WEST VIRGINIA TAKES DOWN KU Ellis misses last-second layup in Jayhawks’ 62-61 loss to Mountaineers. Page 1C
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TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 17 • 2015
Jury can’t agree in murder case
A little bit Panel of snow rejects with more ‘absurd’ on the way HIGHER EDUCATION
funding requests
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But man found guilty of aggravated burglary and faces another trial in deadly shooting
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KU had sought $5M for drug and vaccine institute
By Caitlin Doornbos Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
A budget subcommittee of the Kansas House on Monday rejected all of the budget enhancements that Kansas University and other Regents institutions requested, with one Republican member calling those requests an “absurdity.” That means KU will probably have to wait anther two years before asking again for funding to establish a Drug and Vaccine Discovery Institute, LEGISLATURE or for meritbased salary enhancements for faculty at its medical school. KU had sought $5 million for the drug and vaccine institute, plus funding to provide a 3 percent merit-based pay increase for KU Medical Center faculty and staff. Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, who had just been assigned to the budget committee earlier in the day, asked that the subcommittee’s report include a note about what he called “the absurdity of some of the enhancement requests.” “They’re asking for, in fiscal (year) 2016, $64.5 million of additional taxpayer money,” Peck said. “Some of our agencies in the state are working with us to do the best they can to save taxpayer money, and others are throwing out all kinds of Please see BUDGET, page 6A
Jurors in the case of a man accused of killing 39-year-old Patrick Roberts, of Lawrence, during a burglary arrived at a partial verdict Monday, after more than 11 hours of deliberation. Dustin D. Walker, 30, was found guilty of aggravated burglary Monday, but jurors could not decide whether the Lawrence resident was guilty of felony first-degree murder, which is when a Walker killing occurs during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony. Assistant District Attorney Amy McGowan refused to speak about the jury’s decision, but Walker’s attorney Sarah Swain said the partial verdict was also a partial victory for her client. P. Roberts “The jury in this case did their best to reach a verdict with the incomplete information that they were provided with by the district attorney’s office,” Swain said. “Unfortunately for the state, the physical evidence did not Please see TRIAL, page 6A
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
KANSAS UNIVERSITY STUDENT RAMON CARNEIRO, an electrical engineering major from Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais, Brazil, takes a photo of himself with the first snowman he has ever seen, Monday near Potter Lake. Carneiro was planning to share the image with friends in South America. TOP PHOTO: Lawrence resident David Wong removes snow from his car Monday. Today up to 2 more inches of snow may fall in the area. The National Weather Service in Topeka has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Douglas County from 5 a.m. to noon. Wind speeds of 10 to 20 mph may contribute to hazardous road conditions.
Lawmaker wants fantasy sports leagues to be legal By Nicholas Clayton Associated Press
Lawrence on national list of cities that love to volunteer
Y
ou know what they say about Lawrence: We’re a town full of do-gooders, which explains why there are people in the street jousting with snow shovels today to win the privilege of shoveling their neighbor’s sidewalk. Well, maybe that hasn’t quite been the case, but there is a national ranking out that does show Lawrence residents are more volunteer-minded than most. The huge professional networking site LinkedIn has been studying the data of its millions of users to find out how many of them list volunteer activities on their LinkedIn profiles. Come to find out, Lawrence has one of the higher percentages of LinkedIn members who identify
themselves as active volunteers. Lawrence had the fourth-highest concentration of volunteers of any city in the country. Based on a blog entry from the company, I think that means LinkedIn looked at the number of users it has in each community, and then calculated the percentage of users in each city that listed activities under the “Volunteer Experience and Causes” section of their profiles. College towns seem to do well in the ranking. That makes sense because the study also found that millennials were the group most likely to have volunteer experience listed on their LinkedIn profiles. — By Chad Lawhorn
Communities in the top 10: 1. Bloomington, Ind. 2. Fort Collins, Colo. 3. LaFayette, Ind. 4. Lawrence 5. Madison, Wis. 6. Corvallis, Ore. 7. State College, Pa. 8. Austin, Texas 9. Minneapolis-St. Paul 10. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
Topeka — Fantasy sports leagues would be legal in Kansas even though the state’s gambling commission thinks otherwise under a bill proposed by a state lawmaker who would classify them as a game of skill rather than a lottery. The legislation submitted by Republican Rep. Brett Hildabrand, of Shawnee, differs with a decision by the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission, the state’s gambling regulator, which said in August that private fantasy sports leagues meet the criteria of a lottery and are therefore Hildabrand illegal. Under the Kansas Constitution, only the state is allowed to administer lotteries. In fantasy sports leagues, players compete against one another by making up teams out of a pool of real athletes and tracking how Please see SPORTS, page 2A
INSIDE
Flurries Business Classified Comics Deaths
High: 29
Low: 4
Today’s forecast, page 8A
2A 7C-10C 4B 2A
Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles
5A, 2C Sports 1C-6C 3B Television 8A, 3B, 2C 7A WellCommons 1B-2B 3B
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Running recovery When a runner suffers an injury, they may not be running a 5K for a while, but it doesn’t mean they can’t stay active. Page 1B
Vol.157/No.48 22 pages