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vV
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Based on SUSAN STROMAN s
Direction and Choreography from the
2000 Broadway Production
The classic
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salute to music,
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fast-talking
flim-flam.
Tuesday and Wednesday Nights!
April 22 and 23 at 7:30 PM
Rudder Auditorium
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Logon to www.MSCOPAS.org
MSC
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Three Decades of Performing Arts
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BUFFET RESTAURANT
FRESH SEAFOOD BUFFET
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Thursday, April 17, 2003
THE BATTALlt
Ohio U deadly house fire
devastates students’ neighbor
By Dennis J. Willard
KRT CAMPUS
COLUMBUS, Ohio —
About 1 p.m. Monday, seven
men and two women walked
slowly in a single line down
17th Avenue toward the yellow
brick home.
Each held a bright red rose,
and one by one they gently laid
them near a picture of five stu
dents who were smiling and
embracing as they faced the
camera.
In the photo, Kyle Raulin, a
21-year-old from West Chester,
Ohio, has a cigar in his mouth.
He stands near Alan “Big Al”
Schlessman, 21, of Perkins
Township near Sandusky, Ohio,
who is not physically large, but
was big in his friends' hearts.
The picture was attached to
a sign: “In loving memory of
our neighbors. We love you,
miss you and we'll never
forget you.”
The two, along with three
visiting students from Ohio
University — Erin M.
DeMarco, 19, of Plain
Township in Stark County,
Ohio; Christine M. Wilson, 19,
of Dublin, Ohio; and Andrea
Kali Dennis, 20, of suburban
Cincinnati — also died in the
fire early Sunday near Ohio
State University.
Outside the scene Monday, a
woman in a tie-dyed shirt wept
openly. Some of the students
fell into one another's arms.
“We've just got to deal with
it,” a tall male student said as he
indicated that none of the group
wanted to talk.
Flowers were also on the
steps leading to the porch.
Later in the afternoon,
Kristina Ruiz, a 20-year-old
sophomore from West Chester,
sobbed as she placed yellow
daffodils near the picture. She
went to high school with
Raulin, lived on the same fioor
in the OSU dorms last year and
knew everyone in the house.
She went to the party — to
celebrate Schlessman's 21st
birthday — and left around 3
a.m. Earlier, there were as
many as 70 people in the house,
but it was large and the party
was not overcrowded, she said.
When she left, everything
was quiet.
Thick orange twine, strung
like a cat's cradle, blocked
access to the front and back
yards. Each window and door
a
I live in the base
ment, so I just had
water damage, but
my roommates that
live upstairs, they
lost everything.
— Diana Hawkins
neighbor
on the ground fioor was shut
tered with plywood.
On the porch, the springs of
a burned couch sat atop charred
wood. The white columns
extending to the overhang were
eaten by fire and blackened by
soot. The porch roof, once a
sturdy perch for a relaxing
stretch in the sun, is weakened
and no longer secure.
Although the police are
looking into whether there was
a fight at the party or an earlier
disturbance that led to the fire.
Ruiz has her doubts.
“Never saw one," she in®
bled as she stared toward;
ground. “They're saying il
something was thrown in,k
don't think ...” and her vl
trailed off.
“They had an altercations
someone at another party .]
they didn't want him in thispr
but I never saw a fight of any a
but I wasn’t, you know, eve
where," Ruiz said.
“They're all incredible gu
Incredible ...” and her vm
trailed off again.
Next door, Diana Haul
spent Monday with friends,pd
ing her belongings, salvad
hxxl and dealing with social Sl
ice agencies for grocery void
and with Ohio State for aim]
washers and showers.
Wind had spread the fa
adjacent homes.
Firefighters doused Had
house with water, causing cor I
erable damage. By Monday !
side of the three-story home nj
boarded with plywood.
“1 live in the basement, s|
just had water damage, bull
roommates that live upstairs,4j
lost everything,” she said, |
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Federal judge refuses H&R
Block suit settlement
KANSAS CITY, Mo.— H&R Block said
Wednesday a federal judge has rejected a
proposed $25 million settlement concerning
the firms popular tax-refund loans.
In her ruling Tuesday,*U.S. District Judge
Elaine E. Bucklo in Chicago also ordered
that new lawyers be chosen to represent the
plaintiffs during subsequent negotiations.
The nation’s largest tax preparer and its
banking partner. Household Finance, are
accused of illegally gouging customers by
providing “refund anticipation loans” at
interest rates frequently exceeding 100
percent.
Bucklo ruled the plaintiffs’ attorneys who
negotiated a deal with Block and Household
Finance, which became a participant in
Block's loan program after buying
Beneficial National Bank in 1999, failed to
conduct adequate discovery.
“Settlement counsel never served a sin
gle set of interrogatories, or a formal request
for documents, and never took a single dep
osition of an employee of Beneficial. H&R
Block, or any of the other released lenders,”
Bucklo wrote.
Under the refund anticipation loan pro
gram, a customer owed a tax refund can
receive most of the money in two to three
business days. To qualify, the taxpayer must
agree to pay up to $40 to file the return elec-,
ironically and pay a loan processing fee of
up to $89.95.
Critics assert the loans victimized
income households, immigrants and!
daily unsophisticated taxpayers who,
adequately informed about the
interest rates.
The $25 million settlement would!
covered 17 million customers who bon
against their tax refunds between
1987, and Oct. 26, 1999. Last year, afede
al appeals court instructed Bucklo to revie
the settlement after concluding the on®
trial judge id not do enough to ensurecis
tomers weren’t shortchanged by theagret
ment.
Block chairman and chief exwfa
Mark A. Ernst said the com paw Micrograph of
reviewing Bucklo’s ruling and wouMjHhi hls
sider its options. * *or
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By Robe
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Hwy 290 at Bryan/Hwy 6 Exit
Buy in Hempstead Pay in Hempstead
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