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SATURDAY • JANUARY 24 • 2015
Wicked vote fraught with manipulation concerns By Chad Lawhorn Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw
As the Lawrence City Commission prepares to vote on a $300,000 loan guarantee for Wicked Broadband, commissioners are raising new concerns that a co-owner of the company is improperly trying
to manipulate the city’s approval process. Wicked Broadband co-owner Joshua Montgomery on Friday sent a letter to city officials asking that Commissioners Terry Riordan and Bob Schumm recuse themselves from voting or participating on the proposal by Wicked Broadband, which
is seeking the loan guarantee as part of a pilot project to bring high-speed, Google Fiber-like broadband service to a portion of the city. Montgomery’s letter comes on the heels of Riordan and Schumm receiving an email from Montgomery that insinuated Montgomery could deliver
nearly 1,200 votes to the campaigns of Riordan and Schumm if they voted for the loan guarantee and other incentive requests Wicked has before the city. Both Riordan and Schumm are running for re-election to the commission and previously Please see WICKED, page 5A Schumm
At KU, sexual violence and related complaints have doubled
KANSAS LEGISLATURE
Medical marijuana fight forges ahead in House, Senate
By Sara Shepherd
“
By Elliot Hughes
Twitter: @saramarieshep
When we first started Twitter: @elliothughes12 this, if you said the word State Sen. David Haley has ‘marijuana’ there would an expression he often repeats when describing law- be awkward glances.”
Kansas University’s Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access received almost twice as many complaints in 2014 than the previous year, and more than two-thirds of the new cases relate to Title IX. During a presentation Friday to KU’s Sexual Assault Task Force, IOA executive director Jane McQueeny said her office received 85 complaints in 2013 and 169 complaints in 2014. McQueeny’s office is charged with investigating all types of discrimination, but she said the majority — 120 — of last year’s complaints fell under the category of Title IX. The federal law requires campuses to ensure access to education McQueeny free from sexual harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence. McQueeny attributes the spike in complaints to more reporting driven by increased awareness. She estimated half of the 2014 complaints came in after September, after media reports on alleged rapes at KU fueled student outrage. KU’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week was the same month. “That dialogue on campus really did help encourage reporting,” McQueeny said. The Title IX related cases almost exclusively involve women filing complaints against men, McQueeny said. A few involved faculty but most were student-onstudent. Also, she said, most involved
makers’ interest in legalizing medical marijuana in Kan- — State Sen. David Haley, sas: “The ice is beginning to D-Kansas City thaw.” But don’t get carried away, he added. “It isn’t spring yet.” has taken up the discussion in Haley, a Kansas City Dem- his 13 years as a senator. ocrat, and Rep. Gail Finney, a Since 2010, Finney said, Wichita Democrat, have once the House Health and Huagain introduced bills in both man Services Committee has chambers that would twice held informapermit medical maritional hearings. In juana in Kansas, in efthe first hearing, she forts continuing since noted, all but one 2009. Republican left the Neither expects the room when the topic bills to pass this year came up. — even getting an of“When we first HEALTH ficial hearing would started this, if you be an achievement — but said the word ‘marijuana’ both say legislators in Kansas there would be awkward are warming to the idea, and glances, snickers and an init’s only a matter of time until ability to have any discusit becomes the law. sion,” Haley said. Two informational hearThe identical bills being ings on the general subject of pushed by Haley and Finney medical marijuana were held are similar to those in 23 othby the Senate Public Health er states and the District of and Welfare Committee this Columbia that already allow week. Haley said that’s the Please see MEDICAL, page 4A first time a senate committee Shutterstock Illustration
Please see REPORTS, page 2A
INSIDE
Mostly sunny Business Classified Comics Deaths
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Today’s forecast, page 10A
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4A, 2B Society 11B Sports 8A Television 11B
6A 1B-4B, 10B 10A, 2B
Vol.157/No.24 22 pages
Uncertainty on taxes Kansas legislators aren’t sure how Gov. Sam Brownback’s school-funding proposals will affect local districts’ ability to raise property taxes. Page 3A
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