The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 23

VTA 1 i i'i mm 'SECTION Mayor Cleaver has good ideas about increasing mayoral powers without creating a boss mayor Yael Abouhalkah C-7 The Kansas City Star Metro Hindu KANSAS CITY AND THE REGION wwwkcstarconilocallocaLiitin Vote on casinos sought DePasco wants legalizing boats on November ballot By RICKALM Stan Writer More help sought to make cuts School district gets OK to hire consultant find better ways to save money By PHILLIP Staff Writer Gamblers spent a record amount last month at area casinos SfaxyB-l 7 i- a high degree of awareness of the casino bait-and-switch DePasco who heads a legislative committee on gambling matters said he introduced the measure reluctantly He said he would rather see the casino industry force the issue onto the ballot through citizen petitions which DePasco added the industry has told him privately it intended to do Duncan McKenzie president of the Missouri Riverboat Gaming Association and chief executive of Kansas Flamingo Hilton Casino said the industry is weighing its options He added that casinos typically are not unanimous on industry issues get it out of the the Kansas City Democrat said the House I kind of lose control of Rep Todd Akin a St Louis Republican and casino foe agrees If measure wins Senate approval and gets to the House floor for consideration Akin said he will be ready with a potentially crippling language change A Nov 29 ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court effectively outlawed games of chance including slot machines and roulette at 10 of the 16 riverboat casinos The ruling stated that those boats are not the Mississippi or Missouri rivers as required by the state constitution That set the current boats-in-moats contro versy in motion Slot machines generate about two-thirds of a typical Midwestern income and affected Missouri casinos have sued to block enforcement of the high new standard Akin said he will press not only for statewide voter approval but concurrent approval by voters in each of riverboat gambling communities That was the deal when voters first authorized gambling in 1992 and it be changed now Akin said have to go back to the local cities because this (DePasco amendment) is a different he said not so sure the House is going to be very favorable to this in the first Akin said A Kansas City lawmaker wants Missouri voters to decide in November whether to retroactively legalize casino riverboats moored in man-made moats The constitutional amendment roposed Wednesday by state en Ronnie DePasco also prohibits any future off-river gambling parlors DePasco acknowledges that the chance of passage by the General Assembly may be slim think I have enough votes to Ready for my close-up Mr DeMilleThe not-so-shy turkey took a close look at itself in a car mirror recently Getting a close look at the turkey were Don and Marie Henderson of Kansas City Kan below Photos by FRED BLOCHER The Star Gobbling up food attention turkey tracks down visitors for handouts at Wyandotte County Park By ANNE LAMOY Stall Writer Kansas City school administrators on Wednesday acknowledged they may have gone too far in proposing classroom budget cuts and got the school permission to hire a consultant to come up with a better idea Superintendent Henry Williams told the board that an outside expert could help the district determine the best way to endure what are expected to be traumatic reductions can make the Williams said of his staff question is whether the right The district is under court order to cut nearly $55 million from its annual budget to make up for the loss of more than $100 million in annual state desegregation payments now scheduled to end in 1999 Already in recent months board members cut $265 million by paring administration closing schools reducing transportation costs and other measures The district anticipates saving an additional $10 million in magnet program cuts Williams initially planned to generate most of the rest of the needed $18 million in savings by cutting about $17 million in instructional programs But when word of those proposed cuts leaked out at least one school protested at a board meeting Details of what programs would be saved were not discussed Wednesday night uncertain if those programs See CONSULTANT C-3 Col 1 Graves signs racetrack tax package By JOHN PETTERSON Topeka Correspondent cw GUSEWELLE Legend of the fall is growing BRECKENRIDGE Colo The day was wonderful with azure skies and a dusting of new snow the line of magnificent peaks all capped in white I was appreciating this from a novel perspective however airborne and upside down On television the falls suffered by Olympic skiers happen in a blinding instant followed immediately and painlessly by a commercial message But in real life the duration of the catastrophe actually is quite considerable Even as it is happening there is a great deal of time for observation reflection and self-reproach First I was able to notice not without a certain pleasure the sensation of temporary weightlessness Astronauts-in-training can achieve that state only briefly in special planes costing millions of dollars I had done it for the price of a lift ticket Next I considered my feet and skis which were directly above me nicely positioned against the blue of the heavens and a few drifting clouds I said to myself least I am not going to break a And still there was a bit more time aloft allowing me to reach the sensible conclusion that there are places on every mountain which a skier of a certain age and limited gifts would do better to avoid Then gravity delivered its blow A tall athletic fellow bent over me with an expression of profound pity His apparel I noticed was stunning He looked like just come back from winning the giant slalom at Nagano you all he asked think It came out a wheezy whisper I could use a hand getting My effects goggles hat ski poles were scattered on the slope below He helped me collect the litter and reassemble myself be he said -and glided away fluidly down between the bumps That night was bearable And when one is a guest one tries not to make a drama of bruises The next day was spent with a good book Then the problem worsened and at an