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LAWRENCE • STATE
| Saturday, March 12, 2011
DEATHS DONNA SUE HUNSINGER (BEEBE) CRON A Celebration of Life Memorial Service for Donna Sue Hunsinger (Beebe) Cron, 70, of Lawrence, will be at a later date. Cremation is planned. She died Friday, March 11, 2011, at her home. She was born May 16, 1940, in Lawrence, the daughter of Guy Charles and Elmeda Elza Shook Hunsinger. She worked in data entry for Sally Mae and was a homemaker. Survivors include two sons, John Cron and Terry Cron, both of Lawrence; three daughters, Gina Elza Snodgrass and Cynthia Susan Kopf, both of
Lawrence, and Leslie Sharp, of Tennessee; a sister, Ronda Sheppard, Eudora; a half-sister, Minnie Thomas, Cron Lawrence; a half-brother, Charles Hunsinger, Valley Center; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. Lawrence Chapel Oaks Crematory and Funeral Services is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be made at barnettchapeloaks.com.
MADALYN RUTH S IMPSON Memorial services for Madalyn Ruth Simpson, 88, Lawrence, are pending and will be announced by Warren-McElwain Mortuary. She
died Thursday, March 10, 2011, at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community in Lawrence.
EVA M ILBERGER M ICHAELIS RUSSELL — Services for Eva Milberger Michaelis, 93, Russell, were Friday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Russell. Burial was in Russell City Cemetery.
Mrs. Michaelis died Monday, March 7, 2011, at the Trego County Hospital in WaKeeney. She was the mother of Linda Davis, Lawrence.
Budget
was willing to make. Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said public schools have been cut sharply over the past three years. Hensley said the HouseSenate budget conference committee should continue working. Of Brownback, he said, “He can’t even bring members of his own party together.” House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, also said the budget conference committee could continue meeting, but Senate members indicated that Brownback’s budget cuts would suffice for the current fiscal year, and the Legislature should focus during the rest of the legislative session on writing a budget for the next fiscal year. The budget cuts include $2.3 million from the Kansas Board of Regents. But Kip Peterson, a spokesman for the regents, said that money is coming from an overfunded infrastructure loan program and shouldn’t affect higher education operations.
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by the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30. He said he would like legislators now to focus on the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and that faces a nearly $500 million deficit. Noting the state’s 110,000 unemployed, Brownback said, “Our focus must be to grow the state’s economy and get those folks back to work. We do that and we’ll have additional funding for everyone’s budget priorities.” Brownback said he picked up the budget knife after House and Senate negotiations fell apart. Brownback had asked the Legislature on Jan. 12 to send him a bill that would cut spending and provide a $35 million ending balance. The House and Senate passed different versions. But negotiators couldn’t hammer out the differences. The House wanted deeper cuts to education than the Senate
Murder trial in death of hip-hop artist goes to jury ————
Defense attorney claims shooting being pinned on client By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
A Douglas County jury will resume deliberations Monday morning in the firstdegree murder trial of a Kansas City, Kan., man accused of shooting and killing a Lawrence hip-hop artist in 2006. Prosecutors during the five-day trial accused Durrell Jones, 26, of killing Anthony “Clacc” Vital, 28, to collect on a drug debt. “Only one person had the gun in his hands on COURTS Oct. 14 in the nighttime hours,” chief assistant district attorney Amy McGowan said during closing arguments Friday afternoon. “And only one person shot Anthony Vital while he was defenseless.” But Jones’ defense attorney John Kerns said the evidence was inconsistent and that a co-defendant, Major C. Edwards Jr., 31, who pleaded to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, was trying to pin the shooting on Jones. “Getting years off whatever he pled to was just gravy, that’s what he’s trying to tell you,” Kerns told jurors. A jury of 11 women and one
Kansas University is launching an internal search to find a new senior vice provost for academic affairs. Barbara Romzek, who had been serving in the role on an interim basis, will return to fulltime scholarship. Romzek has also served in the past as KU’s interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is a former chairwoman of KU’s department of public administration. Romzek became interim vice provost in August 2009, and was promoted to interim senior vice provost in the fall of 2010. She will stay in the role until Aug. 31 to help the new senior vice provost transition into the person’s new responsibilities.
By John Hanna
Registration open for KU’s Mini College Registration is now open for Kansas University’s Mini College, a weeklong program that serves as something like a summer camp for adults. And because there are no degrees or college credit awarded, there aren’t any tests to worry about, either. The program is developed by
Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a Zumba party to spread awareness of heart disease and empower women to live a heart-healthy life. The Zumbathon will be from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. March 19 at the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St. Zumba is a dance fitness program featuring interval and resistance training for a fullbody, rhythmic workout. There is a $10 fee and preregistration is required. Seventy-five percent of proceeds go to the American Heart Association. Registration is available online at lprd.org or the Community Building. For more information, contact Jo Ellis, recreation instruction supervisor, at 832-7930.
