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SUNDAY • FEBRUARY 16 • 2014
Convention center is on city’s radar
A snow day on the farm
Serious work and no play
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Lawrence may partner with KU to study options By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
The idea of a conference center — or perhaps even a full-blown convention center — is set to get a more serious look by city officials. Lawrence city commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting are being asked to join forces with Kansas University to study the feasibility of a convention center and hotel development. “We need to find out if it’s built whether they will come,” CITY COMMISSION City Manager David Corliss said. As it is proposed, the city and KU would send out a joint request for proposals that would seek to find out: l How large of a conference or convention center the community could support; l An evaluation of potential locations for a center; l Estimates on how much a center may cost, including any funding that likely would be requested from the city. How much, if at all, public taxpayers would have to participate in a convention center is expected to be a big question. “I don’t think it hurts to look at any of this,” City Commissioner Mike Amyx said. “But we have to be mindful that there are
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
JIM NEIS TOSSES A BALE OF HAY from the loft of his cattle barn during morning rounds on Thursday south of Eudora. Winters can be particularly challenging times for stockmen like Neis, who raises more than 300 head of cattle with other members of his family.
‘It is the worst time of the year’
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ome of us spread a little sand and salt as the snow and ice begin to pile up. Jim Neis spreads straw atop the the cold ground of a bull pasture. “You want to stop the bulls from lying on the frozen ground,” Jim explains. “They tend to freeze their testicles.” And you thought clearing your driveway was a pain. “You take a $5,000 to $6,000 bull and they become useless,” Jim continues. “It is no joke.” I’m certainly not laughing. Squirming in my seat and turning up the heater in the truck, but not laughing. That’s the way it is out here: A snow day doesn’t pro-
Lawhorn’s Lawrence
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
duce a lot of fun and merriment. On the Neis farm south of Eudora it mainly produces extra work. While most of us just have to
Please see CITY, page 2A
worry about taking care of ourselves and getting from Point A to Point B in the snow, the fellows on the Neis family farm have about 300 cow-calf pairs to take care of. That means grabbing an ax to chop ice at the half dozen ponds the farm uses to water cattle. Recently, a single night of the cold weather is producing 3 to 4 inches of ice on the ponds. It means hauling 1,200-pound bales of hay over snowy hills and through slick valleys. It means an hour of pushing snow before you even begin the chores. But mainly it means being part of a group — think
John Waters in person Filmmaker John Waters — writer and director of films such as “Hairspray” and “Cry-Baby” — is bringing his monologue to the Lawrence Arts Center
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next week as part of the “Creative Observer” series celebrating Beat
Bill aims to halt Common Core By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
While testing officials at Kansas University are busy developing new reading and math assessments for students to take this year, one northeast Kansas lawmaker is trying to halt the project in its tracks. Rep. Willie Dove, R-Bonner Springs, acknowledged
Clouds, sun
this week that he is the main proponent behind House Bill 2621. The bill would nullify SCHOOLS the Common Core reading and math standards in Kansas, along with the recently adopted Next Generation Science Standards, and prohibit school districts from
administering any tests that are aligned to those standards. “The Common Core standards, I do believe, are not addressing the problems of the children,” Dove said. “When NCLB (No Child Left Behind) came along, that told me that individuals were teaching to the test. Now it seems the Common Core is just a replication of that in another format.”
High: 47
Low: 30
Today’s forecast, page 8B
ist William S.
Dove, whose district includes portions of the Tonganoxie, DeSoto and Basehor-Linwood school districts, serves on the House Education Committee, which will hold a hearing on the bill Wednesday. In addition to abolishing the new standards, it would also set up a 19-member Advisory
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Burroughs’ 100th birthday. We chatted with Waters recently about Burroughs’ influence on him and about an assortment of other topics. Read the interview on page 1C.
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INSIDE Arts&Entertainment 1C-6C Events listings Books 4C Horoscope Classified 1D-6D Movies Deaths 2A Opinion
writer and art-
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Tile art project The Lawrence Public Library is asking children and grown-ups to decorate tiles for the new library building. Page 3A
Vol.156/No.47 34 pages