Lawrence Journal-World 05-04-12

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CITY SHOWDOWN

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Free State girls best LHS in soccer Sports 1B

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Doctor: Let state smoking ban be

Tax cut plan revised

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‘We simply cannot go backwards,’ lawmakers told

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Lawmakers trying to avoid shortfalls in future budgets

By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com

TOPEKA — The director of the Kansas University Cancer Center on Thursday urged legislators to leave the state indoor smoking ban alone. Dr. Roy Jensen said a proposal to weaken the ban could hurt the Cancer Center’s effort to win National Cancer Institute designation and would be hazardous to the health of Kansans. Jensen “We simply cannot go backwards,” Jensen said during a briefing of legislators on KU’s application for NCI designation. Earlier this week, the House Federal and State Affairs Committee approved a bill that would allow smoking in Kansas bars. The measure, now before the full House and up for a possible vote today, would allow smoking in any private business that has only patrons and employees who are at least of legal drinking age. Kansas banned smoking in most private businesses in 2010. “Tobacco cessation has clearly been identified as the No. 1 thing we can do to improve the health of citizens,” Jensen said. The committee also has recommended at the urging of tobacco lobbyists that the Kansas Department of Please see SMOKING, page 2A

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By John Hanna Associated Press Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

KANSAS UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR BERNADETTE GRAY-LITTLE, center, hosted a reception for outstanding Lawrence students Thursday at Spooner Hall, encouraging them to enroll at their hometown university.

KU doesn’t look far from nest for next group of Jayhawk scholars By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com

Kansas University rolled out its red carpet to “townies” on Thursday, inviting top academic performers from Lawrence’s high schools to join KU’s chancellor, other KU and civic leaders, and KU students from Lawrence in the hopes of enticing some of the potential recruits to stick around Lawrence when they choose a college. Students performing in the top 20 percent of their sophomore or junior class at Lawrence High, Free State, Veritas Christian School and Bishop Seabury Academy were invited to KU’s Spooner Hall for some food, mingling and an opportunity to hear about how KU markets itself to students in the

Going to KU is like living on another planet.” — Libby Johnson, a KU senior who stayed in her hometown after attending Lawrence High School city they all share. It was a new event for KU, and about 300 people, including about 100 high school students, took the university up on the offer. KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said the university already enrolled about 1,200 students from Lawrence. “I think we’ve kind of taken it for granted” in the past that students from Lawrence would find their way to KU, Gray-Little said. “We want to make sure you always feel welcome.” After the speeches, many of the high school

students said the messages they heard from the KU students there were what stuck with them. For their part, the university students did their best to dispel the notion that coming to KU would feel just like moving to a new school down the block. “Going to KU is like living on another planet,” said Libby Johnson, a KU senior who attended Lawrence High School and who served as KU’s student body president this past year. “And then when you need to get your

laundry done, your old home is really not that far away,” she added later. Those sentiments seemed to match the concerns that several in the audience expressed about KU. “It’s not that I hate it here,” said Zoe Reed, a junior from Lawrence High School. “I love it here.” But still, she said, there’s that desire to blaze a new trail and experience new things. She’s still leaving her college options open for now, but she liked what she heard the students say Thursday. Logan Bannister, a Free State junior, probably didn’t need too much convincing. He’s considering Stanford and KU, but admits he’s

TOPEKA — Kansas legislators on Thursday rewrote a plan for cutting income and sales taxes to alleviate concerns that the reductions would create future budget problems. Three senators and three House members drafting the final version of the tax package agreed to changes that would prevent projected budget shortfalls over the next six years. Supporters of the cuts believe they’ll stimulate economic growth, but they also said they want projections to show that the state would have at least a small budget surplus in July 2018. As revised, the plan still would reduce individual income tax rates, but not as aggressively as negotiators previously had planned. The measure would phase out income taxes for 191,000 partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses and drop the sales tax to 5.7 percent in July 2013 from its present 6.3 percent. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has been pushing the GOP-controlled Legislature to reduce income taxes. But Democrats and some Republicans have feared large tax cuts would force the state to cut aid to public

Please see KU, page 2A

Please see TAX, page 2A

City tells store that longtime annual poultry sale violates code By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

You don’t want to fool around with fowl. At least when it comes to interpreting the law, that’s the position city attorneys are taking. City officials confirmed on Thursday that they have notified Orscheln Farm and Home, 1541 E. 23rd St., that its long-standing

practice of selling young chickens and ducks from its store is in violation of a city code crafted to regulate the raising of chickens in residential backyards. The store, which has been hosting its annual Chick Days Sale for more than a decade, abruptly ended the sale in midApril, about two weeks earlier than normal, after the city notified the store it was in violation. “It has been quite a loss in revenue

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and it has been quite a loss for our customers, too,” said Jamie Knabe, an assistant manager at Orscheln. Assistant City Attorney Chad Sublet said inspectors with the city’s Animal Control Division inspected Orscheln’s indoor coops that house the baby chickens and ducks after a citizen inquiry was made. Sublet said he reviewed the city law related to legally housing chick-

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ens in the city limits and felt it left him no room to grant an exemption for Orscheln. The issue comes up just a few weeks after the city received significant publicity by strictly interpreting the law to prevent a local artist from publicly slaughtering chickens as part of an art exhibit. The city attorney’s office also cited the law to

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