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Local students beat national ACT mark By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
Lawrence high school students who took the ACT college entrance exam last spring outperformed their peers in the rest of the state and throughout the country. According to the school district, Lawrence students taking the test last year had an average composite score of 23.7, on a scale of 1 to 36. That
compared to the statewide average of 21.8 and the national average of 20.9. The 2013 score was half a point higher than last year’s average score, but still below the 2011 average of 24, the highest average score Lawrence schools have posted in the past several years. Statewide, the average ACT score in Kansas fell one-tenth of a point from last year to 21.8, but that exceeded the national average of 21.1.
Lawrence officials released data about local scores shortly after ACT released state and national data from the 2013 tests. The ACT is one of two major national exams that high school seniors can take to help them get into college. The other is the SAT, but in Kansas the ACT is by far the most common for graduating seniors.
23.7
Lawrence composite
20.9 National average
Please see ACT, page 2A
RELIVING QUANTRILL’S RAID IN 140 CHARACTERS
Kansas files suit to require voters’ citizenship proof ———
Joint action with Arizona brings case to federal level By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
LAWRENCE RESIDENT COURTNEY SHIPLEY, playing the part of Mary Carpenter, wife of Louis Carpenter, left, who is played by Lawrence resident Kerry Altenbernd, scrambles to tweet her lines as the two participate in a re-enactment of the Quantrill’s Raid events via Twitter on Wednesday at the Carnegie Building.
Tweet success earns Internet spotlight By Meagan Thomas and Alma Bahman Missourians — spent their day telling mthomas@ljworld.com; abahman@ljworld.com the story of Quantrill’s Raid on Twitter, a social networking service that What began as a local event grew allows its users to share 140-characinto a worldwide history lesson ter messages with others online. Wednesday as Internet users took Several dozen people signed up notice of a Lawrence-based experi- in June to share the messages — or ment with history and social media. “tweets� — in character, essentially More than 30 people — commu- acting out a historically accurate nity members, scholars, Kansans and play in the virtual world. Tweet-
ers took on the roles of both Lawrence residents and raiders and sent the messages throughout the day, reporting events as if it were 1863 Lawrence and William Quantrill and his band were invading the city. It was all part of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Quantrill’s Raid, which occurred Aug. 21.
TOPEKA — Kansas and Arizona joined forces Wednesday in filing a federal lawsuit demanding that the two states be allowed to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. “Voting is the most cherished right of U.S. citizenship and we take seriously our obligation to protect that right and to secure that right and to guard it closely so that only citizens exercise that right to vote,� said Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The lawsuit by Kobach and Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett seeks a court order requiring the United States Election AsKris Kobach sistance Commission to modify the federal voter registration form to include those states’ requirements that a person provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, to register to vote. The federal voter registration form only requires an applicant to make an oath affirming citizenship. Kobach said the lawsuit will address a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that knocked down Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship law. Kobach said that Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in that case paved the way for states to petition the Election Assistance Commission to make state-specific instructions on the federal form that will require proof of citizenship. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka and would only affect Kansas and Arizona.
Please see TWEET, page 2A
Please see PROOF, page 2A
Menards asks city to expand footprint of 31st Street retail project By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
A proposed Menards project near 31st and Iowa streets is growing before it even gets started. Menards officials have a filed a new annexation and rezoning request at City Hall to add 8.4 acres to their develop-
ment, which is just east of the Home Depot on 31st Street. The land is part of what is known as the Snodgrass property, a single family home and pond just east of
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the former Gaslight Mobile Home Village. Menards has a contract to purchase the westernmost portion of the property, and it plans to create another commercial lot to supplement its Menards store. The pending land purchase won’t change the size of
The new 8-acre lot would be large enough to house a store of about 60,000 square feet.
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the planned store. It still is designed to check in at about 175,000 square feet. The purchase, however, will allow for one more commercial lot to be created as part of the Menards development. When Menards was approved by Lawrence city commissioners in June, the
Vol.155/No.234 24 pages
City officials have decided to hold off on purchasing three new diesel and hybrid buses until staff members do more research on the feasibility of buses powered by compressed natural gas. Page 3A
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