The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 12

I I I I THE KANSAS CITY STAR Tuesday May 4 $004 METROPOLITAN DIGEST 2 wwwkanNa8citycom KANSAS CITY Last respects for the Fiddler Women appeared to be using their seat belts Andrew was found secured in a car seat authorities said A Cronkkton Ttr HI 1 Sentence for death can spend I WM OVERLAND PARK '-1 Checkpoint results 1 to power King says A Jackson County judge sentenced a Kansas City man to seven years Monday for recklessly shooting another man to death Robert Pierson 41 pleaded guilty in March to involuntary manslaughter for the April 21 2002 death of Montel Wells 19 Wells was shot once in a parking lot in the 3500 block of Troost Avenue Joe Larnbe Three hurt in fire By MELODEE HALL BLOBAUM The Kantai City Star Coretta Scott King says the checkbook could be a powerful A sobriety checkpoint over the weekend yielded just two arrests one each for alleged drunken driving and traveling with an open container before ram forced officers to disband At a similar checkpoint at the same spot near 75th Street and Metcalf Avenue last year police' arrested 14 suspected drunken drivers Overland Park Police SgL Todd Chappell said Monday That was the busiest checkpoint of 2003 Rain forced the checkpoint to close an hour early about 1 am Saturday after 347 vehicles drove through the lane the hour when police expect to find more drunken drivers Police will be driving around Overland Park in greater numbers than usual this Friday in a roving DUI patrol Richard Espinoza to A house fire Monday morning caused minor injuries to three Kansas City residents The fire at 5017 16th St started about 7 am after an electrical malfunction in a bedroom The fire damaged much of the exterior of the three-story home Ambulance workers treated three residents for smoke inhalation but none was taken to a hospital Fire officials estimated damages from the blaze at $70000 Hoffmann INDEPENDENCE )OHN SLEFZERThe Kansas City Star Funeral Mass was celebrated Monday morning for Claude "Fiddler" Williams the 96-year-old who was a leading light of Kansas City jazz As the service at St Louis Catholic Church ended a portrait of Williams and his instrument was on display as the casket was carried away for burial in Mount Moriah Cemetery Truck amok DE SOTO Burglary chase a step closer to going home with nothing for Rep Kathe Decker a Clay Center Republican A pickup truck crashed into a vehicle Monday and then struck a fence a garage and two vehicles inside Ihe incident was reported shortly after 8 am in Independence Police said a Jeep Cherokee was westbound on RD Mize Road waiting for traffic on Selsa Road to clear when a black Dodge pickup rear-ended it The Jeep careened south and the truck went north The truck plowed through the fence and hit the residence Minor injuries were reported The driver of the truck was cited for careless and imprudent driving Linda Man School finance continues to vex Kansas lawmakers Sheriffs deputies arrested a man early Monday after he allegedly broke into a grocery store and ran from them Deputies were watching the area around Market 34200 Commerce Drive because of recent smash-and-grab burglaries in the area About 2:25 am a deputy heard breaking glass and started chasing a man in a vehicle The Sheriffs Department and Lenexa and Shawnee police departments chased the suspect east on 83rd Street and north on Kansas 7 before he ran over spikes that police had dropped in the road near the Kansas River Investigators arrested a 36-year-old man He was not immediately charged while investigators prepared reports for prosecutors Richard Espinoza First glance By IIM SULLINGER and JOHN PETTERSON The Kansas City Star LEAVENWORTH COUNTY Crash injures three The Kansas Legislature continues to struggle with school finance The House has killed a new plan crafted by a Senate-House negotiating committee that would have provided an additional $1068 million to schools next year LOTTERIES tool for change in America Because women often control family purchases their selective spending could send a meaningful message to boardrooms across the nation: Institute family-friendly policies or see business go elsewhere the years ahead women will increasingly be called qn to lead human rights and social justice King told more than 600 people attending a leadership conference in Overland Park time has come for American women to lead the way to a new era of social justice opportunity and King whose work in civil rights has spanned the decades since the death of her husband Martin Luther King Jr was one of two keynote speakers at the Lyceum Leadership Conference presented by the Central Exchange Donna Dubinsky former chief executive officer of Palm Computing which created the Palm Pilot also spoke during the conference Women played a pivotal role in the success of the bus boycott in Montgomery Ala in 1955 and 1956 King said She would like to see the power of the purse strings create sweeping change in the 21st century have always had great untapped power as King said is more true today than ever before And I can see the future of the boycott as a tool for social and economic progress for women can be even brighter