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SATURDAY • AUGUST 23 • 2014
RACE FOR GOVERNOR
2014 LAWRENCE BUSKER FESTIVAL
Hopefuls bicker on approach to taxes
Extreme acts earn applause By Joanna Hlavacek Twitter: @HlavacekJoanna
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obby Maverick had gotten himself into a bit of a tight spot. It was just after 7 p.m. near the corner of Seventh and Massachusetts streets Friday, and Maverick, restrained in a straight jacket, was stuck under 50 feet and 75 pounds of padlocked iron chain. But he wasn’t worried. Maverick shrugged his shoulders, one chain falling easily off his body. The second chain, however, proved more of a challenge. “Time for the secret weapon,” Maverick joked to a crowd of about 200, using his tongue to brush the metal links off his shoulder. “Tastes like Detroit.” In about two minutes, Maverick managed to wiggle, wriggle and squirm his way out of the straight
Brownback accuses Davis of plans to increase rates for low-income Kansans By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
ELECTION
2014
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Please see ACTS, page 7A
IF YOU GO The seventh annual Lawrence Busker Festival continues today between Seventh and 11th streets in downtown Lawrence. For a more detailed schedule of every performance, check out the Busker Festival’s website, lawrencebuskerfest.com. Today 2:45 to 11 p.m. Sunday 1 to 6 p.m.
TOPEKA — The two candidates for governor in Kansas reignited an age-old semantic debate over what constitutes a “tax increase.” In June, Democrat Paul Davis proposed freezing income tax The one and rates in 2015, the year he would take office only economic if he wins the race, vision that and preventing any further scheduled tax Paul Davis has cuts from taking ef- articulated is fect, at least until state a 17 percent funding for K-12 edu- tax increase cation returns to its on the poorest prerecession level. Friday, Republican Kansans.” Gov. Sam Brownback’s campaign re- —John Milburn, leased a statement saying that amounts Brownback spokesman to a tax increase on low-income Kansans The Davis making less than $10,000 a year and a proposal does tax break for married not raise tax couples making more than $200,000 a year. rates on a “It is appalling that single Kansan.” the one and only economic vision that Paul — Democrat Paul Davis Davis has articulated is a 17 percent tax increase on the poorest Kansans,” Brownback’s
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Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photos
ABOVE: BEKAH SMITH, 30, of Boulder, Colo., had a hot trick as she juggled flaming torches at the Lawrence Busker Festival downtown Friday night. TOP: Michael Trautman, 60, of Portland, Maine, popped ping-pong balls out of his mouth and caught them again in a light breeze. See more Lawrence Busker Festival photos at LJWorld.com and on Page 7A.
Please see TAXES, page 2A
Austin’s ‘weird,’ but we’ve got ‘quirky’
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ut down your Honk for Hemp signs, park your Art Tougeau cars and tell the zombies on Massachusetts Street to take a break from the brains: The website of Travel+Leisure magazine has named Lawrence one of the quirkiest towns in America. The magazine ranks Lawrence No. 15 on its list. Some examples of our quirkiness, according to the website: The Busker Festival, going on this weekend; the fire department’s annual rescue of Santa off the roof of Weaver’s department store; and the Museum of the Odd and its collection of nearly 600 sock monkeys. Other towns on the list include: Bloom-
ington, Ind., ranked No. 9, in part for its large number of Tibetan Buddhists; Charleston, Va., No. 8 for Edgar Allan Poe’s dorm room that is kept behind glass; and Boulder, THE MUSEUM OF THE ODD, Colo., for its annu- 1012 New York St., and its massive sock puppet al Tube to Work collection is just one of Day. Taking the many attractions that top spot, though, makes Lawrence quirky. was Asheville, N.C., where you can sign up for a tour to forage in the woods for “fairy potato,” a type of fungus that grows on trees and is promoted as the “Mushroom of Immortality.”
Business Classified Comics Deaths
Low: 73
Today’s forecast, page 10A
Museum of the Odd/Contributed Photo
INSIDE
Hot, sunny
High: 98
— Chad Lawhorn
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Scissor stabbing A Lawrence woman Friday pleaded no contest to her role in repeatedly stabbing another woman in the face with a small pair of scissors in June. Page 4A
Vol.156/No.235 28 pages