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Commission to set bid date for rec center Decisions of current commission likely to prevail after election
By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
181,000-square-foot building, slated for an area near the northeast corner of Sixth Street and the South Lawrence Trafficway. But the bid process up for approval ensures that it will be the next city commission — the one installed after the April 2 election — that will be responsible for accepting the bids and
After more than a year’s worth of noise surrounding a proposed $25 million recreation center, city commissioners today are set to put the project on track toward construction. Commissioners are being asked to approve a May 7 bid opening for the
they aren’t comfortable in revisiting the contentious recreation center decision now that the current city commission has committed to the project. If those positions hold, that makes it unlikely that a future commission would overturn any decision on the recreation center. Three of the five city commission seats are
Please see REC, page 2A
Candidates rate City Hall on strengths, weaknesses
Low: 24
Today’s forecast, page 12A
INSIDE
Search on for new Franklin Co. sheriff Names are being considered for a replacement for Sheriff Jeff Curry, who will resign. Curry’s successor Curry will be nominated by the Franklin County Republicans, the local political party holding the office, then sent to the governor for approval. Page 4A
By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
SUPREME COURT
Gay marriage case a hot ticket Members of the public began lining up Thursday for a shot at one of the few available seats for today’s arguments in a gay marriage case. Page 5A
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Brennan Linsley/AP Photo
KANSAS PLAYERS CELEBRATE after defeating South Carolina, 75-69, in a second-round game in the women’s NCAA Tournament on Monday in Boulder, Colo. The team’s next game will be Sunday in Norfolk, Va.
QUOTABLE
The prison overpopulation crisis has reached critical mass. If things continue as they are, we’re going to have two options: spend a lot more money building new prisons or release some people early, possibly including dangerous inmates.� — Rep. John Rubin, R-Shawnee, on a bill passed by the House that would lock up fewer convicts, and for shorter periods of time. Page 3A
INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Puzzles Sports Television Vol.155/No.85
2A 7B-11B 11A 2A 12A, 2B 11B 4A 10A 11B 1B-6B 10A, 2B, 11B 24 pages
History repeats itself as team heads for next round of play J-W Staff and Wire Reports
BOULDER, COLO. — There they go again. Proving that last year’s run to the Sweet 16 was no fluke, Kansas University’s women’s basketball team has repeated the feat this year. Senior Monica Engelman scored a career-high 27 points, and KU became just the second No. 12 seed to advance to the Round of 16 with a 75-69 victory over
fourth-seeded South Carolina on Monday night. Angel Goodrich added 20 points for the Jayhawks (20-13), a tournament bubble team that joined San Francisco in 1996 as the only No. 12 seeds to follow up a win in the opening round with another in the second. In 2012, the Jayhawks made it to the Round of 16 as a No. 11 seed, where they lost to Tennessee after defeating Nebraska and Delaware.
“We wanted that feeling again,� Goodrich said. The Jayhawks will face the winner of tonight’s game between No. 1-seeded Notre Dame (32-1) and No. 9 Iowa (21-12) in the Round of 16 on Sunday in Norfolk, Va.
See more on the game
in Sports, page 1B, and a photo gallery at KUSports.com.
More transparency and better long-range planning are among the items Lawrence City Hall needs to improve upon, according to City Commission candidates participating in a Monday night forum. As the campaign enters its home stretch before the April 2 election, candidates at a forum hosted by Lawrence cable channel 6News were asked to give their views on how they viewed the past performance of Lawrence City Hall. Transparency and an open dialogue came up as concerns for multiple candidates. “It seems like we just get sales pitches from City Hall,� said candidate Leslie Soden, a local pet care business owner. Soden said she also wished city officials did a better job of following already adopted plans rather than issuing so many variances. Scott Criqui — an executive with Lawrence’s Trinity In-Home Care — said the city’s decision to convert the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant into a new business park has been one of its better decisions. But he said the process for deciding how to proceed on a proposed $25 million recreation center was inadequate. “I heard that everywhere,� said Criqui, who has advocated that the issue should have been put to a citywide vote. Terry Riordan — a Lawrence pediatrician — said he thought the city had learned in the past few months about the importance of keeping residents more informed, and he also said the city needs to do more in the area of long-range planning. Rob Chestnut — a chief financial officer for a Topeka company and a former city commissioner — said he heard often from residents about the need to have a citywide plan that spells out what major projects are expected over the next seven to 10 years. Please see CANDIDATES, page 2A
Student activists lead charge to change clothing at KU ————
Union bookstores agree to carry line of apparel from living-wage factory By Matt Erickson merickson@ljworld.com
Villa Altagracia, a small village in the Dominican Republic, within weeks will be the source of crimson-and-blue Jayhawk T-shirts coming to the Kansas University campus. But a few months ago, it sent something else to KU: a sophomore with a
burning desire to make things different. It took the efforts of others, and it may have been a bit messy, but now it’s happening. Next month, the KU Bookstore will begin stocking KUthemed shirts from the brand Alta Gracia, from a factory in the Dominican Republic where employees are paid a wage they can live on and where
a workers’ rights group keeps watch. Behind the move were a fiery student who wanted things to change right this second and a multimillion-dollar operation that needed to proceed with caution. And while the two did not always get along on the way here, this news is something they both can cheer. It was only three
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months ago that Jaden Gragg, a KU sophomore from Shawnee, was preparing to spend two weeks of her winter break traveling to the Dominican Republic. She’d gotten an email from an instructor of hers, Giselle Anatol, telling her about an opportunity: a study-abroad trip to visit with garment workers. Anatol, an associate
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City staff will host an open house on the new rec center from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. today at City Hall. The public will have a chance to review the plans and amenities for the proposed 181,000-square-foot building.
up for election, but the two holdover commissioners — Mayor Bob Schumm and Commissioner Mike Dever — have been enthusiastic supporters of the current plans. “I think it becomes dangerous to have commissions overturn the
KU women advance to Sweet 16
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issuing $25 million worth of bonds needed to pay for the facility. On Monday, two candidates in the field said they are holding open the possibility of redesigning the project or significantly shrinking it if they are elected to office. But the other four candidates in the field have indicated
Open house today
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professor of English, taught Gragg in a class that examined the differences between animated Disney movies and the original stories on which they were based. It was an honors class, and Gragg was a great student, Anatol said, but she also made it clear that she’d set her sights bePlease see CLOTHING, page 5A
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