than it has been in the She suggested that selective patronage could start a revolution in the private sector persuading corporations to invite women into the boardroom promote parity in pay scales and fund more day care is no corporation in America that can survive if it ignores the demands of its King said it is up to us to organize those markets into a powerful force for social King also called for more women leaders in statehouseS and Congress Though she expressed delight at being introduced by Kansas Gov Kathleen Sebelius King noted that only eight women currently are governors The numbers much better in state legislatures and Congress she said King called for women to get involved in the political process as candidates and campaign-workers Regardless of political beliefs she said women could agree to support the cause of empowerment Likewise women need to support each other lending a hand to future leaders on their way up is gratifying to see more and more women emerging as leaders in business and politics and science the arts and King said woman who achieves success in her field can be a role model for the girls and young women coming up" Recalling the women who helped shape her character and values she called for women who have achieved positions of influence to serve as mentors for other women Television shows such as and "The have blurred the values of success stressing backbiting and competition King said She would prefer to see young women trained to use cooperation integrity and social responsibility as their tools for success of the reasons there is so much violence in the world is that girl children are not being adequately prepared for King said is why we must raise our daughters to have self-confidence to envision themselves as leaders as peacemakers This may be tire greatest gift we can give to the future" A head-on collision Monday morning on Kansas 32 about a half-mile east of Linwood sent two women and a toddler to hospitals The injured were identified as Cathiyn Deay 52 of Eudora and Debra Park 32 and her 2-year-old son Andrew Park both of Lawrence Their conditions were not available Monday afternoon According to the Leavenworth County sheriffs office Deay was westbound on K-32 in a Dodge Da-kota pickup when she veered off onto ihe shoulder As she attempted to re-enter the highway she overcorrected and lost control Her track crossed the center line and struck the Parks' Volvo S-40 head-on Rescue workers had to extricate Debra Park from her car She and Deay were taken via helicopters to a hospital Andrew was taken via an ambulance to a hospital Authorities said air bags deployed on both vehicles and both drivers lion or nothing may just get their second Vratil added Rep Cindy Neighbor a Shawnee Republican and a coalition leader said her group insisting on the $1554 million plan would be my hope we would continue to search for a she said Another negotiating session was scheduled for 9 am today While maneuvering over school funding legislation occupied much of the day predictions about the future of the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages circulated in the House Final action on the proposition is scheduled for today with both sides saying the vote will be dose There were reports that some House members who had supported the amendment in the past might change their minds today The Senate adopted the amendment Saturday 27-13 the minimum number of votes required and sent it to the House House approval by a two-thirds majority or 84 votes would put the proposition on the November general election ballot Should the voters approve it by a simple majority same-sex marriages would be banned Late in the day the Senate passed legislation that would allow children of undocumented Kansans to attend state universities by paying resident tuition rates rather than out-of-state rates The House is scheduled to vote on the measure today It passed the Senate 25-15 winning lottery numbers: Missouri Pick 3: 5-1-8 Straight-play winners won $598 box-play winners won $100 A 50-cent bet paid half Missouri Pick 4: 2-0-8-8 Missouri Show Me 5: 10-12-23-30-37 No winner of $50000 jackpot Four numbers paid $750 Kansas Pick 3: 2-5-9 Straight-play winners won $500 box-play winners won $80 A 50-cent bet paid half Super Kansas Cash: 11-12-13-16-25 Super Cashball 4 for estimated $130000 jackpot Kansas 2by2: Red 12-15 white 7-21 Please check with lottery officials in your state for TOPEKA Senate and House negotiators began looking Monday for a plan that provides more dollars to public schools and can pass both chambers a difficult goal to achieve The House demonstrated just how difficult when it killed the first bill offered by the negotiators on a procedural vote of 63-59 House leaders begged their Senate colleagues to at least let the plan get a clear up or down vote Killing the bill on a procedural motion they argued would make it more difficult to reach a compromise and keep the Legislature in session longer Their appeal failed to win enough votes a step closer to going home with nothing for said Rep Kathe Decker a day Center Republican who leads the three-member House negotiating team Democrats and moderate Republicans