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Romney clinches GOP nomination By Stephen Ohlemacher Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday with a win in the Texas primary, a triumph of endurance for a candidate who came up short four years ago and had to fight hard this year as voters
flirted with a carousel of GOP rivals. According to the Associated Press count, Romney surpassed the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination by winning at least 88 delegates in the Texas primary. The former Massachusetts governor has reached the nomination milestone with a steady message of concern
about the U.S. economy, a campaign organization that dwarfed those of his GOP foes and a fundraising operation second only to that of his Democratic opponent in the general election, President Barack Obama. “I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy and I am humbled
‘It definitely will be a skyline-changer’
to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee,” Romney said in a statement.
NBAF funding running into roadblocks
By Scott Rothschild
srothschild@ljworld.com
operator’s notes from the 1930s,” Hill-Nelson says with an excitement only someone who grew up in a hydroelectric power plant could muster. Down here, her voice — and her excitement, too — echoes. At her back is a concrete wall whose thickness is measured in feet, not inches. About 30 feet above her head is a solid concrete ceiling. Staring
TOPEKA — A bipartisan effort led to Kansas winning a state-of-the-art federal research lab, but the project is running into opposition in Washington, D.C., officials said Tuesday. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, didn’t put funding for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in his proposed budget, and Republican leaders in Congress have been calling for significant cuts in federal spending. That has placed the National Bio and AgroDefense Facility, or NBAF, in the crosshairs and the Kansas congressional delegation — all Republicans — in an allhands-on-deck mode. “Everything that was rolling down the track in Washington is now subject to the environment that we face … in regards to spending money we don’t have and the deficit and the debt and our efforts to reduce spending,” said U.S. Roberts Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. But Roberts, and fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., and Gov. Sam Brownback said the need for NBAF to protect the world’s food supply from contagious animal diseases transcends federal budget problems. “This is an investment in national security,” Roberts said. “This is a top priority for the nation and the world.” Their comments came during a meeting of the NBAF steering committee. Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security selected Manhattan, Kan., as the future home of NBAF. Because Obama did not include money for the project in his latest budget proposal, “this has been a heavier lift than usual,” Jenkins said.
Please see PLANT, page 5A
Please see NBAF, page 2A
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
CREWS ARE ABOUT A YEAR into constructing a $25 million hydroelectric power plant for Bowersock Mills & Power Co. on the north bank of the Kansas River. When the building is completed, it will be about 48 feet taller than the top of the Kansas River levee. Designed by Lawrence-based Sabatini Architects, it will feature a glass story that allows passersby to see the inner workings of the plant.
Hydroelectric plant to get tall in a hurry By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
ONLINE: See the video at LJWorld.com
Sarah Hill-Nelson stands 30 feet below the Kansas River and knocks on wood. Not that wood is easily found. Here on the north bank of the Kaw, Hill-Nelson is surrounded by concrete, it seems. But mention the mild Kansas spring that has kept the waters of
the Kaw manageable, and she finds a 2-by-4 to rap. Talk of how this massive, $25 million hydroelec- Hill-Nelson tric power plant project has defied the odds to stay on schedule, and she finds a wooden form to touch. Down here in the depths
of the Kansas River, though, concrete just dominates the place. Hill-Nelson stands in something that some would say resembles a three-sided concrete tomb. Near her feet are four empty pits in a concrete floor. Soon enough the pits will house turbines. Two are new from China. But the two that Hill-Nelson gushes about came out of a 1930s hydroelectric power plant in Maine. “We actually have all the
Brownback tells federal panel to toss legislative redistricting maps By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday told a three-judge panel to throw out all the state House and
Senate redistricting plans that have been considered by the Legislature. In a friend of the court brief, Brownback’s chief counsel Caleb Stegall said the legislative maps varied
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of those plans comes close to the stringent standard of equality required by the Constitution for court ordered plans,” Stegall argued. “Therefore, this court must eschew the easy route
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too greatly in population from ideal size districts. “While this court has in front of it many plans considered at some point in the political process by the Kansas Legislature, none
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of simply approving one or the other of these plans.” Brownback’s position was given to the federal panel that is hearing testimony in Please see GOVERNOR, page 2A
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