L A W R E NC E
JOURNAL-WORLD ÂŽ
75 CENTS
3!452$!9 s -!9 s
LJWorld.com
Kansas House rejects Senate GOP tax increase By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Republicans leaders on Friday adjourned the Legislature for the long holiday weekend after being unable to reach a consensus on taxes and the budget.
Storm chance
High: 80
Legislature adjourns for holiday weekend; new plan teed-up Later on Friday, Senate conferees accepted a new House offer in the tax conference committee, but the Senate majority leader said the plan was unlikely to pass the full Senate.
Democrats, who have been relegated to the sidelines, said the overtime session was going downhill fast. House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, said the Legislature was in
“meltdown� mode. On Thursday, the Senate, with only Republican support, approved a five -year, $824 million tax increase that increased the state sales tax, eliminated
‘I hate to see what’s happening here’
Low: 64
Today’s forecast, page 10B
INSIDE
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
Free State High’s Alexa HarmonThomas cruised to a first-place finish in Friday’s 300-meter hurdle preliminaries, and also won the long jump and finished second in the high jump. Page 1B
“
QUOTABLE
He looked in the mirrors and it just dropped out of sight.� — Cynthia Scott, wife of truck driver William Scott, whose rig hit the steel framework of a bride on Interstate 5 in Mount Vernon, Wash. The bridge immediately collapsed. Page 6A
FOLLOW US Facebook.com/LJWorld Twitter.com/LJWorld
INDEX
GAY RIGHTS
Scouting decision seen as positive locally sdhittle@ljworld.com
Students in all grades advanced to the next level on Friday in a ceremony that goes beyond senior graduation. Emilie Padgett and Padget Sutherland gave the valedictory address. Page 3A
Big day at State
Please see SESSION, page 2A
By Shaun Hittle
Bishop Seabury students step up
SPORTS
deductions, but cut income tax rates. Gov. Sam Brownback, who has championed income tax cuts as the way to spur the
SEAN HALL, WHO HAS BEEN THE GENERAL MANAGER at Club Magic for two months, says that he wants to improve the image of the club and hopes to establish a better relationship with the community.
Manager trying to turn around new club at troubled location
By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com
Sean Hall will be the first to agree that Club Magic has problems. Two months after taking over as general manager of the club, he’s seen a shooting victim bleeding in the parking lot on the same night that security guards disarmed a man brandishing a gun at the bar. The two incidents together early Sunday morning — though apparently unrelated — drew the attention of police and the public to a nightclub that, while only about a year old, occupies a building in Lawrence long associated with such incidents. At least one city commissioner has called this week for THE BUILDING THAT HOUSES CLUB MAGIC, at 804 W. 24th St., adjacent to the 23rd Street McDonald’s, has experienced several incidents of violence Please see CLUB, page 4A through the years despite changes in ownership.
Business 2A Classified 1C-6C Comics 8B Deaths 2A Events listings 2B, 10B Horoscope 5C Movies 4A Opinion 9A Puzzles 5C By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com Society 10A Sports 1B-7B Last Wednesday, a chunk of Television 2B, 10B, 5C ceiling in a Lawrence police capVol.155/No.145 26 pages tain’s office came crashing down and made a mess, fortunately falling while he was out of the room. For police, it was just another reminder that their work spaces — split between the downtown law enforcement center and an office building to the west —
Though he was not out as gay at the time, Lawrence resident and Kansas University graduate Matt Williams said the issue of sexual orientation never came up during his involvement with the Boy Scouts in Wichita, where he became an Eagle Scout in 2006. It was just a nonissue, and that’s one of the reasons he sees the vote Thursday by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay youths to participate in the program as “a step in the right direction.� “I look back on my time in the organization fondly and hope that it continues to stay relevant and accepting of all those that wish to join,� Williams said. The Scouts’ long-standing ban on gay adults remains in force, and many liberal Scout leaders — as well as gay-rights groups — plan to continue pressing for an end to that exclusion as well, even though the BSA’s top officials aren’t ready for that step. Thursday’s vote was conducted by secret ballot during the National Council’s annual meeting near Dallas. Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee to overturn the ban. The policy change takes Please see SCOUTS, page 2A
Police dept.’s case for new facility against budget wall are less than ideal. Plans exist for a new police station, and city officials working on next year’s budget say it will be needed eventually. But when the city will be able to afford a $24 million to $30 million project to build it remains uncertain. In the meantime, police say they are making do with cramped quarters at the Judicial and Law
Enforcement Center at 111 E. 11th way that isn’t well-equipped for St., which the city shares with police business like safekeeping sensitive electronic records and county agencies. interrogating suspects. ‘Bursting at the seams’ At the downtown police build“We’re kind of bursting at ing, the ceiling collapse in the the seams here,� said Sgt. Trent captain’s office Wednesday McKinley, a Lawrence Police was blamed on jack hammering Department spokesman. Worse, above, from workers replacing McKinley said, is that the rest the roof. Rainwater leaking into of the department is spread out the police department’s comawkwardly over several loca- puter server area and evidence tions, including an office buildPlease see POLICE, page 2A ing at 4820 Bob Billings Park-
/BUJPOBM 4FOJPS )FBMUI BOE 'JUOFTT %BZ 8FEOFTEBZ .BZ B N " ! ! "
#
t XXX MNI PSH