a coalition that earlier passed a $1554 million school funding package joined forces again to kfll plan That package would have added $1068 million in state school aid paid for by $1082 million in new revenue The additional revenue would be generated by raising the sales tax from 53 to 55 percent and adding a 2 percent surcharge on individual state income tax liability It also would have allowed school districts to raise the current state-imposed lid on local property taxes for schools from 25 percent of basic state aid to 27 percent Basic aid is currently set at $3863 per student plan would have raised that amount to $3890 a student Stuart Litde lobbyist for the Shawnee Mission School District said the measure would have raised an additional $8 million in local and state money for next district budget The coalition was upset that the House was voting on the bill first and not the Senate Rep Bill Reardon a Kansas City Kan Democrat and a House negotiator said the Senate approved any plan that included a tax increase The $1554 million measure backed by the House included an increase in sales income and local property taxes the Senate pass any tax increase?" Reardon asked the Senate go first? (senators) asking us see how low Senate Vice President John Vratil a Leawood Republican and a Senate negotiator said passage of the plan by the House could boost its chance of Senate passage House action killing the bill clearly frustrated VratiL they (House members) want to go the senator asked Rep Sue Storm an Overland Park Democrat "I think ready to Storm replied "Then those who want $155 mil Possibility of a long wait slows death investigation By RICHARD ESPINOZA The Kansas City Star pec whi Has To reach Jim Sullinger and John Petterson call (785) 354-1388 or send e-mail to jsullingerkcstarcom or jpettersonkcstarcom Investigators probing the death of a Gardner man outside La Cygne Kan might have to wait a month for autopsy results Linn County Sheriff Marvin Stites said Monday The family of Alonzo Brooks found the 23-year-old Saturday as the searched a creek near the house where he was last ers REFORM: Senate approves cap Continued from B-l The case is being investigated simply as a death Stites said Monday He told a reporter Saturday that it was being investigated as a homicide On Monday he say it was a homicide An autopsy will take three to five weeks and Stites said investigators do not have preliminary results yet Kansas City Councilman Alvin Brooks who is not related to Alonzo Brooks said he has been told that the Gardner man was the target of threats and racial shirs at the party Investigators said earlier that no witnesses gave them that information but they are looking into the allegation "It comes down to two basic FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said Monday "Was there foul play and if so was it a hate The anti-crime group Move Up is offering a $5000 reward in the case Anyone with information about death should call the hot line at (816) 753-1111 To reach Richard Espinoza Johnson County police reporter call (816) 234-7714 or send e-mail to respinozakcstarcom The bill also would give a tax credit to doctors and other medical-care providers of up to 15 percent of their premium increase Alonzo Brooks premiums increase each year The bill also would launch a state-run insurance corporation to offer malpractice insurance to doctors who get it elsewhere The bill authorizes issuing bonds of up to $50 million to set up the public corporation which would be administered by a nine-member board appointed by the governor The Senate took out language the House had inserted that tied the fete to the lawsuit reform bill that Holden vetoed The bill now heads to the House san don that filet seen at a party April 3 Searchers including deputies FBI agents Kansas Highway Patrol troopers and the Summit water rescue team had looked in the same area five times before using a low-flying helicopter and cadaver-sniffing dogs The body was not there on those days Stites said it got there nature had to take its Stites said at a news conference "Law enforcement had been there several times prior to the body being publicans argue that lawsuit reform is the answer Gov Bob Holden a Democrat vetoed a bill that would have imposed new limits on malpractice lawsuits and other injury lawsuits Republicans are expected to attempt an override of Holden's veto before the last day of the session May 14 The bill the Senate approved Monday incorporates chahges that Senate Minority Leader Ken Jacob a Columbia Democrat pushed be willing to bet that if this bill passes insurance rates will go Jacob told Sea Delbert Scott a Lowiy City Republican handling the bill in the Senate "This (bill) do it by itself" said Scott one of the biggest proponents of lawsuit reform The bill also would give a tax credit to doctors and other medical-care providers of up to 15 percent of the amount by which their To reach Tim Hoover call (573) 634-3565 or send e-mail to tttoowrkcstarcom To reach Melodee Hall Blobaum call (816) 234-7735 or send e-mail to mbkjbaumkcstarMm viev app Cot HOW TO REACH US WANT TO PLACE AN AD? 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