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Alan Rupe, representing the plaintiffs, argued that the state has a constitutional duty to fund the actual cost of educational services.
To our readers: We are changing the system we use to allow readers to comment on stories online at LJWorld. com and on our other websites. We are ending anonymity and will require commenters to post using their real names. We are doing this in response to countless requests from readers who want us to provide a more civil, responsible forum for discussion. Beginning Thursday, users who want to comment will be required to link their accounts on LJWorld. com, KUsports.com and our other sites to their Facebook accounts. This does not apply to the message boards on KUsports. com. This will not make comments on our sites visible on Facebook, but it will provide us with a method to validate user accounts and real names. It’s important to note that this change in our registration system in no way affects anyone’s ability to read our sites, subscribe to emails or otherwise participate in our sites. The real-name requirement applies only to those who want to post comments or other types of content that will be publicly visible on our site. For more details on this policy, go to LJWorld.com/ comments/faq. If you have any questions or thoughts about what we’re doing, please direct them to Managing Editor Julie Wright at comments@ ljworld.com.
By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
Kansas Supreme Court justices directed sharp questions Tuesday at lawyers on both sides of the school finance case, with the toughest questions aimed at attorneys for the plaintiffs seeking hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new school funding. The case, Gannon v. Kansas, claims that the Kansas Legislature violated its constitutional duty to make “suitable provision” for financing public schools when it cut education funding starting in 2008 in the wake of the Great Recession. Alan Rupe, a Wichita attorney representing Please see SCHOOL, page 2A Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
City leaders want to meet Resident embarks on ‘last try’ with tribe over to have a state fossil named Lawrence land
FOSSIL HUNTER ALAN DETRICH, of Overbrook, is pictured with a 17-foot mosasaur he discovered several years ago in Gove County, Kan. Detrich, who has uncovered various dinosaur fossils, says it took him a year to clean and set the mosasaur within masonry molding plaster. He’d like to see the mosasaur become the state fossil.
By Elliot Hughes
ehughes@ljworld.com
If you take a walk around Alan Detrich’s barn outside of Lawrence, you’re going to come across a few things lying about that are generally reserved for glass cases in fancy museums. There are remains of prehistoric creatures, some the size of small boulders, scattered all about. “Dinosaur bone, dinosaur bone,
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dinosaur bone,” Detrich said, each intonation accompanied with a casual pointing of his finger. Knee-deep as ever in those artifacts, Detrich, a retired oil investor and antique businessman, has been a fossil hunter for about 28 years. For 12, he’s tried to get the state of Kansas to recognize a state fossil, and now, in one last push, he’s dedicating one more year to the cause be-
fore giving it up. Kansas is one of 11 states that do not have a state fossil or dinosaur. Even the District of Columbia has one. “This is my last try,” said Detrich, 66 years old with gray hair in a ponytail. “If this does not succeed, the guy that picks up the baton after me is going to have to carry it because at some
Lawrence city commissioners want to have a face-to-face meeting with leaders of the Delaware Tribe of Indians to learn their intentions for developing a prime piece of North Lawrence property along the Kansas Turnpike. Commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting directed City Manager David Corliss to seek a meeting with tribal officials in
Please see FOSSIL, page 2A
Please see CITY, page 8A
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Stephen McAllister, representing the state, said it should be left to the Legislature to decide how much money to spend on education.
Justices grill attorneys in school finance case
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By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
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Vol.155/No.282 28 pages
Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has discontinued use of a federal grant program to help poor people apply for food stamps. Page 3A
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