Multimedia Reporting (Bradford-Noland)

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The new Sony PlayStation 3 hit the stores last month amidst production problems, disappointing reviews and plenty of competition. Somehow it’s still managing to be one of the most highly demanded items for the holidays.

Wal-Mart electronics associate Jeff Fail said his store only had 10 consoles on the November 17 release date and sold them immediately.

“The manufacturers didn’t have their ducks in a row,” he said.

It was a similar story at Toys “R” Us on North Broadway Street in Kansas City. The store only received six consoles from Sony, according to electronics associate Adam Grossman, four which cost $600 and had 60 Gb of memory, and two which cost $500 and had 20 Gb of memory. Grossman said that over 100 people showed up hoping to wait in line for a PlayStation.

Leavenworth senior Blakely Henshaw and Austin, Texas senior Dustin Smith were two of the first six in line, but they had no intentions rushing home to try out the new systems. They’d already listed the $600 60 Gb PlayStation 3 on eBay with bids closing out at $2,100.

Henshaw and Smith said they talked with employees about their plans to make profits on eBay while they were waiting in line. The next day when they went into the store to claim their purchase, they said they were told that they would be getting PlayStations with just 20 Gb instead of the 60 Gb they’d been promised. Smith said he thinks that an employee took the 60 Gb PlayStation that he was waiting in line for. He had to contact the buyer on eBay and let him know about the mix-up and is now trying to sell the 20 Gb for $1,000. He and Henshaw contacted the Toys “R” Us corporate office to complain about the situation.

“I had it set up so perfectly,” Smith said of the eBay auction, “ending at the right time and everything. I’m pissed.”

Electronics associate Adam Grossman confirmed that there were originally four 60 Gb Playstations but said he didn’t know about the situation involving Smith and Henshaw.

“I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but I haven’t heard about it,” he said.

The stores don’t expect any more units in time for Christmas, leaving many to shop on eBay. Over 25,000 PlayStations are listed on the site, ranging in price from just under a thousand for most 20Gb units without accessories to $50,000 for Santa Clause himself to deliver a 60 Gb unit.

The large resale market may stem from the success many had last year reselling the Xbox 360 after its release in November 2005. Overland Park senior Dan Ryckert bought an Xbox 360 for $400 and resold it for $750 on eBay.

“I was in the line for the 360 and most of us were keeping it…but people that did eBay it made big profits, so everyone was like ‘whoa, hey, let’s do this,’ so they waited for the PS3 but there were so many more people selling the PS3 than the 360 and it brought down the price,” he said.

Despite the disappointment of less than expected profits, Henshaw and Smith said they’d camp out again if given the opportunity.

“It’s a good way to spend a night and make some money,” he said.

He’s not quite ready to forgive the employee that he thinks took the last 60 Gb PlayStation 3 though.

“I’m trying to get that guy fired,” he said. “because it’s illegal what he did.”

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“It sounded like snapping a stick of celery,” Davis said.

Dave Pfeuffer, certified athletic trainer at Neu Physical Therapy, said he treats more students during intramural basketball season than any other time of the year.

“I’d say a lot of it is the hard court, a lot of jumping is involved so you have the opportunity to land on someone’s foot or land on your ankle. I’ve probably seen, over the years, about six ACL tears from basketball,” Pfeuffer said.

Watkins Physical Therapy employee Sandra Bowman said her staff sees more injuries during basketball season as well. She said students seeking treatment for basketball injuries usually either turned an ankle or smashed a shoulder into another player or the ground.

“They do increase around intramurals. When people see the Jayhawks play, they like to get out and play too,” she said.

Intramural director Kurt Schooley said he expects about 150 teams to play in the Pre-Holiday Basketball Tournament this year and almost twice that many in the intramural league following the tournament. The tournament starts on Nov. 27. He said more students play basketball than any other intramural sport. KU Recreation Services offers both a competitive and a recreational league. Schooley said that he suggests teams entering the competitive league have experience at least up to the high school level.

“It’s up to the team, though,” he said.

