Monday
November8,1999
Volume 101, Issue 50
Weather
RAIN LIKELY
Tuesday
RAIN
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
An independent newspaper
www.dailyemerald.com
Ducks dominate Cougars '■
Oregon rolls to a 52-10 win over Washington State on *
Saturday night at Autzen Stadium to earn its bowl-requisite
sixth win and ensure another winning season. PAGE 7 J
University pulls off ‘Caesar’
Robinson Theatre is off to a good start this season. Its
modernized version of ‘Julius Caesar’ should reach the top
in no time based on its opening-night success. PAGE 4
Sentencing
of gunman
to continue
■ After testimony from teachers
f and a child psychologist, Kinkel’s
, sentencing will resume Tuesday
By Sara Lieberth
Oregon Daily Emerald
The sentencing hearing for Kip Kinkel con
tinued Friday with the testimonies of a sec
ond child psychologist, family friends of the
Kinkels as well as teachers and counselors of
the 17-year-old who plead guilty to killing his
parents, two Thurston High School students
and wounding 25 others in May 1998.
Just prior to the afternoon break, howev
er, the mother of shooting victim Kyle
Howes was called by the prosecution to ad
dress the court with a personal statement.
Though the reading was out of order on the
court schedule, Laura
Woodward needed to
return to her home in
Texas before the hearing
resumes next week.
Standing before the
near-capacity court
room she began: “Kip, I
want to take just a cou
ple minutes. I know
you’re not going to look
at me. I really don’t care
if you look at me, but I
really ask that you listen.”
She then relayed how fearful her family
and son were resulting from Howes’ being
shot three times, and that all were plagued
with nightmares from the tragedy as well.
“However you lost your humanity, we’re
not going to lose ours,” she said as she
choked back tears, “And we’re going to go on
with our lives.”
Woodward went on to describe how her
son had diabetes, which could be complicat
ed in the future from his healed gunshot
wounds. She said she wants to see Kinkel re
main in prison for life.
“Death wouldn’t have been the answer for
you, or for us,” Woodward said. “To get any
kind of justice, for you to be tortured and
troubled as we are is, to me, the final justice.”
Lane County Circuit Judge Jack Mattison
is presiding over the hearing, and must de
cide whether Kinkel should serve his four
murder charges and 26 counts of attempted
murder consecutively or concurrently — a
difference of 25 or 220 years.
Earlier in the day, child psychologist Dr.
William Sack testified that Kinkel was para
noid and depressed in his clinical presentation
of symptoms when the two met during the last
year. Sack described five separate paranoid
delusions from which Kinkel reportedly suf
fers, among them is his notion that Disney
World was going to take over the globe, com
plete with the image of Mickey Mouse replao
ing George Washington on the dollar bill. He
also believed a chip had been implanted in his
brain, and that his medication was poisoned.
Sack said such delusions were “classic,
textbook” signals for a form of schizophrenia
he believes Kinkel has, though he stressed
that diagnosing adolescents with the disease
was problematic because they are still
Turn to Kip Kinkel, Page 4
KINKEL
Jeffrey Stockton Emerald
Max LeeKwai manages his business Web site from his bedroom-based office. LeeKwai manufactures Fin
blockz (foreground), a product designed to protect the fins of surfboards while traveling.
■ Some students are finding that
business and entrepreneurial
experience is only a click away
By Brian Goodell
Oregon Daily Emerald
By all reasonable predictions
from some of the country’s
top economists, the student
consumer culture is moving
on-line. According to Forbes Maga
zine, the average college student
spends 22 hours a week on-line and
spent $97 million on the Web in 1997.
That number is expected to grow to $4
billion by 2002.
Naturally, net-sawy students are
reaping the benefits.
College of Business Professor Bill
Daley spent last summer conducting
research on developing a coursebook
for electronic commerce.
“If today’s students have been bom
into the infancy of the Information Age,
then e-commerce is a global lemonade
stand,” said Daley, who teaches com
puter applications courses. “Anyone,
anywhere with access to the Internet
can start their own business.”
Of the 63 members of the Universi
ty’s Entrepreneurs Club, 10 own their
own businesses — half are Web-relat
ed start-ups.
“Internet businesses will always
have a profit margin because there’s lit
tle to no cost involved,” said Max
Turn to E-commerce, Page 6
Best-case scenario likely for EWEB on January 1
With the year 2000
quickly approaching,
the Emerald will run a
weekly series every
Monday exploring
how the community
is preparing for the
effects of the Y2K
bug. i
■ EWEB established a team in 1997
to ensure minimal disruption of
water and electricity based on Y2K
By Brian Goodell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Best case scenario for Eugene water and
electricity on January 1, 2000: Everything
transitions smoothly into the next millenni
um, everyone has power and everyone has
electricity. Worst case — no one can say for
sure, but Eugene Water and Electric Board is
ready for it.
“We’ve done an inventory of all our sys
tems, replaced the bad ones, retested the
goods ones, and we have all our contingency
plans in place,” EWEB Water Engineering
Manager Mel Damewood said. “I don’t see
how much more ready we could be. ”
EWEB has supplied water, steam and elec
tricity to Eugene residents since 1911. A five
member board of commissioners is elected
by Eugene citizens with direct responsibility
to keep EWEB true to its mission — to pro
vide excellent service at a low cost.
In 1997, EWEB established a Y2K project
team to ensure minimal disruption as a re
suit of the millennium computer bug, which,
theoretically, could render date-sensitive
computer systems inoperable by confusing
the year 2000 with the year 1900. Like the
five-member board of commissioners, the
six-member Y2K project team is committed
to fulfilling EWEB’s 90-year-old mission.
“The Y2K issue is a unique and unprece
dented event that could threaten the mission
of our company and greatly impact our com
munity,” EWEB General Manager Randy
Berggren said. “This project is one of our
highest priorities and has full board and
management support.”
Representatives from EWEB’s risk man
agement, information services, water, elec
tric and public affairs departments comprise
the Y2K project team. For four years, the
team has worked toward the goal of having
EWEB ready for the Y2K roll-over. Naturally,
members of the team are excited to see the
results of their hard work.
“I’m anxious to see what happens, partic
ularly because we’ve taken a number of steps
to ensure we are Y2K ready,” said John
Mitchell, Y2K team member and EWEB
spokesman. “What I hope happens is that
Turn to Y2K: EWEB, Page 4
ii We’ve
done an inven
tory of all our
systems, re
placed the bad
ones, retested
the good ones,
and we have
allourcontin
gency plans in
place.
Mel Damewood
EWEB water
engineering
manager ] J