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Police make million-dollar meth seizure By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com
Law enforcement officers seized nearly 25 pounds of methamphetamine in Douglas County last week, probably the supply of a Mexican drug cartel meant for distribution in the Lawrence area, police announced Monday. The methamphetamine, worth almost $1 million if sold by the gram on the street, represented the largest quantity of meth ever seized here, said Sgt. Trent
Hot, humid
High: 90
McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman. It was discovered, along with several thousand dollars in cash and a 9 mm handgun, by officers working in a local drug enforcement unit. Police will not disclose many details about the investigation that led to the seizure, including when and where the meth was seized. But McKinley said the quantity was unusual enough that police officials wanted the public to know what kind of drug trafficking has been occurring.
“We have a clear and direct connection to (a) Mexican drug cartel,” McKinley said. “People might think this isn’t happening, but they’re wrong.” Police have identified local suspects implicated in the meth seizure, but did not immediately arrest them, McKinley said, a choice investigators often make when building a larger drug case. A case is likely to be prosecuted in a federal court sometime in the future, possibly months from now, McKinley said.
A changing marketplace The neatly packaged drug crystals the officers piled up Monday on a conference table at the Lawrence Police Department’s Investigation and Training Center, 4820 Bob Billings Parkway, are nothing like the type of methamphetamine that used to be found in Lawrence, McKinley said. Officers investigating drugs in the Lawrence Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo area are finding large quanNEARLY 25 POUNDS of methamphetamine, a 9 tities of methamphetamine mm handgun and several thousand dollars in that is far more pure, more cash are among the items seized in a Douglas County drug raid last week. Please see METH, page 2A
Back-to-school budgets on minds of many
Low: 70
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE
State increases scrutiny of nurses ——
Growing number of complaints deal with drug, alcohol use By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
WELLCOMMONS
Brain injury victims start support group For people who suffer from a brain injury, feeling isolated and frustrated is common. So several Lawrence residents decided in January it was time to start a support group to help people connect and cope with brain injuries. Page 5A LAWRENCE & STATE
Vinland Fair a passport to past This week, residents of Vinland and the surrounding area will have a chance to take a step back in time. The 106th annual Vinland Fair runs from Thursday through Saturday at the Vinland fairgrounds between Lawrence and Baldwin City. Page 3A
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
LARRY FREESE, OF LAWRENCE, walks past pews loaded up with backpacks as volunteers organize school supplies for needy children on Monday at First United Methodist Church, at 946 Vermont St. Members of the congregation donated close to $4,500 worth of school supplies for the effort. They filled 180 backpacks, 150 of which were scheduled to be delivered to Penn House and the other 30 to ECKAN, the East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corporation.
School district releases details of spending plans for coming year By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
not spend more than what is outlined in the proposal. The board voted July 22 to publish a notice of the public hearing, which SCHOOLS outlined the total amounts that the district expects to spend out of various funds next year, and the estimated property tax mill levy needed to raise that money. The documents released Monday, which are available on the district’s website, represent the first detailed explanations officials have to provided about how the district plans to spend the money. The 13-page “Budget at a Glance” document shows how spending is broken down by different categories, with comparisons to previous years. Shannon Kimball, vice president of the board, said that while board members are just now seeing the detailed documents, they have been actively engaged in crafting the budget during public
meetings for many months. “We have been making decisions about spending all along, so I don’t feel like it’s a big surprise,” Kimball said. “We’ve been making decisions about what will be in it all throughout the previous year.” Unlike cities and counties, school districts have relatively little discretion in deciding their overall spending levels. Those are determined by formulas set out in state laws, most of which are driven by student enrollment, poverty rates and the relative wealth of the district. Among the decisions with the largest effect on the budget, Kimball noted, was the agreement to ratify a new contract with the Lawrence Education Association. The contract provides an average 3 percent increase in salary and benefits for certified personnel, plus comparable increases for administrators and classified staff. Those increases account for about $2.8 million of the total
The Lawrence school district on Monday released details of its proposed budget for the upcoming school year, calling for $148.8 ... Do we have to million in total spending, an 18 percent increase from this past always build a building, you know, because year. Much of the increase is the resomebody wants their sult of the recent $92.5 million bond issue that district voters apname on it?” proved in April, which will fund — House Appropriations Committee major building improvements in Chairman Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, the next few years in the district’s elementary and high schools. who will be visiting regents uniBut even without those projversities. Rhoades said he has a ects, spending on day-to-day lot of questions he wants to ask at operations — what the budget Kansas University, including how documents refer to as “current and why private donations are expenditures” — would grow spent. Page 3A by $11.8 million, or 11 percent, to $120.7 million. The Lawrence school board will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget next Monday at 7 p.m. The board is expected to vote shortly after the hearing to Business 2A approve a final budget, which canClassified 5B-10B Comics 9A Deaths 2A Events listings 10A, 2B Horoscope 9B Movies 4A By Chad Lawhorn The federal government has two different clawhorn@ljworld.com processes for putting Indian land into federal Opinion 8A Puzzles 9B The future of prime trust: one that would allow gaming in the Sports 1B-4B, 10B North Lawrence property future and one that would not. The tribe will Television 10A, 2B, 9B bought by an Oklahoma- need to decide at the beginning of the proVol.155/No.218 20 pages based Indian tribe is still cess which approval to seek. in a wait-and-see mode, but at least one local government has started to into trust 87 acres near ly to be one of the tribe’s assess what impact devel- the Kansas Turnpike in- first steps to develop the opment of the land could terchange at North Law- recently purchased prophave on its constituents rence, said Nedra Dar- erty. and services. ling, a spokeswoman with “There is a definite The Delaware Tribe the Bureau of Indian Af- process they will have of Indians has not yet fairs. Placing the property to follow,” Darling said. filed paperwork to put into a federal trust is like- The process is also likely
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TOPEKA — A rapid increase in complaints against nurses prompted state elected leaders on Monday to approve hiring more investigators. “We just can’t stay on top of the number of cases,” said Mary Blubaugh, who is executive administrator of the Kansas State Board of Nursing. “It’s a public safety issue,” Blubaugh said. The State Finance Council, which includes Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders, approved a resolution that will allow the nursing board to use its fee funds to hire two more nurse investigators. In June, the Legislature had approved a budget that allowed the positions but had essentially disallowed the funding. Currently, there are five investigators, who handled 2,275 cases last year, or 455 for each investigator, according to Blubaugh. In 2007, there were five investigators handling 1,200 complaints, or 240 per investigator. Blubaugh told the council that the majority of complaints lodged against nurses deal with drug and alcohol abuse. The agency plans to budget $148,000 per fiscal year for the hiring of two more investigators. The funds will come from the nursing board’s fees. Each nurse in Kansas pays a $60 fee every two years. Blubaugh said the increased number of complaints against nurses corresponds with an increase in the number of nurses in Kansas since 2007 when state leaders made it a prior-
Please see BUDGET, page 2A
Please see NURSES, page 2A
Tribe has yet to file development plans for property to provide insight into whether the tribe has interest in using the highlyvisible property for a casino. Darling said the federal government has two different processes for putting Indian land into federal trust: one that would allow gaming in the future and one that would not. The tribe will need to decide at the beginning of the process which approval to seek. When tribal leaders
confirmed their purchase of the property just east of the North Lawrence interchange late last month, they declined to say specifically whether they planned a casino for the land. Instead they said the tribe was exploring plans for housing, child care and a medical clinic to serve the state’s American Indian population. Other Kansas newspapers have reported that Please see TRIBE, page 2A