Schooley said the large number of participants inevitably leads to more injuries in basketball than other sports.

“We’ve had a handful of serious injuries in basketball, but nothing like paralysis or anything life-threatening.”

Intramural athletes may be inspired by the Kansas Basketball team, but when facing an injury they don’t receive the same level of treatment. Pfeuffer said his patients’ insurance plans often limit the number of times they can be treated. Many of his patients come in for physical therapy a few times a week, compared to up to five times a day for an athlete with a full-time trainer on staff. Another problem with the limited number of visits is what patients do after their treatment ends.

“When they leave the physical therapy department here, we have no idea. They can do whatever they want basically. We can tell them that it’s a really bad idea but that’s going to be their decision,” he said.

To avoid injuries he recommends exercises such as squat presses and lunges to build leg strength. Bowman said students should practice the quick starts and stops required in basketball before playing in a game.

Davis said he plays pick-up games and lifts weights to stay in shape. The worse injury he suffered during intramurals last year was a sprained ankle. He could relate to his opponent’s pain, though, because he tore his own ACL playing football in high school.

“It isn’t really a sharp pain but it just burns like hell,” he said. “It’s like a lighter being held on the back of your knee.”

He said he hopes to avoid injury again this year in intramurals and feels confident in his team this season.

“My team’s stacked,” he said. “We’ve got a good squad.”

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Sitting in the White House for the Christmas dinner with his wife in 1998 alongside President Clinton and a host of other high-profile guests, Larry Sinks knew he’d done something right along the way.

“Seeing the look on my wife’s face was special,” Sinks said while reflecting on the moment.

The couple went back for two more Christmas Dinners and Sinks golfed with President Clinton on another occasion. Sinks, owner of downtown t-shirt shop Joe-College.com, rubs elbows with dozens of celebrities around the country largely thanks to his success in the t-shirt business.

Though the t-shirt business eventually led Sinks to the White House for a few lavish dinners, it’s also landed him in the middle of a lawsuit with the University of Kansas. The University took issue with several shirts in his store and sued claiming licensing violations. Sinks maintains none of the shirts in his store are intended to represent KU and even posted a disclaimer in the store explaining just that. He said that the recent publicity definitely hasn’t helped business.

Sinks started his first company, Midwest Graphics, shortly after graduating from Lawrence High School in 1981. He bought a press to make shirts for the World Series but didn’t have a license from Major League Baseball so decided to work with colleges instead. He started the company as a way to earn extra cash, not thinking that it would be a full-time job. That changed about a week later. Sinks said he realized he was onto something and worked 70 hour weeks for the next four months, running the business by himself. He eventually hired extra help but continued to put in long hours laying the foundation for his business. It took off in 1988 when the KU men’s basketball team went to the Final Four and won the national championship, providing a great opportunity for Sinks to print shirts commemorating the accomplishments.

Through a friendship with late sportswriter Dick Schaap, Sinks began printing shirts for the Super Bowl. Schaap gave Sinks and a few other Lawrence business owners Super Bowl tickets each year and they helped him throw parties. Don’s Steakhouse owner Gary Bartz was a regular in the group.

“I took care of the ribs and Larry did the t-shirts,” Bartz said.

One year at their hotel during the Super Bowl trip, the owner introduced Sinks and the others to Hugh and Tony Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s brothers. They hung out and became friends, which eventually led to the invitation to dine at the White House on Christmas and the golf outing with Clinton. Sinks said he and the Rodham brothers keep in touch and usually meet up a few times a year.

Bartz said that the group befriended many of the celebrity attendees at the Super Bowl parties so easily because of their laid-back attitude.

“We treated them like we do everybody else. I think that’s what they liked about us,” he said.

One year, on the day of the Super Bowl, Sinks got a call from Schaap asking him if he’d be willing to miss the game to join him for dinner in Orlando with Muhammad Ali. Sinks hopped on a plane and flew out that afternoon. Another time he ate with Schaap and Donald Trump.

