The Hays Daily News from Hays, Kansas • Page 3

SUNDAY MAY 2,2004 REGION AND STATE THE HAYS DAILY NEWS A3 Region City to discuss land swap with county for road The Ellis County Commission will meet at 8:45 a.m. Monday at the courthouse, 1204 Fort. First on the agenda, Butch Schlyer, county health administrator will discuss a personnel matter. At 9 a.m., John Braun, Hays assistant public works director, will talk about a land swap for the extension of General Hays Road from Cody to 22nd. Due to an alignment error, the city is asking for 3,300 square feet of county land.

In return, the city would deed the county 2,600 square feet. Commissioners want to know how much the 700- square feet difference of land is worth. At 9:10 a.m., Mike Graf, county public works administrator, will present his weekly report. Next, the commission will discuss union negotiations. At 10 a.m., Bob Weigel, Hays Daily News circulation manager, will talk about placing a newsstand at the courthouse.

Ellis City Council to talk about water study results The Ellis City Council will meet in regular session at 7:30 p.m. Monday. On the agenda are a presentation of a proposal on street sealing repairs by Stripe and Seal and a discussion on water study findings and recommendations from Rusty Redding of Layne Western. The public works department will present a summary of bids for a loader and lease purchase financing along with its recommendations. The public works department will also review sewer equipment repairs and a truck ordinance and discuss the generator at the sewer plant.

Council members will consider a proposal for additional summer help and an application for a private well permit. The council will review and consider approval of sale of fireworks permit application. Building inspection services will be discussed and an applipar r) fpr local incentivefffor new business will be considered. Council members will make annual appointments to cemetery and library boards and discuss the alley in the 200 block of Jefferson. Kansas Family finds body of missing man in creek LA CYGNE (AP) The body of a man who was reported missing almost a month ago was discovered in a creek hours after family and friends began searching Saturday afternoon.

Alonzo Brooks, 23, of Gardner, was last seen at a party on April 4 near La Cygne in eastern Kansas. The 51-member search party found the body in a creek about 2 p.m. Saturday, said Alvin Brooks, a spokesman for Move Up, an urban progress group in Kansas City. Brooks, who is not related to the victim, said the body was being taken to medical examiners in Topeka. Brooks said it was possible Alonzo Brooks, who was black, might have been the target of a hate crime based on his race.

Witnesses at the party where Alonzo Brooks was last seen heard other people at the party use a racial epithet and say he "won't get out of here alive," Alvin Brooks said. The Linn County Sheriff's department and other agencies including the FBI have been investigating the case. Those departments searched fields and bodies of water after the disappearance. Days after the authorities' initial search, Brooks said a group of loved ones conducted a similar search and found a hat and shoes belonging to the victim. Move Up held a news conference and prayer vigil Saturday for the family after the body was found.

Corrections The Hays Daily News staff takes care with its reporting and writing. But if we make a mis-, take, we want to know about it so we can let readers know the correct information. We encourage readers who find an error to contact us at (785) 628-1081. Ask for Doug Weller, executive editor, or Mike Corn, managing editor, or e-mail the editors at or Senate adopts proposed gay marriage ban By JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS TOPEKA Senators on Saturday adopted a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution to ban gay marriage, leaving House passage as the only remaining obstacle to putting the measure on the November ballot. The vote was 27-13, exactly the two- thirds majority required for approval of a proposed constitutional change.

The House plans to vote Monday. The proposed addition to the Kansas Constitution states that Kansas solely rec-' ognizes marriage between one man and one woman and denies the benefits of marriage to other domestic arrangements for example, a same-sex civil union. More than two hours of intense debate preceded the Senate vote, with proponents arguing that the amendment would safeguard important and long-cherished values that underpin American society. "I believe that the people asking for this are not hateful people," said Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita.

"This is providing what's best for the people of Kansas." Opponents contended the amendment would enshrine discrimination in the state constitution. "I care about it because I think it strikes at the very nature of freedom," said Sen. David Adkins, R-Leawood, the only senator to have publicly declared support for gay marriage. just think Kansas is better than this." The proposed amendment states: "The marriage contract is to be considered in law as a civil contract. Marriage shall be constituted by one man and one woman only.

All other marriages are declared to be contrary to the public policy of this state and are void. "No relationship other than a marriage be recognized by the state as entitling the parties to the rights or incidents of marriage." Kansas already has a statute on its books declaring the state's policy of recognizing marriage only as the union of one man and one woman. Some legislators believe the policy should also be written into the Kansas Constitution, which would make it harder for a court or future Legislature to revise the policy. House and Senate negotiators spent two days wrangling over the explanatory note that would accompany the amendment on the ballot. They settled on language explaining that defeating the amendment would keep the statute in effect, but that it could be amended by legislators in the future or modified by court decisions.

