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Bigger bangs: July 4 show to use larger fireworks in recent years — but with larger fireworks. Lawrence’s fireworks show is scheduled to start about 9:45 p.m., depending on cloud cover and other weather conditions, said Rick Bellinger, a past mem-
By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
As area communities prepare to celebrate Independence Day, Lawrence is planning similar festivities to those
ber of the Lawrence Jaycees who is in charge of setting off the fireworks. Fireworks will be shot from the Kansas River levee and should be easily visible from Watson and Burcham parks, Bellinger said.
He expects the show to last about 30 minutes. “The shells will be bigger this year than they have been in years past,” he said. This year, fireworks organizers decided to abandon the
smaller three-inch shells, which often didn’t climb high enough for people in Watson Park to see them, in favor of four- and fiveinch shells, Bellinger said.
School diplomas once deferred now conferred
A. Gomez
clong@ljworld.com
For people like Rashad Marshall and his mother, Dana, Thursday was a night of triumph. Marshall, 21, was one of 109 graduates who received diplomas from the Adult Learning Center. With a smile etched across his face, Marshall posed proudly for pictures in his gown after the ceremony. He hugged and huddled with family members, waves of joy washing over him, happy to have finished his studies. “It was a great program,” he said. “It just takes some effort and motivation to get it done. Once you get in, sit down and actually do the work, it’s pretty easy. (But) you gotta get your head on straight if you really want to get it done.” And Marshall’s head and focus have been fixed, which was clear from his mother’s joyful expression at the ceremony. “I’m just so grateful, thankful that he got it done,” she said. Many of the newest graduates had resumed their education after long breaks. Among them was Debbie Buchholtz, 58, who had dropped out during her senior year back in 1972. All Buchholtz ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. She got married at 17 and had
her first child within a couple of years. “You didn’t need a degree to be a wife and mother,” she said. “Now I think everybody should have a degree to be a wife and mother.” As Buchholtz grew older, she started to see that education was more worthwhile than she had ever imagined. With her children grown, she decided to contact the Adult Education Center. “It was the best thing I ever did in my whole life,” she said. “I waited 40 years for this.” For other graduates, the ceremony signified a step ahead. Josh Hoke, 17, for instance, decided to test out of high school early, so he could get a head start on college. “I don’t want to say that high school is a waste of time; it’s just that I was bored with it,” Hoke said. “If you’re gifted and you’re not feeling challenged enough, this program is a great idea. You’re getting a high school diploma. ... but you’re getting it two years faster.” Though the night was about triumphs and acknowledging goals reached, it was also tinged with hope for the future. There was lots of talk of what’s to come. For Marshall, he’s thinking computer science at a university. “I want to go to college ... get a career,” he said.
By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
JESSIE SHORT, 8, LEFT, and her brother Joshua, 4, greet their mother, Natasha Short, after she received her GED during Thursday evening’s Adult Learning Center Diploma Completion Program. Over 100 were awarded GED diplomas at the ceremony at the Free State High School auditorium. BELOW, Students turn to the audience to be recognized after Thursday’s graduation ceremony.
Kansas could face big costs in redistricting lawsuit By John Hanna Associated Press
TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature’s failure to redraw political boundaries this year could stick the state with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills from
parties involved in the resulting federal lawsuit, court records show. As of Thursday, attorneys for 18 of the 27 people suing Secretary of State Kris Kobach over unequal political representation had submitted requests to have their
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Today’s forecast, page 10A
attorneys’ fees and expenses covered by the state — totaling almost $614,000. The federal judges who imposed new congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts earlier this month must now determine what costs Kansas must cover.
Kobach promised to fight the requests, calling them “excessive.” Kobach was the first defendant, because his office administers elections, but Attorney General Derek Schmidt was allow to join as a defendant to deal only with
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An attorney for a suburban Chicago woman accused in a Lawrence child abuse case after her children were found bound and blindfolded implicated her client’s husband on Thursday as the culprit in the case. Deborah and Adolfo Gomez, of Northlake, Ill., both face charges in the case after they were arrested at Walmart in west Lawrence last week. “We submit the evidence in the case will show that Ms. Gomez is just as much a victim in this case as her children,” defense attorney Angela Keck said as she asked for a bond reduction for her client from $50,000 to $15,000. Keck also said Deborah Gomez had no knowledge and did not participate in the mistreatment of her two children, ages 5 and 7, who were bound by their hands and feet near the family’s vehicle. Police arrested Deborah Gomez inside the store and Adolfo Gomez in the parking lot, where he was with the children. “She did everything she could to protect her children,” Keck said. “He appeared to be in a complete
Please see LAWSUIT, page 2A Kobach
INSIDE
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D. Gomez
Mother says she was also a victim
More than 100 people receive GEDs in Adult Learning Center ceremony
By Chansi Long
Please see FIREWORKS, page 2A
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Engineering expansion
Please see ABUSE, page 2A
Vol.154/No.174 40 pages
The Kansas Board of Regents on Thursday supported increasing the expansion of the Kansas University School of Engineering. Page 3A
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