COMING SUNDAY IN A&E
SECOND-HALF SHOW
Fall Arts Preview The biggest happenings this season
Free State comes back to defeat SMNW Sports 1B
L A W R E NC E
JOURNAL-WORLD ®
75 CENTS
3!452$!9 s 3%04%-"%2 s
Seeking ‘what might have been here’
LJWorld.com
Fraternity agrees to penalties in turkey case ———
District attorney finds evidence of mistreatment By Ian Cummings Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
PINCKNEY SCHOOL THIRD-GRADERS Paxton Harvey, left, and Simon Mason, participate in an archeological dig Friday in front of the school. The school district will be remodeling the existing building over the next year and students are taking the opportunity to dig in the area of expansion.
Pinckney students dig into past as school plans for its future to what life in Lawrence was like in that period. “It was awesome,” said Next spring, architects Thomas Rupp, a secondwill start drawing plans for grade student involved in a nearly complete remod- the project, shortly after eling of Pinckney School, taking part in the dig Frione of the oldest school day morning. “We’re just buildings in Lawrence, trying to find stuff from as part of the school dis- the old Pinckney School.” trict’s effort to make So far, he said, he all schools ready for and his classmates “21st century learnhad found some ing.” rusty nails, as well as But for now, pieces of old brick, some students at mortar and concrete. the school are more “And I don’t know focused on the 19th SCHOOLS what it is, but we century and what found a giant, rusty their school was like when piece of metal,” he said. it was first built in 1872. With hand trowels, a Preserving history Rupp’s teacher, Sharon couple of wagons and some large screen sifters, Daniels, came up with the second- and third-grade idea in 2007, when the curstudents at Pinckney have rent Pinckney School was literally been digging into getting ready to celebrate the past, looking for ar- its 75th anniversary. With a grant from the cheological traces of that original building and clues Lawrence Schools FounBy Peter Hancock
phancock@ljworld.com
Please see TURKEY, page 2A
WORKING AS ARTISTS on an archeological dig, from left, Lourdes Sotomayor, Maya Huang and Cicely Carson track what other Pinckney School third-graders dig. dation, she and other teachers spent a few days that summer on a dig with the Kansas State Historical Society, learning the process and methods of archeology.
“Then we came back to school, and that fall what we were looking for was evidence of that original building that stood there,” Please see STUDENTS, page 2A
Kansas joins 21 states in NRA’s challenge By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has joined 21 other states in a legal brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a challenge by the National Rifle Association against a federal law that restricts the sale of handguns to people between 18 and 20 years old. “Under current Kansas law, 18- to 20-year-olds may lawfully purchase and possess handguns,” said Don Brown, a spokesman for Schmidt. “There is no rational basis for federal law to prohibit a person of that age, who can lawfully buy a handgun at a
Appeal argues against restricting gun sales by age
Schmidt
garage sale, from purchasing one from a federally licensed firearms dealer where the sale would be subject to a background
check,” he said. In dispute is a federal law that bans licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to people under 21. The law was upheld in 2012 by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which said
Business Classified Comics Deaths
High: 79
Low: 59
Today’s forecast, page 12A
Congress was within its authority to limit gun sales to a specific group. “Congress found that persons under 21 tend to be relatively irresponsible and can be prone to violent crime, especially when they have easy access to handguns,” the court said. The court cited statistics that said of gun homicides, where an offender was identified, 24 percent were committed by 18- to 20-year-olds. The NRA has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and has been joined by 22 states. The legal brief on behalf
of the states, written by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, says, “adults who are 18, 19, and 20 honorably defend our country when it is at war. These same Americans should be able to defend themselves and their families when they are at home. Yet Congress has chosen to preclude the States from fostering their citizens’ freedom in this way.”
Read about the attorney
general’s office declining to comment on a voting law’s validity. Page 3A
INSIDE
Partly sunny 2A 1C-6C 10B 2A
The Kansas University chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity has agreed to settle last year’s turkey abuse case through fines and community service, according to a statement Friday from Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson. Months after witnesses told police that a turkey was abused and killed at a party at the fraternity’s house at 1425 Tennessee St., the district attorney’s office completed its review of the case and reached a settlement with the fraternity. “After an exhaustive investigation we believe there is evidence to suggest the turkey was mistreated,” Branson wrote in a news re- Branson lease today. “However, our review of the evidence revealed conflicting accounts given by various witnesses, making it difficult to determine exactly who was responsible for the improper treatment of the bird.” The investigation showed that accounts of the incident that had been given by some witnesses to the media were not the same as accounts given to law enforcement investigators. According to police in December,
Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion
12A, 2B 5C 4A 11A
Puzzles Society Sports Television
5C 10A 1B-9B, 12B 12A, 2B, 5C
Join us at Facebook.com/LJWorld and Twitter.com/LJWorld
Engineering program drops in rankings; business climbs By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com
Kansas University’s undergraduate business program jumped ahead in the U.S. News and World Report 2014 college rankings, while the engineering program lost ground. The business program rose to the 36th spot among public universities from 45th last year, and it ranked 58th overall, according to the influential and widely followed U.S. News rankings, which were released this week. The business program essentially switched numerical places with KU’s undergraduate engineering program, which landed at 45th among public universities, down from 36th last year. It ranked 78th overall.
Issue on tap: water A research workshop at KU brought together professors from different departments to discuss ways of tackling the water issues facing the state. Page 3A
Please see RANKING, page 2A
Vol.155/No.257 30 pages