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Public forum to provide details on rec center
Sun spotting
By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
USING FILTERED GLASSES, Drew Bradford, 9, left, and Michael Uhler, 9, both of Lawrence, gaze at the sun and a view of the Venus transit, where Venus, appearing as a small black dot, crosses between the sun and Earth. People viewed the rare event Tuesday near the Lied Center. The last transit took place in 2004, and it won’t happen again until 2117.
Observers look to the sky to get rare glimpse of Venus in transit By Alex Garrison acgarrison@ljworld.com
Among hundreds of Lawrence residents lined up in the Lied Center’s parking lot on a sunny Tuesday afternoon to take in a very special view, it finally comes to be Elyssa Weber’s turn. “I see it!” she yells out in delight. “It’s a little black dot. That’s awesome!” After a few seconds at a large, specially filtered telescope, she allows Chuck Liu to take a gander. Then the two compare
notes on what makes seeing “the little black dot” so terrifically awesome. “It’s about seeing the scale,” Weber says, just before jumping into another line to get another glimpse through another telescope. “It’s hard to mentally represent how big the sun is — and how small we are.” “I wanted to see it because I knew people were going to be dead before it happened again,” Liu says. “It’s historic.” The little black dot is the planet Venus, and Weber and Please see VENUS, page 2A
Lawrence city leaders are ready to hear how big the public is thinking these days when it comes to a new recreation center for the community. The city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will host a public forum from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. today in the commons area of Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive, to discuss the possibility of a regional recreation complex that would include a fieldhouse, outdoor track and other amenities in northwest Lawrence. “We’ve heard for many years now that we have a significant deficit in indoor Corliss gym space,” City Manager David Corliss said. “We want to hear from the public what we can do to address that shortage. We know we can do something small, but the question really is whether the community wants us to pursue this idea of working with partners to do something much larger than we could do on our own.” At today’s meeting, city leaders are expected to provide some details about a proposal to build a multi-gym fieldhouse and recreation complex on the 50 acres of donated land at the northwest corner Sixth Street and the South Lawrence Trafficway. The city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Please see CENTER, page 2A
Andrew Hartsock/Journal-World Photo
VENUS’ TRANSIT PAST THE SUN is seen through a solar telescope Tuesday.
Remembering D-Day
City wants policy for downtown cameras —————
ACLU, residents express concern about potential misuse of surveillance devices By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Police-operated surveillance cameras will be coming to Massachusetts Street, but not before Lawrence city commissioners approve a detailed policy on how the cameras will be used. City commissioners at their weekly meeting unanimously agreed to allow the Lawrence Police Department and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department to use $46,800 in
federal grant money to purchase security cameras and related equipment. But after CITY hearing concerns from COMMISSION the American Civil Liberties Union and several local residents, commissioners directed staff members that none of the new cameras be installed until clear policies for their use are established.
Several members of the public, though, expressed concerns the cameras could be misused. Gary Brunk, executive director of the Kansas and Western Missouri ACLU, said many cameras are so sophisticated that lenses could allow police officers to zoom in to see what an individual is reading while sitting on a bench along Massachusetts Street. “It is prudent to ask whether we want to live in
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“The public obviously has a right to know and we have an obligation to show how this footage is going to be stored and how it is going to be used,” said City Commissioner Mike Amyx, who is a downtown business owner. But commissioners also stressed they think the cameras can be significant crimefighting tools. Commissioners said the potential seemed high that police officers could access video footage to help solve crimes committed in the downtown area.
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A U.S. FLAG IS SEEN among the 9,387 graves of fallen soldiers at the U.S. military cemetery of Colleville-Sur-Mer in western France. Sixty-eight years ago today Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, creating a new front against Hitler’s Nazi forces and leading to the end of World War II in Europe in 1945. To learn more about the monumental D-Day battle, check out these websites: From the U.S. Army: http://www.army.mil/d-day/ From America D-Day: http://www.americandday.org/ From the National D-Day Memorial: http://www.dday.org/ From PBS’ American Experience: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ Please see CAMERAS, page 2A amex/dday/
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Vol.154/No.158 24 pages