LAGERALD VICK: AN INTERESTING BOOK WITH A QUIET COVER. 1C OBAMA COMMUTES SENTENCE OF ARMY’S CHELSEA MANNING. PAGE 1B
L A W R E NC E
Journal-World
®
$1.00 / LJWorld.com
Wednesday • January 18 • 2017
PUBLISHED SINCE 1891
Police chief: Staff needed to collect more mental health data By Rochelle Valverde rvalverde@ljworld.com
City of Lawrence and el dorado inc. / Courtesy images
RENDERINGS FROM A PROPOSED AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT, clockwise from top: A view of Delaware Coop from East Ninth Street; a view of Penn Lofts from Pennsylvania Street; and a second view of Penn Lofts looking north from Pennsylvania Street.
Affordable housing projects proposed for East Lawrence Town Talk
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
I
always thought living in a warehouse district was cool, although that time my crate and I woke up in Cleveland wasn’t that great. Something tells me the living arrangements in East Lawrence’s popular Warehouse Arts District are quite a bit different. Regardless, there’s a new plan for many more apartments
in Lawrence’s hip warehouse district. A group led by Warehouse Arts District developer Tony Krsnich is in the early stages of securing financing for two new multistory apartment buildings that also would include commercial space for the area near Eighth and Pennsylvania streets.
City commissioners at their meeting Tuesday were asked to get the process going. Krsnich is seeking a resolution of support from the commission that he can use as part of an application for affordable housing income tax credits from the state of Kansas. Krsnich — as he did
> HOUSING, 2A
Senate passes election bill, sends to governor for his signature. The bill is aimed at making sure there can be a Topeka — The Kansas special election to fill a Senate on Tuesday vacancy in the 4th gave quick approval congressional disto a bill that would trict, which includes clean up statutes Wichita and much of dealing with filling south-central Kana vacancy in a U.S. sas, in anticipation House seat. LEGISLATURE that Rep. Mike PomThe bill passed peo will soon resign unanimously, sending once he’s confirmed it to Gov. Sam Brownback to become CIA director in By Peter Hancock
phancock@ljworld.com
incoming president-elect Donald Trump’s administration. It changes certain deadlines in current law, which was written in 1969, to make sure there is enough time to mail ballots to military and other federal employees serving overseas at least 45 days in advance of the election. Current law allows, at most, only 35 days from the time parties name
their nominees to the day of the special election. The bill also lowers the threshold for the number of petition signatures that independent candidates would need to get on the ballot in such a special election. Sedgwick County officials had requested a technical amendment which, if
> ELECTIONS, 6A
Kobach seeks authority for bifurcated elections
K
Statehouse Live
ansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach asked for a bill to be introduced Tuesday that would give him authority to hold “bifurcated” elections so that potentially tens of thousands of registered voters could not vote in state or local elections. It would apply to people who register Peter Hancock to vote using a federal phancock@ljworld.com process that does not require people to show proof of citizenship, en- local elections. suring that they could “It’s sort of an only vote in federal interim bill during elections, not state or litigation to keep the
L A W R E NC E
Journal-World
®
LJWorld.com | KUSports.com
VOL. 159 / NO. 18 / 20 PAGES
integrity of the (proof of citizenship) law while it’s being litigated,” Kobach told the Senate Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government. The bill comes in response to a string of state and federal court rulings leading up to the 2016 elections that all but nullified the proof of citizenship law he championed in 2011. First, a federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., granted a temporary injunction partially
> KOBACH, 2A
Not as cool CLASSIFIED..............5C-8C COMICS......................CRA7
|
Peter Hancock/Journal-World Photo
SECRETARY OF STATE KRIS KOBACH, RIGHT, and Bryan Caskey, deputy secretary for elections, listen during a meeting of the Senate Ethics, Elections and Local Government Committee.
High: 52
|
DEATHS...........................6B EVENTS...........................6B
Low: 34
|
The Lawrence police chief told city commissioners that he supported better data collection regarding officers’ handling of people dealing with mental health issues, but that one of the barriers is having the staff to do it. CITY “I think we all gener- COMMISSION ally agree that there is some need to address people with mental health challenges,” Chief Tarik Khatib told commissioners at their meeting Tuesday. “More than what we’ve been doing before, some way of tracking it, some way of trying to come up with best practices to try to avoid negative outcomes with the people that are experiencing those challenges.”
> CITY, 6A
States can offer a lesson as GOP proposes deep cut federal taxes By Christina A. Cassidy and Andrew Demillo The Associated Press
Little Rock, Ark. — President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans who have pledged to cut federal taxes to boost the economy might consider looking first at lessons learned in GOP-controlled states that adopted similar strategies, only to see growth falter and budget gaps widen. The situation is worrisome enough in Kansas, Oklahoma and Indiana that lawmakers are now debating whether to reverse course and raise taxes. And political leaders in states that have seen expanded Republican control, such as Arkansas and Iowa, are signaling caution about any new tax-cut proposals. “It does not take a Ph.D. in economics to know that we can’t say yes to every spending need, and we should also not say yes to every tax-cut idea,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson warned late last year. The reforms show that tax changes always carry an element of uncertainty — about the economy, government needs and even the prices of commodities such as oil. Although the federal and state tax systems are significantly different, both are subject to forces beyond lawmakers’ control. A recent Associated Press survey
Forecast, 6A
HOROSCOPE....................5B OPINION..........................5A
PUZZLES.........................5B SPORTS.....................1C-4C
> STATES, 2A