cloud a darker one formed and we saw this crusty old guy with a dark beard and he said get lost your bat anybody got a drink it was ulysses s grant so leon pulled out his hip flask and ended up mailing it was spooky have a flask just seemed to move myself to live a wispy cloud with the bearded about the beer bull booger ceiling grant took a long pole and another that let out a headset a growl abel as good liquor

and nobody give me during says nixon laid bare slab are tricky dick schumann narrative didn't is hallowed hash so a cloud of dust with a big old craggy faced talking in a texas drawl guinness way general not been for all and doped up in yankee perched just like these are mature i were gone on for another term or the great society suddenly the light flickered on a small white cloud shone brightly know you should realize that you brought on your own downfall said the handsome stately phrase i couldn't believe it was thomas jefferson unrest with a visit to this humble monk class as i wrote more than two hundred years ago the people who were right even a duty to rebel against tyranny just as we have a right to pursue happiness sages those have any more of that help well as was so far out man so we smoked of some or clowns among them up some buckets it was starting to get cat a crowded in there when eleanor drifted down to four and before we knew

it she dumped a big jug of bleach all over the floor let's see how you then she said oh that bleach was strong i couldn't even get a buzz of them and so we are cleared out of their first i went running down the hall but i was paranoid get caught so i ducked in a doorway it was the john f kennedy memorial orgy wrong but it wasn't no ghosts i saw this time there was a bill the prayers themselves men under the covers were two ladies warren hillary and i don't think they were lobbying and municipal itself as bad down the hall but the tour is largely cut through rose garden tomatoes clean of the grounds and it is that i was at my back to kansas afterwards kind of made me think i might even get this stuff live in kansas is hallucinating this

is funny what you remember about the day you lose your job i noticed the sunbeam slanting across the bibi's desk as he mumbled i'm sorry you do good work but the ordinary noise of the company we treated like a railroad train slowly whistle down a track and the peaceful ways became a rumble that had no meaning words that like a pattern wasn't really losing my job to draw my overtime and loyalty the awards at one that epa stood up i stood up he shook my hand i walk carefully back my office like someone balancing books on her head not looking at anyone else i close my office door and slumped behind my desk i become a statistic made real downsized outsized and i was angry i didn't deserve to lose my job but what does deserve have to do with that

massive corporate layoffs even from profitable companies have made losing your job almost commonplace look at the numbers fifty thousand for sears twenty eight thousand for boeing and who can forget it and he's forty thousand the company's chairman robert allen was quoted the old contract you know the one job security exchange for oil hard work you'll contract doesn't exist anymore said alan you did you still hold your job you're probably shouldering more responsibility with no more authority of money just a nervous uncertainty sometimes could i be next uncertainty breeds fear and beer breeds anger ex employees have been known to shoot people that's why i say to get along in the nineties your best business strategy is what i call the god director f as in forgiveness forgiveness does so and so still deserve forgiveness but hey deserve has nothing to do with that deserve implies fairness i forgive you because you take my part and the real reason to forgive is that is

healthier than carrying a grudge the x factor is a state of mind that replenishing the energy in the sense of inner peace was still buy into the code of hammurabi an eye for an eye appropriate justice as one business colleague said to err is human to forget the day it's not in my job description but the attacker does it mean giving in it means getting on getting on with life it's not admitting one person's right in the other is wrong it means searching for truth that lies beyond the parent situation it doesn't happen overnight but munns processing my anger and grief when i lost my job we play my last meeting with the bp greeting and the stalks of my mind right his words scathing words eventually though i gave it up gandhi helped me do it during one of his prison terms while they worked to free india from british rule a reporter as gandhi if you could say in five words how to find inner peace i can say an increase

of gandhi rebounds and enjoy it takes time and a strong desire to renounce resentment and hurt yet still the effect reminds us we can choose our reaction to life sentence in steven spielberg's hit movie schindler's list shimmer tells announcing work at common and that real power doesn't come from firing a gun will power he says is partly in a person who has no power or doesn't deserve it in an era of rapid business change the x factor is a power tool that empowers us to leave behind the hurt the anger and to make the most of the rest of our lives and you said it very well read outs and enjoy in the september edition of money magazine due out soon every member of congress's rated on how they voted on twenty different economic and personal finance issues which the magazine claims directly affect your wallet everything from increasing the minimum wage to repealing the gas

