Lawrence Journal-World 04-12-2016

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USA TODAY

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TUESDAY • APRIL 12 • 2016

Company says it can retrofit HERE garage

BRINGING DOWN BURGE

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Project’s developer calls email sent to city ‘outrageous’ By Nikki Wentling Twitter: @nikkiwentling

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

DEMOLITION WORK BEGINS AT THE BURGE UNION in Kansas University’s central district Monday. The 1979 Burge Union, 1601 Irving Hill Road, closed for good March 11. A replacement union is scheduled to be constructed in the area just south of the current building’s footprint. It’s one of several new buildings in KU’s $350 million Central District redevelopment plan. For more on the history of the building, go online to LJWorld.com/burge.

County zoning, codes report calls for improved consistency, fairness

By Elvyn Jones

Twitter: @ElvynJ

A county contractor licensing system and the development of policies and procedures that promote consistency and fairness were among the recommendations of a

three-month review Peters Group Inc. in into the county’s November. The conzoning and codes tract with the consuldepartment, which tant came after questhe Douglas County tions arose about the Commission will remany exemptions COUNTY ceive at its Wednesto county building COMMISSION codes given to a ruday meeting. County commisral Douglas County sioners authorized the project by Kansas Secretary $9,180 study from Austin of State Kris Kobach.

The Austin Peters Group report does not address how that application was handled, but does identify the “Kobach case” as behind the recognized need to identify reforms in the department. In completing the report, Please see COUNTY, page 2A

The company behind the United States’ first automated parking garage has reached out to the Lawrence City Commission, claiming it has the capability to take over the HERE Kansas garage and make it robotic, as originally intended. Roger Courtney, business development counsel for Florida-based Robotic Parking Systems Inc., said in an email Friday to commissioners and city staff that the company was “committed to trying to make the best of a bad situation for the HERE project.” Robotic Parking was one of several companies to which James Letchinger — a developer behind HERE — sought proposals in October, when it was discovered that its contracted automated parking company had filed

bankruptcy and wouldn’t finish the project. Letchinger called the email “mind-boggling” and “outrageous.” Courtney said in the email that Robotic Parking “take[s] issue” with statements made by Letchinger last week that no company could be relied upon to operate such a large garage. Letchinger told the City Commission that he had “spoken to every robotic garage operator that exists” and “not one of them could point to a robotic garage they’ve built in this country that has moved more than 30 cars.” At last week’s meeting, the City Commission approved a human valet system for the garage that would allow for 510 cars to be parked there. Of the 624 bedrooms, 548 can be filled by Aug. 1, before developers secure more parking. Please see PARKING, page 2A

Guard, 6 others accused in prison smuggling scheme Kansas City, Kan. (ap) — A guard at a Kansas lockup for federal detainees is among seven people accused of scheming to smuggle methamphetamines, synthetic marijuana and alcohol into the site, at times making the exchanges during drug-treatment programs and church services, a federal prosecutor alleged Monday. The charges announced by U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom

offer a glimpse inside the Leavenworth Detention Center where he said inmates talked of getting “blistered” — a slang term for high — on drugs and resembling “zombies.” The coveted contraband there was pricy, Grissom said, noting an inmate in one telephone conversation described how a pack of cigarettes fetched $150. The 1,126-bed lockup is run by the Corrections Corporation

and sneaking it into the lockup, with friends and relatives of the inmates helping move money from buyers to sellers by wire transfers and other means. Aiono and inmates Karl Carter, 41, and Stephen Rowlette, 35, are accused of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, along with 68-year-old David Bishop and Rowlette’s mother, 59-year-old Catherine Rowlette, both of Sedalia, Mo.

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of America, by contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Marshals Service. It is separate from the federal prison in Leavenworth. Authorities allege the scheme revolved around Anthon Aiono, a 28-year-old guard who is accused of receiving the contraband from an outside supplier

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Aiono also is charged with separate felony counts of providing methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana and tobacco products to inmates. Carter and Steven Rowlette are charged with three counts apiece of possessing those items. Steven Rowlette’s wife, Alicia Tackett, 29, also is accused of illegally providing synthetic marijuana and tobacco as part of the scheme.

National arts leader visits Lawrence

Vol.158/No.103 28 pages

National Endowment for the Arts chair Jane Chu spent time working with young artists and meeting with local arts leaders Monday. Page 3A

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