L A W R E NC E
JOURNAL-WORLD ®
75 CENTS
&2)$!9 s /#4/"%2 s
Breezy again
High: 60
LJWorld.com
1985 rape charge dropped
Scenes from a farmers’ market
Low: 36
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE
——
Statute of limitations precludes prosecution
Third time’s a charm for LHS
By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
After dropping its first two matches to cross-town rival Free State High School, the Lawrence High volleyball team savored victory on Thursday, spoiling Senior Night for the Firebirds. Page 1B STATE
Dems blast website on school waste Democrats including House Minority Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence are criticizing Gov. Sam Brownback’s website where people can leave anonymous tips about perceived examples of waste in public schools. Davis called for the government to restore funding cuts to schools rather than “demonizing them and searching for excuses to cut their funding even more.” Page 3A
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
MICHAEL PAULL, top center, provides some entertainment as he plays guitar Thursday at Cottin’s Hardware Farmers’ Market, 1832 Massachusetts. At left, center row, are Patrick Hazucha, 15 months, and his father, Andy Hazucha, of Lawrence, and at right, center row, are Nan Renbarger, of Overbrook, and Karl Ramberg, of Lone Star.
Voter registration down in county The deadline to register to vote passed Tuesday. Advance voting has started and continVoter registration has ues through Nov. 5. Election Day is Nov. 6.
By Scott Rothschild
srothschild@ljworld.com
“
QUOTABLE
If it don’t stink, don’t stir it.” — From a memo written by a Pennsylvania Boy Scout leader in 1972, recommending that a case against a suspected child molester be dropped. Files released Thursday documented many cases of molestation of young boys between 1959 and 1985 that were not pursued in order to uphold the reputation of Scouting. Page 6A
INDEX Business 7A Classified 5B-10B Comics 9A Deaths 2A Events listings 10A, 2B Horoscope 9B Movies 4A, 5A Opinion 8A Puzzles 9B Sports 1B-4B, 10B Television 10A, 2B, 9B Vol.154/No.293 36 pages
decreased in Douglas County compared with the last presidential election, according to preliminary and incomplete figures. Currently there are 78,402 registered voters in Douglas County, compared with 84,440 in 2008. The current number will increase some when mail-in registrations and those from the Department of Motor Vehicles are collected next week. But those will probably not bring the current
figure up to the 2008 level. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said he expects about 1,000 more registrations will be added to the final tally. “I will say we have not gotten the amount of registrations from the colleges as we got in 2008 which could explain the difference,” Shew said. The deadline to register to vote passed Tuesday. Advance voting has started and continues through Nov. 5. Election
Day is Nov. 6. The breakdown of registered voters also has changed, according to the early figures. From 2008 to now, Democrats fell from 29,141 to 27,118; Republicans fell from 24,632 to 22,653; and unaffiliated decreased from 28,816 to 27,820. The remaining numbers of registered voters included members of minor parties, which totaled less than 1,000.
Here’s the schedule for advance voting. Any Douglas County voter can cast a ballot at any of these sites.
Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday.
8 a.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 2226.
8 a.m.-7 p.m. Oct. 29Nov. 2.
Additional hours at the courthouse will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 27 and Nov. 3. The last time for advance voting Please see VOTING, page 2A
Shawnee County prosecutors have decided to drop a rape charge against Joel Russell, 46, who was identified earlier this year by DNA evidence as a suspect in a 1985 Topeka kidnapping and rape for which another man was wrongfully convicted. “It’s a total shame,” said Shawnee County Assistant Dis- Joel Russell, trict Attorney above, was to Jacque Spra- be tried for a dling, who rape for which was handling Joe Jones, the case. below, was Despite a wrongfully 2001 Kansas convicted. law that allows prosecutors to charge sexual assault suspects up to one year after they’re identified as a suspect by DNA evidence, a United States Supreme Court decision prevents prosecution if the statute of limitations had run out prior to the 2001 law, Spradling explained. For Russell, who is in prison on several other sex crime convictions, the statute of limitations — seven years in sexual assault cases — had expired by 1992 on the Please see RAPE, page 2A
Energy likely to play pivotal role in state’s economy next year By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Energy, in one form or another, is expected to dictate the course of the Kansas economy over the next year, and attendees of Kansas University’s Economic Policy Conference were told Thursday it likely will not be overly positive energy. “I feel like gasoline
prices kind of act like a governor on the economy,” said Joe Aistrup, a political science professor at Kansas State University and the morning keynote speaker of the conference. “As the economy speeds up, gasoline goes up to $4 a gallon, and then the economy slows back down. “Right now, the economy isn’t going to go forward very fast because
gasoline still hovers last session. Kansas Gov. around $4 a gallon.” Sam Brownback has said The tougher energy to the tax cuts, which inpredict, though, clude significant may be the politreductions for ical energy that small businesscomes out of Toes, eventually peka and Washwill create more ington, D.C. than 20,000 jobs Aistrup said the in Kansas. economy will Aistrup wasn’t KANSAS be affected by UNIVERSITY making any such a series of state predictions at tax cuts approved by the Thursday’s conference. Legislature during the He said that while tax
SIGN UP TODAY!
This Print advertisement is not redeemable for advertised deal. Get your deals voucher online at Lawrencedeals.com
cuts may provide more money for businesses and individuals to spend, there is no guarantee that the money will be spent in a way that generates Kansas jobs. “The problem is it doesn’t necessarily create jobs where you want them,” Aistrup said of increased consumer and business spending. “It is Please see ENERGY, page 2A
up to 70% off!