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High: 71
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INSIDE
Program would help kids prep for college
Scenes from the
KANSAS RELAYS
Legendary golfer visits Alvamar
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School board to consider implementing AVID project
Hall of Fame golfer Billy Casper, pictured above, who won more than 50 PGA Tour tournaments including three majors, was at Alvamar Country Club this week to talk about the game, then and now. Page 1B STATE
Hospitals face staffing issues Low pay, long hours, dangerous working conditions and a voluntary retirement incentive program for state employees have led to major staffing problems at state hospitals, according to a report released Friday. Page 2A LAWRENCE
Hawley helps launch Leadership Kansas Steve Hawley, former astronaut and Kansas University professor, was on hand at the Lawrence Arts Center on Friday along with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to kick off 2012 Leadership Kansas program. Page 3A
“
QUOTABLE
Every once in a while, I say I need a camera; I need a picture of this because no one will believe the story.” — TA Mindrup, a certified car seat technician for Safe Kids Douglas County, talking about the usual ways he’s seen parents try to secure car seats. Mindrup has volunteered for the past 14 years, and was honored Tuesday as part of the United Way Roger Hill Volunteer Center’s annual Celebration of Volunteers. Page 3A
COMING SUNDAY Come with us as we tour the Poehler building at Eighth and Pennsylvania streets as it’s converted into lofts.
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INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Puzzles Sports Television Vol.154/No.112
8A 1C-6C 7A 2A 8A, 2B 5C 4A 6A 5C 1B-6B 4A, 2B, 5C 22 pages
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By Christine Metz cmetz@ljworld.com
TOP PHOTO: Kansas University distance medley teammates Maddy Rich, left, and Corinne Christensen cheer on their anchor, Rebeka Stowe, Friday at the Kansas at Memorial Stadium. These two, Stowe and Shayla Wilson, took first place in the event. ABOVE: Lawrence High School junior Monica Howard pulls her javelin from the pack as she prepares to compete Friday at Memorial Stadium. RIGHT: Free State senior Dayshawn Berndt, right, hands the baton to senior Kamp Wiebe during the distance medley Friday. For more coverage of the Kansas Relays, see pages 1B and 5B. Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
Court reconsiders closings after legislators vow to provide funding By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court said Friday it would reconsider future court closings and employee furloughs after key legislators promised that the judicial branch would receive funding to cover a revenue shortfall. Chief Justice Lawton Nuss issued a statement saying he was “encouraged by the assurances given today by the chair of the House Appropriations Committee and other committee members that the Judicial Branch would receive its supplemental appro-
priation for Fiscal Year 2012. The Court will meet Monday to consider this development.” E a r l i e r Nuss Friday, Appropriations Chair Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, and other members of the Appropriations Committee promised to fund the judiciary when the legislative session reconvenes next week. They also criticized the decision by Nuss to close courts and issue employee furloughs for five days. They said
Nuss should have known the Legislature would provide the funds needed by the courts even though the Legislature had a budget meltdown and failed to approve the funding before taking a nearly monthlong break. The judicial system needed $1.4 million to make payroll for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Both the House and Senate agreed on the funding, but the overall budget deal fell apart when the House refused to sign the appropriations bill because of a dispute over school funding. A few days after legislators left town, Nuss or-
dered the courts closed for five days, resulting in the furlough without pay of 1,500 employees. The first furlough occurred April 13, and the remaining ones are scheduled for April 27, May 11, May 18 and June 8. During a meeting of the Appropriations Committee on Friday, Republican and Democratic legislators expressed unhappiness with the decision, saying that they were getting heat from constituents. “If I’m going to get beat up, I want to know why,” state Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, Please see COURT, page 2A
A national program that prepares middle-of-the-road and first-generation college students for higher education could soon be implemented in Lawrence’s high schools. Known as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), the program targets students who get B’s, C’s and D’s, have a desire to got to college and a willingness to work hard. The students are often the first in their families to go to college, are from low-income families and are minorities. The AVID program is in 4,800 schools nationwide and serves more than 425,000 students. “Many of our kiddos and families have the supSCHOOLS port and ability to navigate the system; what AVID does is provide support for kids to navigate the system who might not otherwise have those tools,” said, Lucy Haines Dechairo, the Lawrence district’s director of administrative services. At the high school level, the program involves a daily class where students are taught organizational and study skills, work on critical thinking and learn to ask probing questions. The program would also include visiting college campuses, working with college-student tutors and receiving help with college applications and financial aid forms. Haines Dechairo has worked with the program as a school administrator in California Please see SCHOOL, page 2A
City eyes improvements to Ninth Street intersections By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
When it comes to the Ninth and Michigan area, what’s just over the hill isn’t always good news. The intersection in central Lawrence has had more than 12 accidents in the last three years, with many of the accidents the rear-end variety as eastbound motorists come over the hill and encounter a stopped vehicle waiting to turn left onto Michigan Street. “Motorists really don’t have a safe way of get-
ting out of the main flow lane for eastbound moof traffic to make that torists turning off Ninth turn,” said City Engineer Street onto Michigan. Shoeb Uddin. It also would include a The Ninth and Michi- turn lane for westbound gan intersection is one motorists turning off of two that city Ninth onto Emengineers hope ery Road. to win federal The project and state grant has an estimated money to im$300,000 price prove during tag, but grant the next round money from of funding. City the Federal-Aid CITY commissioners COMMISSION Safety Program at their Tuesday could pay for up evening meeting are be- $270,000 of the project, ing asked to approve the city engineers estimate. grant applications. Commissioners also The Ninth and Michi- are being asked to apgan project would in- ply for grant money to volve adding a left-turn improve the intersec-
tion of Ninth and Kentucky streets. The city is seeking $135,000 in grant funding to install a new traffic signal at the intersection. The current traffic signal is outdated and only provides one signal head in each direction. City engineers said safety would be improved if the intersection had a signal head over each lane of traffic. Regardless of the outcome of the grant application, the Ninth and Kentucky area is slated to undergo some improvements later this year. Construction
crews will be in the area of Ninth and Tennessee streets to install a new traffic signal and to widen the pavement to accommodate a left-turn lane. The road widening project will stretch to Ninth and Kentucky, which will allow for a left-turn lane for motorists heading east on Ninth Street who want to turn north onto Kentucky. Commissioners considered applying for grant funding at two other intersections, but backed away when it Please see CITY, page 2A