Lawrence Journal-World 12-10-13

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ALL-AREA SOCCER CAR SEAT SAFETY Meet the athletes of the year Sports 6B

New resource aids parents Well Commons 5A

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MISSING KU STUDENT

Cultural task force proposes $100K job

Body found in yard

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New position would oversee Final Fridays; pedestrian river bridge in the mix, too By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

If Lawrence wants to get serious about creating a more vibrant cultural district in downtown and East Lawrence, a new $100,000 a year position at City Hall is likely going to be required. A pedestrian bridge across the Kansas RivWe have er may come in handy, a tremendous too. Those are among amount of the findings in the fi- assets ... but nal report of the city’s now we really Cultural District Task Force, which will be need someone presented to city com- who can missioners today. The coordinate nine-member task them.” force makes clear its top recommendation: the funding of a new — Bob Schumm, City Hall staff posi- task force chairman tion called a director of arts and culture. “We have a tremendous amount of assets in the area of arts and culture, but now we really need someone who can coordinate them into a meaningful package,” said City Commissioner Bob Schumm, who served as chairman of the task force. Schumm estimated that the new position — which would coordinate marketing, the Final Fridays events and have other duties — would require about $100,000 a year in funding in order to cover a salary, benefits and provide a modest operating budget for the position.

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo

POLICE SEARCH A PROPERTY on Avalon Road where a body believed to be missing Kansas University student Gianfranco Villagomez-Saldana was found Monday. A police spokesman said a preliminary investigation does not indicate foul play.

KU community mourns loss of bright, friendly student

By Giles Bruce gbruce@ljworld.com

Lawrence police say a body found Monday at 837 Avalon Road is believed to be that of a Kansas University student who had been missing since early Saturday. THE SEARCH A preliminary investigation does not O Villagomez indicate foul play in went missing early the death, accordSaturday morning ing to Lawrence after attending a Police Department friend’s party. spokesman Trent O His girlfriend McKinley. called police about The student, 7 p.m. Saturday to Gianfranco Villagoreport him gone. mez-Saldana, 23, O Police of Lima, Peru, had responded to gone missing early 837 Avalon Road Saturday morning about 1:30 p.m. after attending a Monday, where friend’s party near they found a body. Ninth and Michigan O At 3:30 p.m. streets. He had reMonday, family portedly been headand friends halted ing to a residence their search for near 11th and MisVillagomez. sissippi streets on foot. Villagomez’s girlfriend, Donna Jo Harkrider, called the police to report him Please see MISSING, page 2A

By Elliot Hughes ehughes@ljworld.com

Grieving friends of Kansas University graduate student Gianfranco Villagomez-Saldana described him Monday evening as a smiling, positive man whose apparent death after a weekend disappearance had shocked the campus. “It’s been a nightmare,” JesVillagomezsica Fertig, a Saldana friend and former classmate, said of the past several days. “He was a loved person.” Villagomez, 23, from Lima, Peru, was a computer science graduate student at KU, where he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in design in May. Villagomez went missing

early Saturday morning. Monday afternoon, Lawrence police were called to the 800 block of Avalon Road after a body was discovered in the backyard of a house. Police said they found no immediate evidence of foul play. Through social media and interviews with the Journal-World, friends of Villagomez described him as bright and friendly with an ever-present smile. “He was always smiling, and he was always making people laugh,” said Eryn Gronewoller, a KU student who worked with Villagomez as a resident assistant at Hashinger Hall. “His smile says everything about him.” Fertig said many people on campus came to know Villagomez through his employment at Hashinger Hall, where he was “so friendly and talking to everyone.”

Please see CULTURE, page 2A

Schools eye $12.5M for capital projects

Please see LOSS, page 2A

By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com

KU researcher mints brain-building implant for rats By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com

Using a 3-by-3 millimeter device powered by a conventional watch battery, a Kansas University School of Medicine researcher and colleagues have developed an implant that restored motor skills in rats with brain damage. The scientists who worked on the study think the implant could one day lead to devices that help restore brain function in people who have suffered strokes and head injuries. Randolph Nudo, a KU professor of molecular and integrative phsyiology and director of the Landon Center on Aging at the KU Medical Center, is senior author of a study published in the Proceed-

ings of the National Academy of Sciences. Nudo and Pedram Mohseni, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, created a prosthesis for brain-injured rats that helped restore communication among neural pathways. The implant works by recording signals from a part of a rat’s brain that controls sensory function, translating them into electrical impulses and using those impulses to stimulate a different part of the brain that controls motor function. Nudo and Mohseni tested the device by observing rats with the implant as they reached for food pellets. With the devices Please see RATS, page 2A

A little warmer

INSIDE Classified Comics Deaths Events listings

High: 34

Contributed Photo

KANSAS UNIVERSITY School of Medicine professor and neurobiologist Randolph Nudo holds a tiny device that helped restore motor skills in brain-damaged mice.

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Health Horoscope Movies Opinion

5A-6A Puzzles 11B Sports 4A Television 10A

11B 1B-6B 12A, 2B, 11B

Low: 14

Today’s forecast, page 12A

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Lawrence school officials outlined a plan Monday night to spend $12.5 million this spring and summer for building repairs, furniture replacement and other big-ticket expenses. Those would be in addition to the projects being funded with the $92.5 million bond issue voters approved in April, although many of the capital improvements projects are intended to go hand-in-hand with the bondfunded projects. Assistant Superintendent Kyle Hayden outlined SCHOOLS the plan during Monday’s school board meeting. In addition to the $12.5 million this year, he said the long-range plan calls for another $25 million over the next three years, for a total of about $37.7 million through 2017. Each year, the school board adopts a capital improvements plan, which is funded almost entirely from an 8-mill property tax Please see SCHOOLS, page 2A

Playing password An audit has found state computer systems housing confidential data may be vulnerable to attack because of weak passwords including Password1234 and Potato#2. Page 3A

Vol.155/No.344 24 pages


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