1620 St. Andrews Drive
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LAWRENCE Your area real estate
Liz WesLander
.com
well for Lawrence
Hometown Lawrence
Strong sales of existing homes in Lawrence during January made for a promising start to 2015 in the local real estate market.
3502 Sweet Grass Ct
Quality Rod Wenger built townhome! Exception al condition and all kitchen appliances included. Fireplace in living blinds throughout. Spacious rooms and nicely room and faux wood appointed kitchen. Master bedroom includes a walk-in closet with wood shelving, coffered ceiling, and room opens to a privacy fenced backyard. This is truly a move-in ready home! MLS 135978
SEE INSIDE FOR GREAT REAL ESTATE BUYS! $259,900
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hometownlawrence
Strong January bodes
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NEW PRICE - Pride of ownership shows in this 3 bedroom, 1 nonconforming bedroom, 3 bathroom home with a full finished basement and a 3 car garage. New roof, new windows, granite throughout, wood floors, plus many other updates! All of this on almost a halfacre corner lot with a beautiful fenced in yard. MLS# 135408
The Time is Right
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MARCH 6, 2015
$127,400
housing market
28.1 percent. Contracts written during the month reflect, in part, sales that The market is lookin will close in the near future. g up with a definite increase “The market is looking of new Home sales in January up with a 2015 contracts being written definite increase of new totaled 51 units, up from , contracts being which is a great predict 43 in 2014, written, which is a great or of a an increase of 18.6 percent. predictor strong February and All of of a strong February and March” January’s sales were of March,” existing homes. said Crystal Swearingen, The 51 existing homes president sold in January — Crystal Swearingen, of the Lawrence Board represent an increase of of Realtors. president of the Lawrenc 34.2 percent “We haven’t seen this many e from 38 existing homes contracts Board of Realtors that sold in written in a month since 2014. The average sale August 2014.” price of existing The inventory of active homes for January 2015 listings in was $194,172, the city low interest rates and a of Lawrence stood at 285 up 14.2 percent from the strong number units January 2014 of sales is good news for at the beginning of January, average price of $170,08 people which is 9. looking to sell their home. down from 320 homes There were no new construc that were on tion “It’s a great time to get the market at the beginnin sales in January, which your house g of January is down from on the market if you’ve last year. At the current five units the prior year. been on rate of sales, the fence regarding selling,” this figure represents 5.6 A total of 73 contracts said months’ for sale were Swearingen. supply of homes on the written in January 2015, market. up from 57 — Liz Weslander covers The modest inventory in January 2014. This is the Lawrence of homes in an increase of real estate market. Contact the Lawrence market combine her at d with lizweslander@hotmail.com
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Journal-World Seth and Nikki Naumann sold their home at 333 Tallgrass Drive in Lawrence. 51 homes were sold and 73 contracts were written in January, a significant increase compared to January 2014.
SOLD
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FRIDAY • MARCH 6 • 2015
GOP leaders say plan will boost aid to schools 1620 St. Andrews Driv e
NEW PRICE - Pride of ownersh ip conforming bedroom, 3 bathroo shows in this 3 bedroom, 1 nonm home with a full finished basement and a 3 car garage. New roof, new windows, granite through out, wood floors, plus many other updates! All of this on almost a halfacre corner lot with a beautifu l fenced in yard. MLS# 135408
By John Hanna
3502 Sweet Grass Ct
3/4 of spending increase will go to teacher pensions
Quality Rod Wenger built townhom e! Exceptional condition kitchen appliances included . Fireplace in living room and and all faux wood blinds throughout. Spaciou s rooms and nicely appointe d kitchen. bedroom includes a walk-in closet with wood shelving, coffered Master and room opens to a privacy ceiling, fenced backyard. This is truly ready home! MLS 135978 a move-in
Associated Press $259,900
$127,400 Topeka — Top Republican legislators in Kansas GOP The Timby e is Right leadsaid they’re looking to boost ers when risaid to public schools while ing state conproviding them with finan- tributions to cial stability and flexibility teacher penunder a plan they outlined sions were Thursday for overhauling factored out. LEGISLATURE education funding. Data obtained But the plan appeared to from the Legislature’s rebe far less generous to pub- search staff showed that lic schools than portrayed pension payments account-
ed for three-quarters of the spending increase over the next two school years. Republican leaders didn’t say how they’d pay for additional aid for schools, as the state faces a projected budget deficit approaching $600 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Closing the shortfall is the GOP-
SOLD
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dominated Legislature’s biggest task this year, and aid to schools is the largest single item in the state budget. “I think it’s positive that we have the Republican leadership saying they think they can identify more resources for schools, but — yeah — how’s that going to
happen?” said Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards. One of the plan’s architects, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, acknowledged that rising
Masterson
Please see FUNDING, page 4A
KU cadets hitch ride on Black Hawks Senate panel endorses $9.4M swap in KU funds By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photos
KANSAS UNIVERSITY ARMY ROTC CADETS get acquainted with a Black Hawk helicopter at KU’s Shenk Recreational Sports Complex. Six Black Hawks landed on campus Thursday to transport cadets to Fort Riley for a training exercise. See the video at ljworld.com/kublackhawks.
