DADDY RULES
Reporter Giles Bruce shares his experiences of fatherhood in a regular feature debuting today. 1B
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TUESDAY • JULY 8 • 2014
Group suing over Kansas gun law
Fountain of fun
COUNTY
Budget proposal includes 3.85 mill increase
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Brownback defends measure that rejects certain federal regulations By Peter Hancock
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Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback on Monday defended a gun rights bill he signed into law last year, despite an announcement that a national gun control organization plans to challenge it in federal court. “As I have said previously, the right to keep and bear arms is a right that Kansans hold dear,” Brownback said in a statement released Monday. “It is a right enshrined not Brownback only in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, but also protected by the Kansas Bill of Rights. The people of Kansas have repeatedly and overwhelmingly reaffirmed their commitment to protecting this fundamental right.” The statement came shortly after the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence announced it plans to challenge the law in federal court. The Brady Campaign is named after President Ronald Please see GUN, page 2A
Lost revenue from repeal of mortgage tax cited as reason By Elliot Hughes Twitter: @elliothughes12
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
LAWRENCE RESIDENTS BELLA PARADIS, 10, from left, Ellie Heinz, 8, and Jessica Heinz, 10, beat the heat while playing in the fountain Monday at South Park. Monday’s temperatures reached into the mid-90s. Today is expected to be cooler with a chance of storms. See the complete forecast, page 8A.
Craig Weinaug is currently helping craft his 23rd county budget and never before in his career as Douglas County administrator has a budget proposed a higher increase in property taxes than this latest one, he Weinaug said Monday. Weinaug’s proposed 2015 budget puts forward a 3.856 mill levy increase, necessitated mostly by lost revenue from the state government’s repeal of the mortgage registration tax, he said. When asked to describe how big of a hole the state Please see COUNTY, page 8A
City set to decide tax rebate request for $75M apartment project By Chad Lawhorn Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw
It is a $75 million waiting game. The leader of a Chicago development group wasn’t saying Monday whether plans for a $75 million, five-story apartment/retail building near the Kan-
sas University campus are at risk if the company doesn’t receive a reCITY quested 95 COMMISSION percent tax rebate from local governments. Lawrence city commis-
with the subsidy request,” said City Commissioner Bob Schumm. The city’s Public Incentives Review Committee last month was split on the request for a 95 percent tax abatement. The group deadlocked 4-4 on Please see REBATE, page 2A
INSIDE
Thunderstorm Business Classified Comics Deaths
High: 85
sioners on Tuesday will be the first of three local governments to consider the property tax rebate, but it is uncertain whether the rebate has the votes to win approval. “It is a project that would be competing with other landlords in the area, and that gives me a problem
Low: 60
Today’s forecast, page 8A
2A 5C-10C 4B 2A
Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles
5A, 2C Sports 3B Television 7A Health 3B
1C-4C, 10C 8A, 2C 1B-2B
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It is a project that would be competing with other landlords in the area, and that gives me a problem with the subsidy request.” — City Commissioner Bob Schumm
The marijuana trail
Vol.156/No.188 22 pages
Californian takes the stand to detail the movement of illegal drugs between California and Kansas in a $17 million federal drug conspiracy trial. Page 3A
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