Lawrence Journal-World 10-05-2016

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Ryan Willis ‘excited’ to return to starting quarterback spot. 1C KAINE, PENCE FOCUS THEIR FIRE ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.

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Wednesday • October 5 • 2016

City hires consulting firm on housing, eco devo By Rochelle Valverde rvalverde@ljworld.com

The Lawrence City Commission has agreed to hire a national firm — for thousands of dollars per month — to help the city address the

issues of economic development and affordable housing. The commission has encountered public criticism of its past decisions on incentives for economic development, and City Manager Tom Markus told commissioners

that the firm will provide outside expertise that will help build credibility with the community. “I think what you have is an independent look at those programs,” Markus told commissioners at their meeting

Tuesday. “…When you know what’s going into the analysis to determine whether the incentive was legitimate or not, and you’re able to query the (consultant) about those

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phancock@ljworld.com

jhlavacek@ljworld.com

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n Friday, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks will visit Liberty Hall as part of the Lawrence Public Library’s Beach Author Series. Here, the Aussie author and former Wall Street Journal reporter shares insight into her novels, how fiction writing differs from journalism and the stories she’d like to tell next. The following is a condensed and edited version of Brooks’ interview with the Journal-World. You can catch her at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. The event is free and open to the public.

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I’d read somewhere that your father was a newspaper editor. Is that what got you interested in writing?

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I think why I like to write about the past is, if I’m going to write about the present, I still want to be a journalist .... But in the past, there were these voids where the voices were silent, because people didn’t get a chance to tell their own story. ”

— Geraldine Brooks, author

IF YOU GO Geraldine Brooks will speak at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. The event is free, and no tickets are required. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

No word on whether Menards project will continue Chamber narrows search Town Talk I think everybody but late-night comedians and attentioncraving hackers is ready for this presidential election to be over. Lawrence economic development leaders may have another reason to root for the finale: They still haven’t heard anything from Menards officials about if or when

Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

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VOL. 158 / NO. 279 / 34 PAGES

Topeka — A task force that Gov. Sam Brownback appointed in June is recommending sweeping changes to the way state officials forecast how much revenue the state will take in each year, including how much of that information is disclosed to the public. That would include stopping the current practice of issuing reports For the comparlife of me, I ing how much the cannot figure state ac- out why we tually collects each would take m o n t h away from with of- policymakers ficial estimates of information how much they need to the state make state was ex- policy.” pected to collect, re- — Sen. Tom Holland, ports that D-Baldwin City in recent months have exposed significant shortfalls that are likely to lead to large spending cuts later in the fiscal year. Instead, the group called for issuing monthly reports that compare only actual collections each month with actual collections from the same month the prior year. The report was released Tuesday, one day after the Department of Revenue reported that tax collections in September came in nearly $45 million short of projections and that the state now faces a potential $62 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. It was the fifth consecutive month in which revenues failed to meet projections, and the 10th month out of the last 12. In fact, revenues have fallen short of projections more often than not since 2013, when the large-scale tax cuts that Brownback championed during his first term went into effect.

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By Joanna Hlavacek

He was a proofreader, actually, in the days when they (newspapers) had such a valuable thing (laughs). I really can trace my desire to be a journalist from visiting him at work when I was only 8 years old. It just happened to be the afternoon when the afternoon edition was about to go to press,

Changes proposed for tax revenue reports By Peter Hancock

Pulitzer winner Geraldine Brooks to visit Liberty Hall

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for eco devo vice president

the home improvement retailer plans to start a project to build a new Lawrence manufacturing plant. “Our hope is they would take a harder look at the project

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after the election is completed,” Larry McElwain, president and CEO of the Lawrence chamber of commerce, told me. In case you have forgotten, Menards

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in January received approval to build a manufacturing facility on about 90 acres of property in Lawrence VenturePark. The facility — which would manufacture trusses, stone blocks and other products — would employ 100 to 150 people.

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CAULIFLOWER SOUP

— MINUS THE MILK In Crave, 1CRA


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