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FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 26 • 2016
Suspect, 3 others dead after shootings in Hesston By Tim Potter, Kelsey Ryan and Amy Renee Leiker The Wichita Eagle via AP
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
KANSAS UNIVERSITY FRESHMAN BRYANT CARRANZA, OF OLATHE, POURS SAND INTO A BUCKET suspended from a pasta bridge designed by South Middle School eighth-grader Charlie Nigro, of Lawrence, right, during the Engineering Expo on Thursday at the KU School of Engineering. One entry in the pasta bridge competition held a weight of 56.2 pounds of sand before collapsing. Area middle schoolers spent the day experimenting, showing off their engineering projects and putting them to various scientific tests. The event continues through Saturday.
TOO COOL TO IGNORE Engineering Expo draws thousands to KU campus
By Sara Shepherd
T
Twitter: @saramarieshep
he Kansas University Physics and Engineering Student Organization wanted to build a device “too cool for kids to ignore,” president Austin Feathers said. Their musical Tesla coil shooting out lightning bolts in tune with notes played on an electric keyboard seemed to do the trick. Middle schoolers watching the machine on the KU engineering complex lawn Thursday morning clapped and cheered. More than 3,000 middle and high school students and community members are expected to participate in this year’s KU Engineering Expo — themed “Engineering Around the World!” — which started Thursday
Please see SHOOTINGS, page 2A
BISHOP SEABURY ACADEMY SIXTH-GRADERS JOSH WILLIAMS, LEFT, and Elizabeth Mangan, watch as a trebuchet they designed launches a raquetball at a target. and runs through Saturday at the School of Engineering. Middle schoolers from around the area participated in competitions and watched demonstrations Thursday to kick off the annual event. Similar events for high schoolers are planned today, plus activities for the whole
community on Saturday. Feathers, an Overland Park senior majoring in electrical engineering, said his club welcomed the opportunity to try to get the attention of some future engineers. Please see EXPO, page 2A
Lobbyists spent a total of $1.74 million in Kansas in 2015, according to an annual report released Wednesday. report released Wednesday. Although lobbyists must report what they spend to directly influence legislators and other state officials, they don’t have to say how much their sponsors pay them or how much those clients lay
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in spending, the report said. It came in a year in which legislators were increasing cigarette taxes and enacting the state’s first ever tax on ecigarettes to help balance the state budget. Roughly $145,000 of Altria’s lobbying money went toward “mass media,” or advertising on television, radio, print and billboards. The rest went toward “communications,” a Please see LOBBYIST, page 2A
Please see 19TH, page 2A
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out for travel or office expenses. Thus, what’s reported is likely only a fraction of what’s spent. Altria Client Services LLC, whose clients include Phillip Morris, led all organizations with just more than $283,000
City seeks input on rebuilding 19th Street The city of Lawrence plans to rebuild a half-mile of 19th Street in upcoming years, and it’s looking for feedback on how to go about it. A public meeting will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Jayhawk Room Inside: of Fire Station No. 5, Northbound 1911 Stewart Ave., to lanes on talk about the proposed South Iowa improvements and the Street schedule for when the to close project is expected to for South take place. The portion Lawrence of 19th Street up for re- Trafficway construction runs near work. 4A the Kansas University campus, between Iowa Street and Naismith Drive.
Tobacco ally tops report on lobbyist spending Kansas City, Mo. (ap) — A group affiliated with the tobacco industry spent the most money last year lobbying Kansas state government, followed distantly by an organization that opposed efforts to expand liquor sales in the state. Lobbyists spent a total of $1.74 million in 2015, far eclipsing the nearly $1.2 million in 2014 and the previous record of $1.4 million from 2010, according to an annual
Hesston — An employee armed with a long gun and a handgun went on a shooting spree that left three people dead and injured 12 at a manufacturing plant in Hesston, about 35 miles north of Wichita. Two other people were shot earlier, one in Newton and one on U.S. 81. The suspected gunman later was shot and killed by law enforcement officers. “This is just a horrible incident here,” Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said. “It’s going to be a lot of sad people before this is all over.” The shooting at Excel Industries, which employs about 1,000 people, was reported shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. The suspect, a Harvey County resident, was killed between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m., Walton said. Shots at other locations were reported earlier. Gunfire at the plant started just a few hours into the second shift, just after employees had taken their first break. It began near the paint line, employees said. An employee who said he was in the plant said he heard gunshots and people
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Cleaning waterways The Nature Conservancy has received a $2 million gift to improve polluted streams throughout the state. Page 3A
Vol.158/No.57 32 pages