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WEDNESDAY • JANUARY 21 • 2015
Waiting for Obama
ROCK CHALK PARK
City OKs audit, due by end of February By Chad Lawhorn Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw
Lawrence city commissioners Tuesday set in motion an audit of the controversial Rock Chalk Park project and assured the public they expect full cooperation from their partners, Kansas University Endowment and a private firm led by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel. Commissioners unanimously approved a contract CITY COMMISSION with Tennessee-based McDonald & Associates to audit about $12 million worth of infrastructure Please see AUDIT, page 8A Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
KANSAS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, STAFF AND FACULTY form a nearly half-mile line Tuesday from the Kansas Union to get tickets to see President Obama Thursday at KU. The line began forming hours before sunrise for the 9 a.m. giveaway. Across town, another long line formed for members of the public at the Douglas County Fairgrounds for a 5 p.m. giveaway.
Retrial in murder Thousands line up for Thursday tickets case to stay in Douglas County I just want
By Sara Shepherd and Conrad Swanson
Twitter: @LJWorld
For admission to what several described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, thousands of Kansas University students got up early and stood in line a long time. “He’s the president,” said law student Brian Vanorsby, who arrived at 4 a.m. and was second in line. “I can say I was in the same room as him — a big room, but the same nonetheless.” Free-but-limited tickets to President Barack
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— Fern Coffin, 100, of Olathe Obama’s speech at KU, set for Thursday morning at Anschutz Sports Pavilion, were made available starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday for KU students, faculty and staff. The campus allotment of tickets ran out shortly after 12:30 p.m. Before the doors to the SUA Box Office at Please see OBAMA, page 6A
What was it like in the Obama ticket line? Catch some of their firsthand accounts online: l LJWorld.com/POTUS100 l LJWorld.com/POTUSpickup
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Today’s forecast, page 8A
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Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
expanding tax credits for college tuition; and reducing monthly payments on existing student loan debt. “By the end of this decade, two in three job openings will require some higher education,” Obama said. “And yet, we still live in a country where
President Barack Obama called for increased public investment in higher education during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, laying out themes he is expected to elaborate on Thursday when he visPlease see EDUCATION, page 6A its Kansas University. Among other things, he called for offering two free years of More on Obama’s community college for State of the Union qualifying students; address. Page 6A
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President to push education points at KU
to see him.”
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The retrial of a Lawrence man convicted in 2005 of murdering his wife will take place in Douglas County despite his request for a change of venue, District Judge Paula Martin has ruled. A Douglas County jury convicted Martin Miller in 2005 of first-degree murder in the July 28, 2004, death of his wife, Mary E. Miller, 46, at the family’s central Lawrence home. Miller’s murder conviction was overturned in February, when the Kansas Supreme Court said that Miller the written jury instruction Martin gave jurors had been in error. Prosecutors accused Miller, a former Lawrence carpenter and Christian school Please see RETRIAL, page 2A
Vol.157/No.21 22 pages
Formulating a response Four days after Gov. Sam Brownback unveiled his budget plan for the next two years, Democratic leaders in the Legislature still had not responded. Page 3A
Tara Stecklein
Stephanie Suber
Britani Congleton
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