Schaap wasn’t Sinks’ only connection, though. He spent a recent weekend hanging out with Hank Williams, Jr. and joined Neil Smith on the field at Arrowhead Stadium as Smith was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame.
Not only has Sinks managed to meet everyone from President Clinton to Muhammad Ali; he’s also spent time partying with Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson, dining at Joe Montana’s house, and taking Bill Self to auto races.

“He’s obviously a people person,” Sinks’ wife Carrie said. “He’s very lucky and he’s had a lot of opportunities.”

Thinking up ideas for shirts in his store downtown isn’t the only time Sinks uses his creativity. While he and his wife were dating, he invited her to go to New York with him to be an extra on the set of NYPD Blue. Sinks asked a few of the actors for help and set up a surprise for Carrie. As the two walked with Dennis Franz, who played the lead role on the show as detective Andy Sipowicz, Franz asked Carrie if she would ever consider marrying an older actor and handed her a cheap gumball ring. As she was distracted, Sinks said he got down on one knee, got her attention, and proposed for real. The two first met at restaurant in Dallas where she worked as a waitress.

“As a waitress, you get hit on a lot and you give out a lot of fake numbers,” she said. “I didn’t do that with Larry. I guess I had a feeling he was a good guy and the rest is history.”

As far as his work goes, Carrie said her husband enjoys the challenge of running his own business.

“It keeps him busy, but he’d rather be busy than not,” she said.

Sinks said he picked up the work ethic necessary to build a business from the ground up from his father.

“My dad’s the hardest worker I’ve ever met,” he said. His father showed him the value of hard work starting at a young age. “If I wasn’t playing sports, from the time I was 11 years old, I had to have a job.”

Sinks worked as a farmhand in his first job and later moved on to mowing lawns and pumping gas. He said he puts in about 50 hours a week these days, splitting time among a few different projects. The manager of the Joe-College.com store, Erin Adams, said Sinks always has a new idea up his sleeve, whether it’s a new shirt design or a business idea.

“He’s got his hand in a lot of cookie jars,” she said. “He has a lot of creative ways to make money.”

Although the lawsuit is a threat to the Joe-College.com store, Sinks spends most of his time nowadays working on a new venture called Big D Development. Along with several partners, he plans to develop single family houses in Junction City to capitalize on the market’s growth since the military’s return to nearby Fort Riley.

Also, with a presidential election not too far off, Larry and Carrie may soon be making more trips to the White House.

“We’re hoping Hillary runs and wins so we can go back,” Carrie said.

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Blowing into a breathalyzer to gain admittance into high school dances irks Free State junior Kelsey Allen, but this practice is now the norm at area high schools. The school board enacted policy JCABBC last December, which requires that every student entering a school dance pass a breathalyzer before entering. Some students disagree with administrators’ claims that attendance is back to what it was before detecting beer breath became a priority.

“A lot of people kind of rebelled because they don’t think it’s right that they give breathalyzers,” Allen said. “I miss the fact that I could go to my high school dances and see all my friends. One of the best parts of high school is gone because people aren’t going.”

According to Julie Boyle, the director of communications for USD 497, a task force wrote the policy after students, parents and school board members expressed concern about widespread intoxication at dances. Boyle said the task force included Free State Principal Joe Snyder and Lawrence High Principal Steve Nilhas along with school resource officers, a Bert Nash employee and the district prevention specialist.

Money for the breathalyzers comes from a $9 million federal grant awarded to the school district in 2002. Boyle said that the Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant also pays for after school programs for junior high students, a drug and alcohol prevention program for sixth-graders and security cameras for school parking lots.

Boyle said the only change to the policy this year amended language to clarify that junior high administrators do have the authority to give breathalyzers to students suspected of intoxication.

She said she thinks the breathalyzer policy works well overall for the district.

“People have adapted to the policy. Students aren’t showing up drunk and that’s what we wanted,” she said.

When students fail the first test, dance chaperones bring them to a room to wait 15 minutes and blow again. Lawrence High Assistant Principal Beryl New said a few kids failed the first breathalyzer, but the second test cleared each one.

