Lawrence Journal-World 05-06-13

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L A W R E NC E

75 CENTS

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Warmer

High: 73

Low: 49

Today’s forecast, page 10A

Social media humor studied

Canine competitors chase Skyhoundz title Discs, dogs fly through South Park

INSIDE

Fitness tips to get you moving

By Matt Erickson merickson@ljworld.com

By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com

Dogs, as we know, like to fetch. And somewhere along the line, the Frisbee and other flying discs became one of the favorite objects for the canine population to SPORTS snatch from the skies. So, it had to be torturKU softball stuns ous Sunday afternoon in No. 1 Oklahoma South Park for dogs like In the second game of a doubleZoey, a 3-year-old boxerLab mix, as they waited header Sunday, Kansas came away with a 2-0 nightcap victory over No. to compete in the annual Skyhoundz Disc Cham1 Oklahoma. KU’s first victory over a pionship. top-ranked opponent came on Senior All those discs flying Day. Page 1B through the air, just crying out for a dog mouth. But thanks to city leash laws, a tethered Zoey could only watch until her name was It’s a huge burden for called as the first of 30 a company like ours. We competitors. The dogs, all shapes and sizes, don’t have an account- of would line up and have ing department; we’ve 60 seconds to complete as many successful got my father-in-law.� catches from their owners as possible, scored by — Sarah Davis, co-owner of distance. Fashionphile.com, a California-based For the past several company that sells high-end preyears, Zoey’s owners, owned handbags and purses, on a bill Andrew and Jennilyn that would make it easier for states Keinsley of Lawrence, to collect sales taxes for online pur- had sat on the sidelines chases. Some online small-business and watched. “You could just see owners worry that they will be swamped by new requirements from she was like, ‘Oh my God,’� Jennilyn said of faraway states. Page 5A her dog’s obvious desire to compete. So they trained several times per day. But that was mostly an attempt to burn off Zoey’s excess energy, though it rarely worked, Facebook.com/LJWorld Andrew said. Twitter.com/LJWorld Zoey’s big moment came Sunday, as she and Andrew lined up Having a partner is a big motivation factor in exercising, and this week’s Go! offers plenty of moves for two. Inside

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QUOTABLE

John Young/Journal-World Photos

KILLIAN, AN AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD AND BORDER COLLIE MIX, prepares to snatch a flying disc out of the air during a competition at South Park on Sunday afternoon. That’s her in action at the top of the page, too.

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INDEX

Business 5A Classified 6B-10B Comics 9A Events listings 10A, 2B Horoscope 9B Movies 4A Opinion 8A Puzzles 9B Sports 1B-5B, 10B Television 10A, 2B, 9B Vol.155/No.126 32 pages

LJWorld.com

KIM RICE TRIES TO PRY THE FRISBEE AWAY from her dog Buddy, a Texas Heeler, so that she can complete another throw during the competition Sunday. AT RIGHT, Towser, an Australian shepPlease see DOGS, page 2A herd and border collie mix, makes a catch.

If you use Facebook, perhaps you can think of a friend of yours who posts a lot of politically charged comments there. And perhaps you can think of a friend who often posts things that make you laugh. But Natalie Pennington is willing to bet those are two different people. Based on her research, that funny friend’s Facebook posts are likely to stay away from politics and focus more on stories from his or her personal life — especially romantic relationships. “If you write a status update that involves political talk, you are actually viewed as less capable of producing humor than other people,� said Pennington, a doctoral student in Kansas University’s communication studies department who focuses her research on social media. This finding is one of several from an article just published by Pennington and Jeff Hall, an associate professor of communication studies, in the scholarly journal “HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research.� They pulled information from a research project, now three years along, that studied how Facebook users perceive themselves and compared it with strangers’ perceptions of their profile pages. They recruited 100 Facebook users, in line with the general demographics of the site, to share their profiles, as well as 35 people to study them and offer observations. For this study, Pennington examined what might make Facebook users perceive others, or themselves, as funny. And a few trends became clear. One was that, for the most part, users who go heavy on the politics are perceived as unfunny, no matter whether Please see FACEBOOK, page 2A

County disputes claim that contract is through the roof By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com

Douglas County taxpayers will spend nearly $610,000 this year to completely replace the roof at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center. But some area contractors say it could have been done for much less. Mark Gwaltney, owner of Diamond Everley Roofing Contractors in Lawrence, said during

the bid process that his company could have provided a similar roof with a comparable 30-year warranty for only $472,000, or about 23 percent less. But that proposal was not considered because of the unique selection process the county used for the roof project. “It results in significantly higher prices for the owner,� Gwaltney said. In March, Douglas

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County commissioners agreed not to seek competitive bids on the roof project and instead to hire Garland Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, through a master contract available to local agencies through a government purchasing cooperative called U.S. Communities. That cooperative is used by thousands of state and local governments in the United States, including the city of Lawrence

and the Lawrence school district, for many types of contracts, including computers, office supplies, furniture and a wide range of other items. Under its master roofing contract, Garland designs and manages the project, and it selects subcontractors to do the actual installation. But those subcontractors must agree to use Garland name-brand products for the vast majority of the

materials, products that Garland officials themselves concede are more expensive than most other products on the market. “There is a difference in the upfront installed cost,� said Frank Percaciante, contract manager for Garland. “That difference is usually made up for, and then exceeded by an additional 40 to 60 percent, because our Please see COUNTY, page 2A

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