“
We should just start over and write a TOPEKA — A Kansas Senate common-sense bill.” Associated Press Writer
committee on Friday considered a Democratic legislator’s alternative to Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s bill to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, and the lawmaker said her measure would attack election fraud without suppressing turnout. The proposal from Rep. Ann Mah, of Topeka, would require voters to show iden— Statehouse reporter Scott Rothschild can tification at the polls, but it be reached at 785-423-0668. could be non-photo ID, such as a paycheck, utility bill or bank statement. Like Kobach, she’s also proposing to require people who register to vote for the first time in KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Kansas to provide evidence Sciences, and will run June 6-9. that they’re citizens, but her More than 125 participants requirements are not as strict attended in the first two years. as what Kobach proposes. Registration is open now at Her bill, before the Senate minicollege.ku.edu. For a $225 Ethics and Elections Comregistration fee, participants mittee, also omits a key proget a week of lectures delivposal in Kobach’s legislation, ered by top KU faculty, allowing the secretary of extracurricular activities and state’s office to file and prostours and social events. ecute election fraud cases in
Parks and Rec to put on Zumbathon
man deliberated about 90 minutes on Friday. The jury has the option of convicting Jones of premeditated firstdegree murder, intentional second-degree murder or finding him not guilty. Prosecutors presented evidence, including cell phone records and DNA evidence, they said corroborated Edwards’ testimony. He had said Jones pulled a gun on him and Vital in a car Edwards drove that night. Edwards said he had agreed to take Jones to pick up Vital because Jones wanted Vital to pay him for a bottle of PCP Jones had fronted him about a month before. But Edwards said Jones pulled out the gun and directed Edwards to keep driving until Jones told him to pull over about two miles west of Lawrence on a rural driveway. Edwards has said the three bailed out of the car in a hurry and Vital ran into Jones, who shot him three times. They left the body there as Edwards said Jones threatened him, and they returned to a party at a Lawrence apartment on Sixth Street. Edwards then left town because he said he feared Jones would come after him. Officers arrested him days later in Mississippi. McGowan told jurors that testimony and physical evidence backs up Edwards’ ver-
sion of events, including DNA evidence found near the body linked both to Edwards and Vital. But Kerns said prosecutors could not determine how the items linked to Jones, a Neosporin cap and an unsmoked Moore cigarette, at the scene got there. He said Edwards had been driving several people around Lawrence for several days in a borrowed car and the items could have fallen out. He also questioned why Edwards, who said he was held at gunpoint in the car, entered a plea in the case. “Is that a crime? Does that based on your common sense tell you that that’s a crime?” Kerns said. Edwards testified he was remorseful for leading Jones to Vital when he knew Jones had a gun. McGowan said witnesses who saw Jones earlier that day linked him to the alleged murder weapon, not Edwards. “There has not been a shred of evidence to show it was in Major Edwards’ hands,” McGowan said, “not a shred of evidence to show that anyone else other than Durrell Jones had a motive to kill Anthony Vital.” — Reporter George Diepenbrock can be reached at 832-7144. For crime, safety and courts news, follow him at Twitter.com/lawrencecrime.
Senators review alternative to Kobach voter ID measure
BRIEFLY Search for new senior vice provost launched
L AWRENCE J OURNAL -WORLD
— Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka state courts. Kobach has said he wants to give Kansas the toughest laws against election fraud in the nation, but Mah, a vocal critic of his proposals, contends they will make it harder for people to register and to vote without doing enough to combat fraud. The Senate committee had a hearing on Mah’s proposals and expects to consider them and Kobach’s legislation when it debates election fraud issues next week. The House approved Kobach’s bill last month, and Mah said she doesn’t see a way to fix his legislation. “We should just start over and write a common-sense bill,” Mah said. Mah’s proposals have received far less attention than Kobach’s legislation.
Hearings have been packed for multiple days when his bill has been reviewed by committees in both chambers, but the hour-long hearing for Mah’s bill drew only a handful of spectators, and Kobach wasn’t present. Brad Bryant, the elections director for the secretary of state’s office, said Kobach’s bill is more comprehensive, and county officials have already said they can administer it effectively. “We believe we’ve offered the Legislature a better alternative,” he said. Mah has taken the unusual step of bypassing the House to get her proposals considered in the Senate. The House vote on Kobach’s bill was 8336, and Mah said before Friday’s hearing that she sees little point in pushing her proposal there, though she’s the ranking minority party member on the Elections Committee. “It’s not going anywhere over there,” she said. “They already have a voter bill, and they’re not going to pass two of them.”
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Lawsuit CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public schools. The local option tax was capped so wealthy districts wouldn’t have an unfair advantage over poorer ones, and the Shawnee Mission district — one of the wealthiest in Kansas — has reached the maximum amount allowed. Lawmakers wrote into the law that the cap on local property taxes could not be broken away from the rest of the formula. Lungstrum said that means if he sided with parents and ruled the cap unconstitutional, it would dismantle the entire formula, so he decided not to rule “on
the question of whether there is a rational basis” for the local cap. The state’s attorney in the case, Alan Rupe, agreed: “We characterized it as Armageddon,” he said. An attorney for the parents, Tristan Duncan, was thankful for the quick ruling but hoped her clients would win on appeal in time to hold a tax vote and have the new money available for next year’s school budget, which must be completed by Aug. 25. “We’re disappointed, but we intend to file an appeal soon,” Duncan said, adding that a Harvard constitutional law expert helping on the case “believes there is constitutional significance to this case and we will be vindicat-
ed on appeal.” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the decision leaves balance intact. “We will continue to defend the authority of the Legislature and the governor to set school funding priorities and to balance competing interests,” Schmidt said in a statement. Rupe said it was clear ahead of Friday’s ruling that whichever side came up short would appeal. Rupe also is representing more than 60 school districts in a separate lawsuit that claims Kansas hasn’t adequately funded schools as required by the 2005 formula. He suggested the Shawnee Mission parents join that lawsuit if they wanted to increase state aid.
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