awkward hour on toward midnight I was delivered to the mountain clinic skiing have said the young doctor as if amazed that this groaning derelict should ever have imagined himself fit for the enterprise Vital signs were normal take a the doctor said Minutes later he called from the other room in and have a look See here He pointed to my skeleton on the film fractured L-l The first lumbar vertebra See how The deformity was not so striking guess I see I said the problem is what I tell people I mean it sounds like an auto part If you come back with your leg in a cast you get some sympathy But if I say I broke my L-1 ask why I just get it fixed at a service The doctor had someone with altitude sickness in the next cubicle and I could see his attention was straying I could just say I broke my could say I will say The next day we set out for home 600-some miles on the interstate I was on the passenger side with the seat cranked aU the way down in the reclining posi- i tion are you asked my wife who was at the wheel I said some- one with a broken fractured she said I insisted broken backr Some people will do anything to get across Kansas without driving plenty of disagreement over the turkey begging food at Wyandotte County Park Some swear a male some say female Some say 18 pounds others 30 to 40 pounds Some say the dark mottled brown and black bird is definitely a wild turkey Others say wild turkeys eat out of hands People agree on one thing though: This turkey is one odd bird The turkey dubbed Henrietta runs right to people demanding food It stands still for petting and pecks at car windows and rearview mirrors at the park just north of 91st Street and Leavenworth Road Usually wild turkeys are skittish avoiding people whenever possible turkeys come up and eat out of your said Dan Lekie district wildlife biologist for the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Department The turkey used to roost in Riverside It was dropped off at the park earlier this year by Larry Meyer a Kansas City Kan resident who is public works director The turkey had been hanging around a Riverside retirement center chasing residents and stopping cars Meyer said It turned up when a family in the neighborhood put a live turkey in their yard just before Thanksgiving a couple of years ago Meyer said They figured it was a female and began calling it Henrietta Henrietta was tolerated until recently when it roosted beneath an ambulance and refused to leave when Meyer decided to relocate the gregarious bird Several years ago a dozen wild turkeys were released at the park said Mike Connor interim director of parks and recreation for the Unified Government of Wyandotte CountyKansas City Kan thought it would blend in with the other wild turkeys but this pretty Connor said real TOPEKA Gov Bill Graves predicted huge economic benefits and Unified Government Mayor Carol Marinovich exulted about the for Kansas City Kan and Wyandotte County The enthusiasm bubbled up Wednesday at a ceremony where Graves signed into law legislation that provides property and sales tax breaks that will make it easier to build a $252 million auto racing track in western Wyandotte County economic benefits will be immense not only for Wyandotte County and metropolitan Kansas City but for the entire state of Graves said Marinovich said the track might spawn an array of ventures been needing something to give us a jump-start on developing the Interstate 435 corridor and this is she said Souvenir copies of the legislation were distributed to a handful of local lawmakers members of the Unified Board of Commissioners and other officials who attended the ceremony in the office in the state Capitol Plans are to build the track north of Interstate 70 between 118th Street and Interstate 435 Under the best circumstances construction could begin in May with racing beginning in 2000 Healthy advice Sundvold coach of basketball team spoke about lifestyles as part of Giving Kids a Shot Week which is sponsored by and the Coaches vs Cancer program of the National Association of Coaches JULIE JACOBSONThe Star Not guilty plea Former Kansas City Fire Capt Christopher Kuehne pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge of manufacturing methamphetamine Jackson County Circuit Judge William Mauer allowed Kuehne 43 to remain free on a $25000 bond Fire Department officials said Wednesday that Kuehne who was arrested this month recently resigned Kansas City drug detectives received an anonymous tip that Kuehne was operating a methamphetamine laboratory in his house in the 6900 block of Scenic Drive Officers obtained a search warrant and found papers chemicals a photograph glassware and other equipment pertaining to a drug business court records said Joe Lambe Troublesome critters Groundhog Day has passed with Punxsutawney official word that six more weeks of winter are ahead But apparently his Excelsior Springs brethren hear the news Some folks there think the woodchucks have spring fever Lumbering around the banks of the Fishing River the critters are causing consternation among shopkeepers preparing for The Elms reopening this summer The animals might scare customers one merchant complained But people will have to share the river with the wildlife said Bobbie Hackett animal control officer Ruth Igoe After speaking to school-children about eating habits Jeff Tadtman coach of the basketball team at the University of Mis-souri-Kansas ve McDaniel 8 some basketball tips Wednesday at Bryant Elementary School 319 Westover Road Tadtman and Bob healthful restaurants Basketball Topeka anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps Sr has taken his campaign to Iraq For the last several days Phelps has been outside Foreign Relations Ministry building in Baghdad carrying placards condemning President Clinton homosexuality and a potential war against Iraq relatives said issue is not that Saddam Hussein is a great guy His issue is that this (disagreement over UN arms inspections in Iraq) our said Shirley Phelps-Roper daughter Sne said that her father would return late tonight and that other relatives were considering a similar trip next month Phelps is the head of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Judy Thomas I.