Lawrence Journal-World 04-06-2016

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WEDNESDAY • APRIL 6 • 2016

City approves HERE valet parking plan By Nikki Wentling Twitter: @nikkiwentling

Developers of the HERE Kansas apartment and retail project can have their 510-space valet parking garage and fill the under-construction

apartment building near Kansas University to 88 percent capacity this August, the Lawrence City Commission decided Tuesday. Commissioners also directed city staff to begin the process of amending

city code to establish standards for valet parking garages, though the HERE Kansas garage will not be bound to that change. The 4-1 vote came nearly three months after developers first came to city commissioners seeking permis-

sion to reconfigure their parking system. “I think the approach here is reasonable that the developer is proposing,” said City Manager Tom Markus. “I know I’m early in my career here, and this is not sitting well

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with a certain part of the population, and I get that. But I look at this and I see you have two choices: go down the path of trying to reach a reasonable settlement with this particular developer at this time…. Or give them way less

parking and therefore way less occupancy.” Mayor Mike Amyx voted against the new parking plan. Amyx said he wanted to recommend developers be authorized Please see PARKING, page 5A

LAWRENCE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Confederate flag ban could mean legal trouble By Rochelle Valverde

... I don’t think we have a lot of support Lawrence school district in the case law to go leaders considering a ban real far in a policy.” Twitter: @RochelleVerde

on the Confederate flag face competing interests: keeping the flag off school grounds and keeping the district out of court. “You’ve got the power to pass a policy if you want to, but it’s going to subject you to the potential of litigation,” David Cunningham, director of human resources and legal services for the district, said at a policy meeting Tuesday. Cunningham and Lawrence school board members Shannon Kimball and Vanessa Sanburn make up the board’s policy advisory committee. The

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos

DOUGLAS COUNTY EXTENSION MASTER GARDENERS Virginia Mofid, left, and Jim Myers, both of Lawrence, clean up flower beds Tuesday at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. The Master Gardeners will hold their Spring Fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at fairgrounds Building 21. The fair will include information, exhibits and demonstrations on trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetables, tool care and there will be garden art for sale. At left: James Blom, a Douglas County Extension Master Gardener and Lawrence resident, cuts away a ground cover of hairy vetch from a garden bed Tuesday. See a photo gallery at LJWorld.com.

Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

Topeka — A bill recently introduced in the Kansas House is likely to be the starting point for discussions about a new school funding system when state lawmakers return to Topeka later this month. House Appropriations

Committee Chairformula. man Ron Ryckman “I’m not certain Jr., R-Olathe, said of the direction he hasn’t decided we’re going to go, whether to hold whether it’ll be that formal hearings particular bill or on House Bill 2741 LEGISLATURE something else,” he when lawmakers said. return for their wrap-up Last year, lawmakers session April 27, but he repealed the per-pupil said he does think it’s funding formula that had time to begin discussions been in place since 1992 on a long-term funding and replaced it with a sys-

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tem of block grants that effectively froze funding in place for two years at the 2014-15 levels. Since then, the Kansas Supreme Court has declared at least part of the block grant system unconstitutional because of the way it distributes socalled “equalization aid” to less wealthy districts,

A Kansas University debate team took second place in the National Debate Tournament, which had its national championship round Monday night in Binghamton, N.Y. Sion Bell, a freshman from Laurel, Md., and Quaram Robinson, a sophomore from Round Rock, Texas, fell to a team from Harvard University in the final round.

Panda Garden closing

6A 1C-4C 6A, 8A, 2C 1B-6B

Vol.158/No.97 36 pages

Longtime Chinese buffet restaurant Panda Garden will be closing this month after 30 years in business. Page 3A

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From left, Quaram Robinson Please see DEBATE, page 2A and Sion Bell

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2A Puzzles 8A, 2C Sports 6A Television 7A USA Today

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Staff Reports

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committee met Tuesday to discuss a student petition that asks the district to ban the flag because it symbolizes racism, white supremacy and violence against people of color. “I personally find it a horribly offensive symbol, and I think it means everything that these students feel that it means, that’s

KU duo take 2nd in National Debate Tournament

Bill would overhaul school funding By Peter Hancock

— Lawrence school board member Shannon Kimball

3 blocks east of downtown Mass St.

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