Gay marriage opponents also want to prevent future consideration by the Legislature of civil unions, arguing that granting the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples would render a gay marriage ban meaningless. "Society depends upon a man and a woman marrying and procreating and raising those children," said Sen. Ed Pugh, R- Wamego. "History has shown that's the way societies prosper." Sen. Robert Tyson said his constituents want to amend the constitution because, "Our values are slowly slipping away." "We see the Ten Commandments taken out of the courtroom in other states," said Tyson, R-Parker.

"We see prayer being taken out of our schools." Minority Leader Anthony Hensley and some other critics said the amendment was unnecessary of Kansas' existing marriage law. Hensley acknowledged the proposed amendment might be popular with his constituents. "If this is the one vote that will cost me my re-election, I can guarantee you I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, because I know that by casting a vote against this constitutional amendment, I'm doing the right thing," said Hensley, D-Topeka. The vote generally divided along partisan lines, with 24 Republicans in favor and seven Democrats voting against the measure. But six Republicans and three Democrats broke from their parties' positions.

Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood, had been among the Senate's negotiators on the bill and had the duty of presenting it to the chamber. But he voted against it, urging col- SENATE ROLL CALL The Senate voted 27-13 Saturday to adopted a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and to deny the benefits of marriage to other domestic arrangements such as same-sex civil unions. A "yes" vote was a vote for the proposed amendment. A "no" vote was a vote against it.

The measure needed a two-thirds majority, or 27 votes, to pass. Of the 30 Republicans, 24 voted "yes" and six voted "no." Of the 10 Democrats, three voted "yes" and seven voted "no." Senators representing northwest Kansas Stan Clark, R-Oakley, Larry Salmans, R-Hanston, and Janis Lee, D-Kensington all voted "yes." leagues to "shed the politics of this issue." "This is an issue you should decide based on what your heart and your conscience tell you," he said. "It's not worth serving in this body if you can't follow your heart and your conscience." Marriage amendment is HCR 5005. On the Net: Kansas Legislature: www. kslegislature.

org Woman finds life's purpose in native land By JOY LEIKER HAYS DAILY NEWS She gave up her executive salary and moved into a smaller home. Now Binh Rybacki travels the country and asks strangers for money. It sounds like a strange path, even to Rybacki. A few years ago she never would have dreamed of a life without a good-paying job and large house. But woman born in Vietnam took a life- (f changing trip back to her native in 1993.

She was asked to accompany and translate for'a group'of'Ahiericari physicians Vietnam so they could teach doctors how to perform open-heart surgery. At the time, she was working as an engineer for Hewlett Packard. When she got to Vietnam, she wasn't prepared for what she'd find. At the hospital, there were rats running across the floor of the intensive care unit where doctors planned to do surgery. There were children sleeping on the sidewalks, and others working as peddlers or prostitutes.

It made her sick. "It finally dawned on me that I was so stupid." She thought her life had been tough. In 1975, her first year of college, she and her family fled Saigon as Communists took over. They all escaped her parents and her brother and sister. When she came to the United States, she got a job and got married.

As time went on, she acquired all the things that most people want a family, a career, a large home. She and her husband, Jack, have two sons Preston, 23, and Spencer, 14. There was no reason for her to think about Vietnam, and there certainly was no reason to go back there. "I was oblivious to pain," she said. But in 1987, there was trouble in the picture-perfect Rybacki family.

She and Jack's second son, Garrett, was born with an incurable enzyme deficiency. He lived only seven months. For the first time, she remembers feeling pain. "I had no idea how anything could be any more painful than that," she said. "I had no idea why he died." Doctors couldn't give her an answer.

No one could. It just didn't make sense. She tried to settle back into her world of work and as a wife and mom, but she didn't feel right. She didn't know what she was supposed to be doing with her life. Six years later, she was asked to return to Vietnam, and she decided to go.

Being there, she finally figured out what she was supposed to learn from her son Garrett's short life. "I was supposed to feel for everybody else's pain," she said. It took only that one trip for Rybacki to know she had to do something for the children who remained in Vietnam. JAMIE ROPER Hays Daily News Children of Peace founder Binh Rybacki ennumerates executionable offenses in Vietnam following the end of the war, including the ability to speak English. Rybacki's foundation in Vietnam cares for 4,500 orphaned children.

Committee tussles over immigrant tuition bill By SARAH KESSINGER HARRIS NEWS SERVICU She started with the 27 children a Vietnamese nun was already caring for. Now, there are 4,500 children. Babies are abandoned at birth due to poverty. Eight out of 10 people in Vietnam don't make enough money to cross the line of poverty. And women can only have two children.

