The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 52

FROM THE COVER Tuesday May 29 2001 A 4 THE KAN8A8 CITY STAR AID: Drug loss of education funding draws opposition Continued from A-l paid for my crimes had my license taken done community service Now I feel like I am being penalized Kris Sperry 23 who said he had to drop out of Arkansas State University in January because his financial aid had been cut off He had two misdemeanor convictions for possessing marijuana he said sistance to students hurt by the law It recently handed out its first award $600 to Kris Sperry 23 of Mountain Home Ark Sperry said he had to drop out of Arkansas State University in January because his financial aid had been cut off He had two misdemeanor convictions for possessing marijuana he said paid for my Sperry said had my license taken done community service Now I feel like I am being penalized Heller said he found it extremely hypocritical that President Bush who refused to answer questions in the campaign about possible drug use in his past was making students answer questions about drug convictions Bush likes to say that his educa tion plan calls for leaving no child behind Heller said a child trying to get his (college) education should not be left he said To reach Diane Carroll higher education reporter call (816) 234-7704 or send e-mail to dcarrollkcstarcom Statistics at the time showed that drug use among students was increasing Flood said Souder probably would be open to expanding the penalties to other crimes she said Flood said the law was affecting more applicants than intended because the Clinton administration had misinterpreted the law Administration officials set it up to include applicants for aid she said but Souder intended it to apply only to students already receiving aid She said her office was trying to work with the Bush administration to resolve that problem Under the law students who are convicted of possessing an illegal drug lose their loans grants and work assistance for a year from the date of their conviction A second conviction brings a two-year loss of aid a third an indefinite loss A person convicted of selling drugs for the first time loses aid for two years a second such offense leads to an indefinite loss Students can regain their eligibility by completing a drug rehabilitation program that includes at least two unannounced drug tests Students who apply for federal aid must fill out a lengthy form The drug issue is addressed in question 35 which asks whether the applicant has been convicted of a drug offense Last year 279000 applicants who did not answer the question received aid anyway This year Education Secretary Rod Paige and financial aid officers decided that those who refused to answer the question would not receive aid said Lindsey Kozberg of the US Department of Education Of the 5 million applicants whose forms were processed from Jan 1 through May 6 about 37 100 said they had had a conviction Of those 18800 became eligible after completing a worksheet that determined eligibility based on how long ago the crime occurred and whether the person had completed a rehabilitation program An additional 6700 are still being processed and 11600 were denied aid Education Department statistics show An additional 10000 left the question blank They will receive was thinking about pushing for a repeal resolution next fall Students at K-State said such a resolution was a long-term goal couldn't believe that the government was doing said K-State student Katherine Dinkel a junior who this semester helped organize a chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy another national group fighting the law Td rather go to school with someone smoking a joint than walk down a hallway with a rapist" The law which took effect last July was approved in 1998 as an amendment to the Higher Education Act Rep Mark Souder an Indiana Republican offered the amendment to hold accountable students who benefited from tax dollars said Angela Flood press secretary you are asking for and receiving financial aid then you have an obligation to maintain a certain standard of Flood said you are using and selling drugs you are not making the best use of the opportunity you have been notices stating that the question must be answered before the application can be processed About 5 million applications are yet to be processed for the 2001-2002 school year officials estimated Applications are checked against several databases for drug convictions If any part of the application is falsified the applicant can be prosecuted Mark Bresnahan student president at MU said the student government had voted 24-14 in favor of a resolution urging repeal of the law with five persons abstaining could see arguments on both said Bresnahan who did not have a vote on the matter Those who opposed repeal said students should not be wasting government money he said Students for Sensible Drug Policy has grown from two chapters two years ago to about 100 mostly because of growing opposition to the law said Shawn Heller the national director An additional 200 chapters are in the works he said US Rep Barney Frank a Massachusetts Democrat has introduced legislation to repeal the law Heller hopes it will pass next spring when the Higher Education Act comes up for reauthorization if not sooner group is trying to raise $100000 to provide financial as TRIP: President arrives in California Continued from A-l ourtesy of the St Louis Police Department DAVID PULLIAM The Kansas City Star The 1983 death of a girl whose decapitated body was found in the basement of a vacant St Louis apartment building at right has never been solved Leroy Adkins above the head of the St