“One kid was chewing minty gum that set it off. He kept promising us that he wasn’t drinking and the second test confirmed that,” New said.

Administrators admit that attendance initially dropped because of the policy, but claim students show up in numbers comparable to the crowds beforehand.

Neither high school collects official attendance records at dances, but the estimates of students and administrators differ wildly. Boyle, New and Free State Assistant Principal Ted Berard all reported normal attendance at dances so far this year, which New estimated to be around 500.

“It happened so quick that it’s kind of woven into the fabric of how we do things,” Berard said.

Allen said many fewer students attend this year compared to last fall when breathalyzers weren’t in place. She estimated about 150 students showed up at the most recent Free State dance.

“I think a lot more people do go drink and do something else,” she said.

Joe Harvey, whose son attends Free State High School, said he thinks enforcing the policy is the right thing for the district to do.

“I think it’s a sad deal that they have to do that,” he said. “It’s a sad commentary on the state of things.”

Lawrence High hosts a Halloween dance on Oct. 28. Free State’s next dance is a winter formal on Dec. 16. Students caught under the influence of alcohol can’t attend dances for a calendar year. In addition, seniors lose privileges to attend prom and graduation ceremonies with their first offense according the policy.

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She’d already dealt with a broken eight button on her cell phone for months. Albuquerque, N.M., junior Patty Richards decided she needed a new phone when the earpiece stopped working and she could no longer hear who she was speaking to. Richards called her cellular provider, Verizon Wireless, to report the broken phone and ask for a replacement to be sent. Richards paid a monthly fee for an insurance policy in case of situations just like this. After waiting more than a week for a new phone, Richards was not pleased with what came in the mail.

“It wasn’t even new,” Richards said of the replacement phone. “There were a bunch of scratches on it and some of the buttons stuck.”

All major cell phone companies provide insurance options for their phones. The insurance protects against lost, stolen and broken phones in most situations. Water damage is one main exception with some companies, but a Cingular representative said that other exceptions are few and far between.
Most companies charge a few dollars a month for insurance. According to store employees, Cingular’s fee is at $3.99 and Verizon’s is $4.99. T-Mobile charges between $3.99 and $5.99 depending on the type of phone.

Though the monthly insurance fee adds onto the bill sent out by the cell phone provider, a separate company manages the policy. Most major cell phone companies use lock/line to provide insurance. Representatives at all three companies previously mentioned said they assisted customers in filing insurance claims on a regular basis. The companies forward claims to lock/line where they are processed and a new phone is sent through the mail. The same model of phone is sent unless it is out of stock, in which case a similar model is sent according to a lock/line representative.

Richards said that the battered phone she received in the mail was not the quality she was expecting. She called Verizon to complain and was referred to lock/line. She said lock/line was not helpful and she was not satisfied with the insurance policy overall.

Minor scratches are not abnormal on replacement phones according to a Cingular employee. The replacements are refurbished phones that have been returned for various reasons. The employee recommended the insurance policy even though the replacement isn’t new because it is a much cheaper option than buying a brand new phone.

Along with the monthly fee, customers pay a deductible each time they request a replacement phone. Representatives at Cingular and Verizon said this fee is $50 and is added on to the plan’s monthly bill. A T-Mobile employee said the fee varies depending on the phone but that it is between $70 and $100. Without an insurance policy, representatives said that a customer would have to pay full retail price for a new phone, which can be anywhere from $200 for basic phones to around $600 for newer models with more features.

Not all college students seeking replacement phones rely on insurance policies. Paul Dundee, Sabetha senior, said he broke his phone when he threw it against a wall after an argument with his girlfriend. Dundee said that a friend told him to look online for a new phone to avoid paying retail price. After spending a couple hours on e-Bay he won an auction for a Nokia 3300 at $70 and received his new phone in the mail about a week later. Dundee said he saw the same phone in a local store for $250. He said he was glad he decided against an insurance policy.

“I would’ve gotten a crappier phone for only $20 less,” he said. “I’m glad I did it this way.”

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