tax the survey found that kansas congressman pat roberts voted sixty seven percent of the time in favor of those pocketbook issues surprisingly senator nancy kassebaum came in second among the kansas delegation with a sixty percent voting record while kassebaum is often labeled as being more liberal than a fellow republican colleagues money magazine hailed the retiring senator as a great to defend their of america's pocketbooks than the more conservative talk to heart or some brownback they both scored a fifty eight percent rating along with outgoing third district congresswoman jan meyers their ratings though all relative bottom of the money magazine list is congressman exhibit at the sahara as a democrat from california who's twenty five percent rating as indian the title of washington's biggest spendthrift for kansas public radio this is mccain's reporting when the

gop event in san diego for their convention the kansas delegation was seated front and center cheering on presidential nominee and home state candidate bob dole in chicago the kansas delegates are hard to find and sandwiched at the very back between american samoa and quan kansas is also being shortchanged in terms of speakers well several top republicans from kansas spoke in san diego only third district congressional candidate judy hancock was invited to address the entire democratic convention and that was just for three minutes unless them prestigious for thirty time slot yesterday afternoon the third district that kansas is not part of iraq are informed by geography we reject mainstream get rejected and then and we share the desire of all americans are returning to commonsense civility and mainstream values in our

government meanwhile kansas governor bill graves is also in chicago this week he was chosen by the republican national committee to be part of a gop truth squad a team of top republicans will offer quick responses to any democratic charges that came out of the convention the kansas public radio this is mccain's reporting folks i o mold and i drove along the santa fe trail value as fifty six to santa fe we kept bumping into france's go twice as big or not all he is commemorated in the museum at lyons kansas his partners reached north and he is mentioned at the pentagon's national monument near because new mexico the side of a pueblo he visited early in his trip there he probably heard the first tales of glitter of civil law and the seven cities of gold as i too or debate goes monument a young men asked me where i was from kansas i said the blaze gore not open ended up in his search for

gold this fellow could hardly contain his mars didn't find much and all day he's been fined not get anything i said nothing to say i'm used to such comments they made me to say like both corn i know and all the other an appreciative dollars to have traveled kansas sure are not all had his prime right in kansas would be ideal in the production of all the agricultural products of spain but he also kill the indian guide who let him hear an audio only kansan to probe the changes in the committee's detours armor are boards of burned corn auto into a buffoon for his greek shortsightedness about our state eugene where protocol are not always incapable of the quiet deeds to sow the seeds from which empire grow like magic he could not make a desert quick and kerry campbell agreed or not it was one of the many who failed to see the true wealth can this is hear their

core not ok and lusting after precious stones around him was the fiery desert wastes white and everywhere with blogs and the supporter addressed the core an auto directly comparing gold to white corn auto you came to sit and seeking those cities paved with gold here as i stand in a blazing noon of kansas day there is unrolled furlough acre miles around knee deep a carpet of warm gold scenes tours to kansas or so hell bent on what they wished they'd see their blind to the value of what they do see victor can cost the road cardona wanders in from santa fe blindfolded his outstretched hand feeling for gold and touching corn stubble ronald johnson reminds corn auto that the ovarian indians said where you

are now is of great importance folks where are the people who will counter all the core not ours in the national media when kansas is labeled fly over country or when we're rated by the corn on i was asked by a magazine as the flatness most boring state in the nation home of the world's longest car trip i seventy from kansas city to dinner on how folks i'll be an honorary co chair in and say what i should have said to the young man and because new mexico i'll paraphrase our finest poet william stafford and ask people to take off their comedies did or helmets smelly and feel the sun begin to be a friend find the richest city along as and says we need to understand that where we are now is of great importance at an afternoon news conference attorney general

carla stovall criticized the kansas city kansas hospital for allowing problems to exist in the facility during the nineteen ninety four ninety five among the findings the hospital during a forty month period consistently refused to accept your heart's was in jeopardy of cancellation told some patients they had been added to a heart transplant waiting list when they had not and for two of those months know surgeon was available to perform heart transplants attorney general kosovo it's beyond my comprehension that a distinguished institution with a reputation in stature at the university of kansas medical center could allow this kind of egregious behavior to take place university's blatant disregard for the health and welfare of its patients is unconscionable stovall says the mann center the university and two foundations associated with the heart transplant program have agreed to settle alleged violations of the kansas consumer protection act she says they will pay two hundred sixty five thousand dollars in compensation and penalties for kansas public radio i'm russell lewis

it's been our determination that if it happened because there were very unclear lines of supervisory authority people pointing fingers as to whose responsibility was to do to take action when a problem was discovered and they were frankly disagreements within the structure ok you've and center as to what level of staffing was required