Lawrence Journal-World 02-13-2016

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JAYHAWKS TAKE ON BUDDY HIELD, SOONERS TODAY IN NORMAN

Church leaders hold historic meeting in Cuba. 1B

See a preview in Sports, 1C

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SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 13 • 2016

LEGISLATURE

Lawmaker: No rush on school funding By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos

MEMBERS OF THE MACKEY MERRY MAKERS CLUB, Mary Workman, right, Wilma Reetz and Cathy Wagner laugh while flipping through photo albums and other bits of memorabilia during the group’s monthly meeting Thursday at the home of Wagner, northeast of Lawrence. The club, which began with members of the Mackey School District, has been meeting regularly since 1941. During Thursday’s meeting, the group celebrated its 75th anniversary with a cake, pictured below.

Topeka — The Kansas Supreme Court said this week that it may not allow public schools to open next year if Kansas lawmakers do not come up with a constitutional way of funding them. But the president of the Kansas Senate said Friday that it’s unrealistic to expect lawmakers to devise a new school funding system in the Wagle remaining weeks of the 2016 session, and she thinks the process will take at least another year. “I’ve said all along that a new finance formula takes a lot of collaboration, a lot of communication, and the needs of the districts are very diverse,” said Sen. Susan Wagle, RWichita. “And to try and pack a new

Making merry for 75 years

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espite gasoline rationing when World War II began, the building — and rebuilding — of Kansas Highway 32, and hay wagon rides through muddy roads, the Mackey Merry Makers have always had a great time. The group started in the winter of 1940 as a sewing club for women of the Mackey School District. Mackey School was located in Leavenworth County, northeast of Lawrence, until it was consolidated in the mid-1960s. The members would exchange feed sacks to sew new clothing for their families. When WWII broke out, transportation became a concern because of gasoline rationing and tire shortages, but the Merry Makers voted unanimously to keep the club together. In 1952, the usual host of the monthly meetings lived near where Kansas Highway 32 was under

construction; the road was torn up and too muddy to drive. Nevertheless, the host’s husband took the tractor and hay wagon to bring the members to the house for the meeting. The club still lives by these words from founder Anna Gardner: “The main idea of our club was and is a friendly get-together, to get better acquainted with our neighbors, to help them in times of sickness and to promote a feeling of friendliness and good will at all times.” After celebrating their 75th anniversary on Thursday, the Mackey Merry Makers — 14 of them total, half of whom are in their 80s — continue to donate to local charities, including the Salvation Army, Douglas County Visiting Nurses, Just Food and more. Through those 75 years, the club has had more than 100 members.

Please see FUNDING, page 2A

Bledsoe seeks videotaped interrogations

— Staff Report

the candy aisle of your favorite convenience store on Sunday.) The sales tax numbers from the state show that sales tax collections were up 0.8 percent in Lawrence during that early holiday shopping season. The good news is that those numbers are better than those posted by many of the state’s other retail centers. The concerning news,

Topeka (ap) — A Kansas man who spent nearly 16 years in prison for a killing his brother later admitted to testified for a measure that would require law enforcement to re- Floyd Bledsoe cord some interrogations. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement groups oppose the measure, which mandates recorded interrogations of suspects arrested for capital

Please see SHOPPING, page 2A

Please see BLEDSOE, page 2A

City’s holiday shopping numbers better than most Town Talk T Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

his is the time of year when you are thinking about Valentine’s Day shopping. (Don’t mind that sudden noise. It is just the sound of 20,000 male cellphones trying to call a flower shop all at once.) But at Lawrence City Hall, they’re still thinking about the Christmas shopping season. New sales tax numbers are in that show Lawrence shoppers were mer-

INSIDE

Cold, sunny Business Classified Comics Deaths

High: 27

Low: 22

Today’s forecast, page 10A

rier than most but still may not have been merry enough. State revenue officials have sent January sales tax checks to cities across the state. Those checks are for sales taxes that actually were collected mostly in November — or in other words, the start of the holiday shopping season. (And yes, it was allowable to start early for Valentine’s Day too, although it will be great fun perusing

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Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles

10A, 2C Society 7A Sports 9A Television 7A USA Today

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Tech access

Vol.158/No.44 26 pages

The Lawrence school district is preparing to make sure that laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots are available to every student who needs them next year. Page 3A

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