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WEDNESDAY • MARCH 30 • 2016
More questions arise about HERE
Medicaid backlog prompts advance payments By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
BRICK WORK HAS STARTED ON THE EXTERIOR OF THE HERE @ KANSAS APARTMENT AND RETAIL PROJECT, pictured Tuesday at 1111 Indiana St. The City Commission on Tuesday delayed a vote for a third time that would have helped clarify how the project was to proceed with issues surrounding a parking shortage at the development.
City Commission again delays decision on parking around development By Nikki Wentling Twitter: @nikkiwentling
For a third time, the Lawrence City Commission delayed a vote regarding HERE @ Kansas — one that would’ve signaled toward resolution of a parking
“mess” at the large apartment and retail development near Kansas University. Commissioners on Tuesday were asked to provide clarification on the way forward with the project that they outlined in a meeting last week. They were also being asked to confirm changes
they wanted to make to the city’s incentives agreement with HERE developers. Instead, the commission voted unanimously to defer any further discussion on the issue until they received information about how many vehicles could fit in the development’s existing park-
ing garage under city code. In the development’s current plans, the spaces for the parking deck — now being proposed as serviced by human valets — are narrower than what’s allowed by the city for self-park garages. Please see PARKING, page 5A
Police Department gets approval to hire 14 officers over authorized force The Lawrence Police Department will hire 14 positions over its authorized force this spring, after receiving approval from the City Commission on Tuesday. Besides the over-hire, commissioners also voted unanimously to have City Manager Tom Markus create a plan for how to fill police department vacancies in the future and to make future over-hire decisions as part of the regular budget process.
Markus also asked Tuesday, and got approval, to talk with Police Chief Tarik Khatib to come up with a method to determine how large of a force the police department needs. Khatib said in a city memorandum that the authorized force had grown from 140 in 2003 to 152 today, which he said was not enough to keep up with “the increased workload, complexity, technology
challenges and community expectations.” “The police department has been left to determine what the level of services is in the community,” Markus said. “It’s responsible to have an engaged discussion as to just what the expectation is out of the police department and what level of service.” Khatib had initially asked for an over-hire of 17 positions, noting he’s expecting
15 to 20 officers to leave this year because of a high “anomaly” of officers becoming eligible for retirement. Khatib said he spoke with Markus, who had concerns about the practice of overhiring. The over-hire of 17 officers was estimated to cost between $644,396 and $1,267,061, depending on how many people leave this year and how many qualified applicants are found. — Nikki Wentling
Kansas officials are dealing with a backlog of about 7,000 people who are seeking Medicaid coverage, and some advocates are concerned the backlog will start hurting the quality of care in nursing homes and longterm care facilities. The backlog of applications has prompted the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to do something it rarely does: approve claims payments — or at least partial ones — for people who are not officially enrolled in the Medicaid program. KDHE sent out a notice late last week saying it would begin authorizing “advance payments” to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, paying them one half of their normal daily rate for patients whose Medicaid enrollments or reauthorizations have not yet been approved. Please see MEDICAID, page 2A
Internet outage affects KU services By Sara Shepherd Twitter: @saramarieshep
If you imagine the Internet fiber cables feeding Kansas University as a tree, the tree’s trunk was damaged near the base Tuesday afternoon, leading to a campuswide outage that was expected to last overnight. In addition to shutting down Internet service and access to KU email and ku.edu websites, the Internet outage also froze state testing mid-test for Please see INTERNET, page 4A
KU’s annual spring powwow expanding into daylong showcase By Sara Shepherd Twitter: @saramarieshep
There aren’t many American Indian students at Kansas University — to be exact they make up one-sixth of 1 percent of KU students, according to Kansas Board of Regents data. That’s part of the reason this weekend’s KU’s spring powwow, an annual tradition for nearly 30 years, is be-
ing expanded into a daylong educational festival this year, said KU senior Landri James of Lawrence, who is a Prairie Band Potawatomi Indian and president of KU’s First Nations Student Association. “This event is actually really important to us in terms of Native staff, faculty and — especially — student recruitment and retention,” James said. “This is a really good way for the univer-
sity to showcase their diversity, equity and inclusion of the Native American culture.” The 2016 KU Powwow and Indigenous Dance and Culture Festival will be Saturday at the Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive. Admission is free. In addition to workshops and food, the day will feature a matinee and an evening powwow. Please see POWWOW, page 8A
John Young/Journal-World File Photo
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Teacher negotiations 6A 1C-4C 6A, 8A, 2C 1B-6B
Salaries, work hours and evaluations are a few of the topics to be negotiated between the Lawrence school district and the teachers union in coming weeks. Page 3A
Vol.158/No.90 32 pages