Ixiuis Police Homicide Division at the time recently visited the site The building has been torn down dience in March "Price controls do not increase supply and they do not encourage conservation Price controls contributed to the gas lines of the 1970s And the United States will not repeat the mistake Davis' energy advisers told reporters on a conference call Monday that without the cap California energy costs could be $50 billion higher this year than two years ago Alan Blinder the Princeton Univer sity economist and former Federa Reserve Bank vice chairman saic on the call that energy crisis be enough to get the attention of policy-makers in The visit by Bush is being managed carefully to avoid contact with the public After speaking to military families at Camp Pendleton this morning Bush plans to address a luncheon meeting of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council which has sold out of tickets at $75 for members and $85 for guests Afterward Bush will hold a closed-door session with business-people and then meet with Davis for 20 minutes As Bush departs Davis plans to make an immediate statement Davis says price caps are essen rial He has said he might sue th federal government in an effort get them if Bush did not go along Bush been helpful on number of small matters and I ap predate his Davis saic in a telephone interview last week the big enchilada is the prief of electricity" big step forward for electricity problems developed over a period of years and cannot be solved Abraham said in a news release "However we can move now on actions that will help avert the same types of problems from recurring year after His decision Monday is designed to reduce the botdeneck on Path 15 which connects the northern and the southern parts of the state Davis who is seeking re-election next year saw his poll ratings plummet as electricity prices soared utilities hit dire financial straits and homes and businesses were surprised with blackouts Bush has taken several steps to try to encourage additional power generation in the state But he has maintained since before he took office that problems were created in California through a troubled effort at electricity deregulation and public opposition to construction of additional power plants and would have to be solved in California Davis plans to lobby Bush once again to endorse a cap by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the wholesale price of electricity Again and again the administration has said it will not take that step "This administration does not and will not support energy price Bush told a business au KILLING: 1983 case still baffles St Louis Continued from A-l are the parents? Where are the brothers? Where are the sisters? there any relatives? Where are the neighbors? Where are the schoolmates? As much publicity as that ease got a classmate a teacher say: 'Where is Susie? not in school anymore But that never Adkins retired detective which still is dotted with vacant and burned-out buildings the investigation into Jane murder has lasted about twice as long as she lived All that is left of her short life and gruesome death is in a white cardboard box perched on a windowsill in office A few three-ring binders and some folders They have DNA evidence now The yellow sweater is lost Four detectives work the case when they get the chance But the murders never stop 54 already this year and the fresh ones get priority Even so Henderson refuses to give up hope do that in this he said cleaned cases up people never thought we would all about the breaks If I get the breaks ready to Henderson plans to compare notes with Kansas City police to see whether St Jane Doe and Kansas Precious Doe are connected Burgoon spent an hour recently looking for Jane gravestone in Washington Park Cemetery It stands among weeds and woods next to a pile of brush in a decrepit part of the cemetery There is no name on the marker no birth date Just a carved angel and the date she was found: Feb 28 1983 At the base of the granite marker is carved: saddened hearts were healed in knowing the pain of life is over and the beauty of the soul Burgoon leaned forward touched the marker Made the sign of the cross stood silently a few moments before shaking his head and walking away "Nobody should have to be out here by herself like no one cares about Burgoon said it seems Idee the only people who care about her are the detectives the people working on To reach Matt Steams Missouri correspondent call (816) 234-4435 or send e-mail to msteamskcstarcom File photti was between 8 and 1 1 years old and that she had been in the basement four or five days Someone had sawed her head off Immediately the case struck a chord with police and the community was a brutal crime and it involved a said Ft Ron Henderson the current I lomicide Division commander murders are different Most of us have children grandchildren Kids are helpless against Adkins had at least 15 officers and detectives working the case when it was fresh They scoured school districts and asked about missing pupils They blanketed other police agencies with descriptions of the body and the crime First locally then regionally and then nationwide They had community meetings to ask for help The local media kept it in the news for weeks Police consulted psychics even put the word out to prisons Hundreds of leads were generated Nothing came of any of them homicide investigator will tell you that you begin with the Adkins said go backwards Who the victim is where they were last seen who they were with But in this particular case we had a headless girl with no identity You do your basic on-the-scene investigation and you wait for an The ID never