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LAWRENCE • STATE
| Saturday, April 2, 2011
BRIEFLY Candidates discuss issues at LJWorld.com LJWorld.com asked each of the candidates running for positions on the Lawrence school board and the Lawrence City Commission about issues they would face if elected. You can read the candidates’ responses and find out more information before Tuesday’s elections by going to LJWorld.com/elections.
KU student earns Goldwater scholarship A Kansas University junior from Lawrence is the 48th KU student since 1989 to win the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Logan Wille, a physics major studying storage options for renewable energy, won the award. He is joined by Scott Mitchell, a Salina junior, who earned an honorable mention for the award. Wille was one of 275 students nationally to win the scholarship, which is given to those studying science, engineering or mathematics. He hopes to continue his education and earn a doctorate degree in condensed matter physics and later become a teacher or researcher. Mitchell is simultaneously completing a chemical engineering undergraduate degree and bioengineering master’s degree. He hopes to earn a medical and doctoral degree and research ways to identify multiple sclerosis before symptoms appear.
Restaurants to donate profits to Just Food Kansas University graduate student Margaux DeRoux, 27, has stepped up to help Just Food, the Douglas County food pantry. After hearing about the pantry’s need to raise $100,000 to remain open, she approached Lawrence restaurant owners to see if they would help. A dozen have agreed to do so and are donating 5 or 10 percent of their profits. Here are the days they will be donating: ● April 3 — Esquina, 801 Mass., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. ● April 3 — The Burger Stand, 803 Mass., 4 p.m.-9 p.m. ● April 4 — Ingredient, 945 Mass. ● April 11 — Zen Zero, 811 Mass. ● April 12 — La Parrilla, 814 Mass. ● April 13 — Genovese, 941 Mass. ● April 18 — The Mirth Cafe, 745 N.H. ● April 21 — Dempsey’s Burger Pub, 623 Vt. ● April 25 — Teller’s, 746 Mass. ● April 26 — Local Burger, 714 Vt. ● April 27 — Quinton’s Bar & Deli, 615 Mass. ● Every Tuesday in April — Pachamama’s, 800 N.H. Just Food has raised 57 percent of its goal. The pantry serves about 60 people per day.
Meeting on sister city Hiratsuka is Sunday The support group for events and activities related to Hiratsuka, Japan, will meet at 2 p.m. Sunday at Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt. Members will provide an update on events in Hiratsuka related to the earthquake and tsunami in the country, student travel plans and fundraising opportunities for Japan aid. The meeting is open to the public.
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The health department works to protect and serve the community by: ● Safeguarding community health and safety through swift response to illness outbreaks. ● Identifying urgent and everyday health problems. ● Assessing health problems and promoting wellness by fostering community health initiatives. ● Collaborating with community partners to protect health and control the costs associated with health problems. Partridge has been director since 2007. Previously, he was associate director with the Reno County Health Department.
Bowling event benefits Special Olympics Kansas University’s Phi Delta Epsilon fraternity will host a bowling fundraiser for Special Olympics Kansas. Here are details: ● Noon to 2 p.m. May 1. ● At Jaybowl, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd. ● Each bowler is guaranteed two games for the $15 entry fee. ● Prizes to bowlers with the lowest overall score, the highest overall score, and the top three bowlers with the highest average scores of both games. ● Open to the first 96 bowlers who show up. Register: ksso.org/events.html.
Pub crawl to benefit H2 Foundation Drinking beer and donating to charity will go hand-in-hand in this spring’s Lawrence Pub Crawl on April 30. Registrations are due online by April 24. Proceeds from the crawl will go to the H2 Foundation, which benefits the Lawrence Humane Society and the Douglas County Red Cross. This year, organizer Jim Henderson said he hopes the money will help pay for a disaster relief trailer for the Red Cross. “We wanted to make sure it stayed in the local community,” Henderson said. Organizers are accepting team registrations for the event, which will visit various bars downtown from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. An after party will take place at Fatso’s, 1016 Mass., from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Teams can be five or six people, or 10 to 12 people. Registration will include a T-shirt and beer for the crawl. To register, visit Lawrencepubcrawl .org.