Students fly in style to Fort Riley By Sara Shepherd Twitter: @saramarieshep
Kansas University Army ROTC cadets got a lift to Fort Riley on Thursday on a squadron of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Six of the helicopters flew in formation over campus at 11:30 a.m. and landed at Shenk Recreational Sports Complex, where cadets — who marched to the fields from the Military Science Building on KU’s main campus — boarded and
flew to Fort Riley for training. Huey helicopters landed next to Robinson Center for an exercise in the 1980s, but Thursday was the first time Black Hawk helicopters have landed on campus, said Lt. Col. Davis McElwain, KU Army ROTC Professor of Military Science. McElwain said the exercise benefited cadets in two ways. “It’s transportation out PILOT KRISTIN BLUMBERG, CHIEF WARRANT there (to Fort Riley), but also OFFICER II, from Peachtree City, Ga., puts a Baby Jay front and center Thursday as KU cadets get Please see FLYING, page 4A ready to fly to Fort Riley for training.
Triple-shooting suspects arrested in Las Vegas By Caitlin Doornbos and Conrad Swanson Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos and @conrad_swanson
Two suspects wanted in connection to a Feb. 8 shooting in Lawrence were arrested Thursday in Las Vegas, law enforcement officials said. Robert Long, 24, and Rachael Hampton, 20, were booked into the Clark County, Nev., Detention Center and are awaiting extradition to Kansas, said Melinda Kormos of the United States
Marshals Service’s District of Nevada office. Long and Hampton are wanted by the Lawrence Police De- Long partment on suspicion of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. On Feb. 8, Phillip Hawley, Seth Peterson and Arthur Perez were held at gunpoint in a home at 1621 W. 19th
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ley, Mo., was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and three counts of aggravated kidnapping. He is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $500,000 bond. After Chrisman’s arrest, Lawrence police asked the public for help in finding Long and Hampton. Hampton had been missing since Feb. 7, her parents said in a statement released on Feb. 28. Further information was not immediately available.
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Terrace, as suspects attempted to rob them of cash in the house, according to court documents. All Hampton three men were shot. Two of the victims are Kansas University students. All three have since been released from area hospitals. Late last month, Caleb Chrisman, 22, of Grain Val-
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Topeka — The full Senate Ways and Means Committee endorsed a budget plan Thursday that would shift $9.4 million over two years from Kansas University’s main campus in Lawrence to the Wichita campus of the medical school, a move KU officials say would be harmful to the university overall. The bill also cuts funding for the Kansas Geological Survey, located on the KU campus in Lawrence, at a time when that agency is being asked to invest more resources into studying the causes of earthquakes in south-central Kansas. And it shifts millions of dollars in student financial aid money from public universities to independent,
Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, tried unsuccessfully to have the full committee reverse the funding swap between the two KU campuses. But she did eventually get an agreement to review those changes in the final days of the Please see KU, page 2A session.
Sheriffs sue over legal marijuana, claiming federal law violations By Kristen Wyatt Associated Press
Denver — Ten sheriffs from three different states sued Colorado Thursday for decriminalizing marijuana — joining a handful of recent legal challenges urging courts to strike down the state’s legalization of recreational pot. The sheriffs from Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska say that Colorado’s 2012 marijuana legalization vote violates federal law. “A state may not establish its own policy that is directly counter to federal policy against trafficking in controlled substance,” the sheriffs argue in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver. Please see SHERIFFS, page 2A
Double win Both LHS and Free State girls basketball teams advanced to their respective sub-state first-round match-ups. Page 1C
Vol.157/No.65 24 pages