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SATURDAY • JANUARY 17 • 2015
Obama to visit Lawrence next week By Jason Kendall Twitter: @LJWorld
President Barack Obama is coming to Lawrence next week, the White House has announced. The president will visit Kansas University on Thursday “to discuss the themes he’ll lay out in (Tuesday’s) State of the Union address,” White House spokesman Keith Maley told the Journal-World on Friday night. A day earlier, on Wednesday,
President will hit State of the Union points in KU trip Obama will make a similar pitch at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. “Further details on the president’s travel next week will be available in the coming days,” Maley said. KU leadership welcomed the announcement Friday night. “Our community will be hon-
ored to welcome President Obama to the University of Kansas,” Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said. “This is an exciting time for KU, and to welcome the president of the United States and have an opportunity to share our bold aspirations with him only adds to that excitement.”
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The president was scheduled Our community to visit KU in April 2013, but the trip later was canceled in the will be honored to wake of the Boston Marathon welcome President bombing. Obama would be the Obama to the fourth sitting U.S. president to visit the university, with the last University of Kansas.” sitting president to visit being William H. Taft in 1911, according — Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little to KU History.
Warming up their pipes
KANSAS BUDGET
Brownback wants more tobacco, alcohol tax By John Hanna Associated Press
Topeka — Kansas would dramatically raise its tobacco and liquor taxes and slow the implementation of promised income tax cuts to help close a projected deficit under Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget proposals for the next two fiscal years, which were unveiled Friday. The state’s cigarette tax would be nearly tripled, from 79 cents to $2.29 a pack, and the tax on packaged alcoholBrownback ic beverages would go from 8 percent to 12 percent under the Republican
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
SUNFLOWER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S fourth- and fifth-grade choir, directed by Peter Gipson, right, rehearses Friday for an upcoming performance at the annual Kansas Music Educators Association State Conference in Wichita. The choir will present a public warm-up concert before the event at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at South Middle School, 2734 Louisiana St. Watch the video at LJWorld.com/sunflowersings.
Please see TAX, page 2A
Eldridge Hotel expansion talk heats up
A
s one downtown hotel gets ready to open — the Marriott at Ninth and New Hampshire — there are new signs that the venerable Eldridge Hotel is getting more serious about expanding. The hotel is seeking a 95 percent, 15-year property tax rebate for a project that would allow the hotel to expand onto the vacant lot just south of it. We’ve reported on plans for an Eldridge expansion at least a couple of times over
Town Talk
By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
A RENDERING of a planned expansion of the Eldridge Hotel in the 700 block of Massachusetts Street. the last few years, but those plans ultimately ended
up stalling out. But a new corporate entity — Eldridge
clawhorn@ljworld.com
Hotel, LLC — was created in late December and has
Low: 27
Today’s forecast, page 10A
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Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles
4A, 2B Society 6C Sports 8A Television 6C
Please see FUNDING, page 2A
Please see HOTEL, page 2A
INSIDE Business Classified Comics Deaths
Topeka — Officials at Kansas University said they were relatively pleased with Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget proposal for higher education because at least it SCHOOLS doesn’t call for cutting funding for colleges and universities.
Chad Lawhorn
Contributed Rendering
Warming
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Budget cuts K-12 funding, holds higher ed steady
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Jobs central
Vol.157/No.17 22 pages
Plans to build a new technical education center near 31st and Haskell streets have landed a new tenant that will make the area a onestop shop for job seekers. Page 3A
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X Senior Supper and Seminar Are You Prepared for a Disaster? Each month, on the third Tuesday, seniors are invited to dine at LMH and enjoy a healthy three-course meal plus conversation with other seniors, followed by a free educational program. Hosted by LMH Community Education and LMH Dining Services/Unidine, this month’s presentation is by John Drees, RN, and will cover what senior adults need to know to prepare for and survive a disaster event.
X Tuesday,
Jan.20 X Supper 5 p.m. ($5.50 charge) X Free Program 6 p.m.
Advance reservations required 24 hours in advance
785-749-5800
325 Maine Lawrence, KS 66044