Any others are killed. 'Those who do survive are forced to work as prostitutes to survive. Most children don't go to school, and those with handicaps are abandoned. "If you don't live in Hanoi or Saigon they don't care if you can read or write," she said. Soon after Rybacki's trip to her home land, she founded the Children of Peace, an organi- zation that has built schools, medical clinics and orphanages.

Children of Peace's services have helped more than 4,500 children. Rybacki's work actually used to be a little bit easier. When she was working for Hewlett Packard, her whole salary went toward the organization's projects. But two years ago she was part of a mas- 'Am I supposed to be impressive? I don't think so. I'm just too dense.

I was just a pitiful person before. 1 Binh Rybacki, founder, Children of Peace. sive layoff. Her family was lucky, she said, because they had already adjusted to a life on only her husband's income. But she didn't want to give up on her organization, or on the 200,000 homeless children in Vietnam.

She runs the organization that now includes 200 paid staff and almost as many volunteers from her kitchen table in Loveland, Colo. Her two sons grew up sharing a bedroom with bunk beds so that one bedroom could be used as an office. Now, she spends almost every weekend on the road, speaking to civic groups and organizations. This weekend she told her story in Hays to the northwest Kansas Rotary Clubs that were meeting in Hays. She tells her story, but she really wants the stories of the Vietnamese children to be heard.

"Am I supposed to be impressive? I don't think so," Rybacki said. "I'm just too dense. I was just a pitiful person before." On the Web: www.chlldrenofpeace.org Reporter Joy Leiker can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 136, or by e-mail at AARP Plans Medicare town hall meeting BY THE HAYS DAILY NEWS On May 13, the AARP Hays Chapter will participate in AARP's Day of Service by offering a Medicare town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at the Country Kitchen, 3203 Vine.

A three-member panel will discuss the new Medicare prescription drug law and answer questions. Panel members will be Frank Campbell, health insurance specialist from the Kansas City Center for Medicare-Medicaid Service, Bill Dirks, state advocacy leader for district 144 and a pharmacist from U-Save Pharmacy. Harry Watts, AARP community service volunteer, will moderate the meeting. AARP Kansas' Mary Tritsch, associate state director for community service, and Earnest Kutzley, associate state director for will attend the meeting. Enrollment for the Medicare approved drug discount card begins and the card becomes active on June 1.

There will be upwards of 40 different national cards 'and an additional 35 cards that can be used in different parks'of the coilntry. Accessing card information to make a decision of card will serve prescriptipn drug needs best could be a difficult and time-consuming process. AARP's Day of Service Signifies AARP's commitment to community service. Sixty-five percent of AARP members volunteer in their communities and this day celebrates the efforts of its members. This day began as a response to the tragic events of Sept.

11, 2001, and now shows the power of volunteer service. In 2003, volunteers participated in AARP's Day of Ser vice projects, contributing 24,500 hours of service. Refreshments will be served. Seating attendance will be lira ited to the first 225 attendees. TOPEKA Legislative negotiators continued to haggle Saturday over a budget amendment that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition.

House chief negotiator Melyin opposed the amendment, suggested the Senate try to pass another 1 bill 6n'the''is'sue''6n Monday. Newton Sen. Christine Downey, ranking Democrat negotiator, said that if the chamber agreed to address it again, then Senate negotiators would remove the tuition amendment from the Legislature's final budget bill. The amendment allows one year of in-state tuition rates for undocumented students who have studied at a Kansas high school at least five years and has graduated. It requires the student and parents sign an affidavit that they will apply for legal status once they are eligible.

Neufeld said a few bright students who were undocumented immigrants in his district had attended college and paid the much higher out-of-state tuition rates. He asked if the state would ose money by allowing such students to pay in-state tuition. Downey said likely more students would be able to afford college that way and it could mean more money for universities rather than less. In addition, she said, the state would benefit in the long term from the higher earning power of immigrants who earn a college degree. Kansas immigrant students who have testified in support of the bill said they wanted to afford college so they could study architecture, medicine and other well- paid professions.

"That's certainly better than working at Sonic, dry cleaners or whatever," Downey said. The big picture of the legislation, she added, is that more students will be able to attend college and can become tax-paying citizens. Rep. Bill Feuerborn, D-Garnett, supported the amendment, saying that illegal immigrants attend public schools at no expense. "Do we want to limit them so that they can't afford college and can't pay the state back later as tax-payers?" Neufeld later asked if the Senate could try and pass a second immigrant tuition bill and send it to the House, where he said it would get a vote.

After the Senate passed an immigrant tuition bill earlier this session, House Speaker Doug Mays took extraordinary steps to suppress a vote in his chamber. Mays opposes state action to help illegal immigrant students. Supporters of the bill say it is unfair, to blame the students when their parents brought them into the country illegally. Reporter Sarah Kesslnger can be reached at (785) 354-7577 or by e- rnail at.