Report: Farmers plan huge planting season W I C H I T A — A new government report shows Kansas farmers expect to plant more acres in corn this spring than in any year since 1936. The Agricultural Statistics Service reported Thursday growers plan to seed 5.1 million corn acres this year, up 5 percent from last year. The forecast means growers are seeding more corn and soybeans combined than winter wheat. The agency also forecast soybean acreage to reach 4 million acres. Although down 7 percent from a year ago, it would still be the second largest soybean acreage in Kansas history. Sorghum plantings in Kansas were predicted at 2.5 million acres — the most in the country and a 6 percent increase from last year. About 132,000 acres of sunflowers are also anticipated to be seeded.
Legislators enter next budget phase By John Milburn Associated Press Writer
TOPEKA — The next challenge facing members of the House and Senate will be reconciling competing versions of the 2012 Kansas budget, following the release of a new revenue report that shows March tax collections were roughly $19 million below expectations. Officials pinned the shortfall mostly on income tax refunds paid to people who filed electronically who normally file later in the spring. Senate leaders expect the declines to be made up in April. “Anytime you get a negative monthly report it’s not good news,” said Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican. “I think there is somewhat of an extenuating circumstance in this report. Certainly not good news, but probably not as bad as it seems.” An updated revenue forecast will be released April 15. Legislators will use those numbers to adjust the budget as reconcile differences in the House and Senate versions. “Is it a concern? Yeah. Now if this month (April) is down it’s a great concern,” said Rep. Bill Feuerborn, a Garnett Democrat and member of the House budget negotiating team. “I think that’s why the bigger ending balance was pursued.” Both chambers propose spending about $14 billion from all funding sources, including about $6 billion from state revenues. However, the House creates a larger savings account at the end of the fiscal year to the sum of about $80 million. Senators are suggesting saving $8 million, a bit more than what Republican Gov. Sam Brownback proposed in January. If state revenue collections continue to miss estimates, the Senate plan would be out of balance, requiring cuts next fiscal year. But legislators will instead make those adjustments in April, since Kansas is constitutionally prohibited from passing a budget with a deficit. House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, said the March revenue numbers bolster his chamber’s budget plan, giving a cushion against another dip in the Kansas economy. “We should be in pretty good position to compromise on a budget ... we should have a healthy enough ending balance that we shouldn’t worry about making payments during the next year,” he said. Meanwhile, lawmakers are monitoring state sales tax figures that missed the monthly estimate by $7 million and were off $9 million for the first nine months of the fiscal year. Kansas increased the sales tax rate to 6.3 percent from 5.3 percent in 2010, which has generated more than $220 million more than through the first nine months of 2010. O’Neal said a continuation of the March decline bears monitoring. “I think you have to figure in we lose a lot of revenue for Internet sales. Until we can get back that, our sales tax
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Director of local health department to chat Dan Partridge, director of the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, will be available Monday to answer questions as part of National Public Health Week. He will participate in an online chat at 10:30 a.m. on WellCommons.com. You can submit your questions at anytime at WellCommons.com /chats. Make sure to log back into WellCommons.com either during or after the chat to see if your questions were answered.
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We should be in pretty good position to compromise on a budget ... we should have a healthy enough ending balance that we shouldn’t worry about making payments during the next year.” — House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson will be lower,” Feuerborn said. O’Neal said a legislative fiscal analyst has suggested that sales taxes were lagging and could signal slower economic growth. Senate Vice President John Vratil, a Leawood Republican who will be negotiating the budget compromise, said the two versions weren’t far apart, but there were a few areas of “glaring differences that make headlines.” Among those could be the cut proposed for the state’s 289 school districts. Senators propose cutting the base aid per student by $226, going from $4.012 to $3,786. The House would cut the rate to $3,762, but O’Neal said other bills are in the works that would redefine at-risk students and give districts more flexibility in using reserve accounts. Neither has passed the House, but O’Neal said they would add several hundred dollars back to the base state aid without increasing state spending. Vratil isn’t impressed with the House interest in shifting money to mask cuts in education. “They deal more with accounting gymnastics than they do with substantive changes in the law,” Vratil said.
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