came It was as if the girl had never existed That is the part that bothers Adkins the most the part that still wakes him up at night sometimes "Where are the he asked "Where are the brothers? Where are the sisters? Aren't there any relatives? Where are the neighbors? Where are the schoolmates? much publicity as that case got a classmate a teacher say Where is Susie? not in school But that never Adkins now figures it must have been the family who killed her he said must have been a very private family Adkins is not alone in his yearlong pursuit of the case Sgt Joe Burgoon was a lead detective on the case He is 62 now with 41 years on the force He can recite from memory every detail of the case He used to send bulletins out across the country every year on the anniversary of Jane discovery He appeared The US damaged EP-3 plane has been kept at the Ungshui air base on the island of Hainan since the collision with a Chinese fighter jet above the South China Sea The plane will be returned in pieces enough to step forward and say Yes I know something about this little girl Some days the memories flood back Such as last month when Adkins heard about the girl known in Kansas City as Precious Doe The decapitated girl was found April 28 in the woods near 59th Street and Kensington Avenue Her head was found wrapped in a trash bag sev eral yards from her body Authori ties have estimated she was about 3 or 4 years old Kansas City police have enlisted nationwide help in their quest to identify Precious Doe and to capture her killer The case has been featured twice on the television show Most Community activists have kept the case in the forefront of minds So far no leads have panned out The tale is familiar to Adkins and the other detectives of the St Louis Homicide Division Their Jane Doe case officially still is open A new generation of detectives takes tips and tracks leads But everyone acknowledges that as time passes the chances of solving the case get slimmer Memories fade People forget Except for the officers who worked the case For any police officer an un solved murder is like a persistent itch you can't quite scratch This one is worse Adkins said have a lot of unsolved he said you don't have that feeling of inadequacy or failure that you do in this one just frustrating "1 hope this one in Kansas City doesn't turn out like A helpl ess feeling Two scavengers found her Feb 28 1983 They were looking for scrap metal and found their way into the dark wet basement of the red-brick apartment building with the boarded-up windows at 5635 Clemens Ave No electricity so one of the men flicked his cigarette lighter and looked down at the garbage-strewn floor She had on a yellow V-neck sweater and nothing else Her hands were tied behind her back with red-and-white nylon rope She had red fingernail polish She was black She was tall at least 5 feet Forensics determined that she CHINA: Two nations make tentative deal Continued from A-l on Oprah television show in 1990 to discuss the case Burgoon no longer works homicide but like Adkins cannot get Jane Doe out of his mind "We do feel a connection to he said lot of the young officers working it now were in grade school when it happened We might have come up empty-handed but it for lack of effort like a roller coaster these cases You're up you're down But you've got to stick with Jane Doe spent several months in the morgue before she was buried in Washington Park Cemetery The city paid for her burial School-children from southern Illinois took up a collection to pay for her gravestone Only six persons attended her funeral Still hoping People still ask Adkins about the case But the shock has long since faded and the public has moved on Adkins has not begin to wonder if there's something the detectives missed something you should have done that you he said that bothers me You almost get to the point where you blame yourself Even today" Adkins occasionally writes letters to the local newspaper reminding people of the case and the need to solve it The building at 5635 Clemens Ave is gone now Public housing for the elderly and the disabled is being built in the neighborhood other for the accident US technicians who inspected the plane earlier this month said it could be made airworthy anc Washington officials pushed Chin to let the aircraft be repaired and flown out Zhu said last week that Chins would let the United States have the damaged plane back but that flying it out would be impossible US officials said China originally refused to consider allowing a car go plane to land at Lingshui ait base fearing the runway would tx unable to handle the weight That could have forced the plant to be chopped up and crated out condemning the $80 million air craft to the scrap heap The US plane was eavesdrop ping on Chinese military commu nications from international aii space when the collision occurred spokesman Zhu Bangzao was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying the United States would be permitted to send an An-124 to pick up the plane Asked how long it would take to get the plane home the US official said: What we said was we wanted to get the plane back via the quickest possible means This is one way to get it out in an expedited way We have a time The Navy plane has been at a Chinese air base on the southern island of Hainan since the collision above the South China Sea a crash that cost the life of the Chinese pilot After the US plane made what China called an unauthorized emergency landing the 24 crew members were held for 11 days while each country blamed the How to help If you have information about the case call the St Louis Police Department Homicide Division at 1-(314) 444-537L.