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The new face of KU football
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CHARLIE WEIS LAUGHS WITH MEDIA MEMBERS during a news conference Friday in which Weis was announced as Kansas University’s new head football coach. For more, see Sports, page 1B.
Answers sought on SRS funding By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Kansas legislators want to know whether Gov. Sam Brownback intends to put state funding in his recommended budget to cover the lease of the state welfare office in Lawrence and several other towns. The question came up during a meeting of the House-Senate State Building Construction Committee. Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services director of government affairs Gary Haulmark said he wasn’t 100 percent sure of the answer, but added, “I know there was a lot of interest.” Haulmark said that SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki Jr. encouraged the governor to recommend the funding. Brownback’s office said the governor was still putting his budget proposal together for the Legislature to consider when the 2012 session starts in January. Last summer, Siedlecki proposed closing nine SRS offices, including the one in Lawrence. He said the closures were needed to comply with a mandated budget cut. But Lawrence officials protested, saying the closure would have created havoc in the community by disrupting needed services to thousands of people. The city and county agreed to pay SRS $450,000 over two years, which equals the amount of rent and overhead expenses, to keep the office open. Fort Scott, McPherson, Pratt and Marysville approved similar agreements. Siedlecki has since told legislators and local officials that he would request funding from Brownback and the Legislature to finance those offices through state funding.
District learns from bomb threat notification delays By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
Turns out that when an emergency situation actually is an emergency situation, the Lawrence school district should use its emergency notification system to get the word out to families affected by the emergency itself. That’s the lesson taken from
By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
A 23-year-old Overland Park man’s blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the state’s legal limit two hours after a 2010 crash on Clinton Parkway that killed a 19-year-old Lawrence woman, according to an updated Lawrence police report. Investigators also calculated that Sean Barrett Walker was driving his 2001 Jeep Cherokee at 56 mph upon impact with the 2006 Nissan Sentra that Mary Grace Paez, a 2010 Lawrence High School graduate, was driving at 1:30 a.m. Oct. 14, 2010,
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Walker at the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Inverness Drive. The report lists Walker’s speeding and being under the influence of alcohol as contributing factors to the crash. Walker’s blood-alcohol content was 0.23. The Kansas legal limit to drive is 0.08. A Douglas County judge on Monday approved a $100,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed by Paez’s parents against Walker. The settlement was reached with Walker’s insurance carrier, Geico, but documents in the suit did not mention specific details
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By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Consider it saving for a nonrainy day. State water regulators have put Lawrence and all other entities that pull drinking water out of Clinton Lake on notice that the Douglas County reservoir is on the verge of drought conditions. The Kansas Water Office has issued a “drought watch” for entities that use Clinton Lake that will require the city to take some modest steps to save water. The water office has been monitoring the falling conservation pool at Clinton Lake, which is about 20 percent below its levels from May.
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a system that uses local phone lines, just as the district’s local lines had become jammed. The number of calls entering and leaving Free State and district headquarters immediately following the threat and evacuation was seven times higher than normal, officials said.
Clinton ‘drought watch’ calls for conservation measures with water
Report: Driver in fatality had 3 times legal alcohol limit
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the district’s inability to minutes before the directly notify families school’s earliest quickly last week followclasses were to being the evacuation of Free gin, but some famiState High School — an lies didn’t receive a evacuation spurred by recorded phone alert the discovery of a written from Principal Ed bomb threat found taped West until 90 minSCHOOLS to the front door of the utes later. For others, school, 4700 Overland Drive. the wait was even longer. The evacuation order came Causing the delay: The initial just before 8 a.m. Dec. 1, a few recorded message went out on
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I think it really is just a statement by the state that we shouldn’t stick our heads in the sand and ignore what might happen in the future.” — Dave Wagner, director of the city’s utilities department City officials said the “drought watch” is not a sign that the city will be facing any water shortages in the near term. “I think it really is just a statement by the state that we Please see DROUGHT, page 2A
COMING SUNDAY We take a ride on SafeBus, the safe way some KU students get home after an evening of partying.
Vol.153/No.344 24 pages
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