Understanding the psychology of hate. 1B
L A W R E NC E
Journal-World ®
$2.00
SUNDAY • JUNE 19 • 2016
LJWorld.com
Legislators prepare for rare special session
THE DAY THE TORNADO HIT
By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Journal-World File Photo/University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, KU
RESIDENTS OF GASLIGHT VILLAGE AND FRIENDS SEARCH FOR POSSESSIONS around an overturned trailer home the day after a June 19, 1981, tornado struck Lawrence.
Deadly storm struck city 35 years ago today Lawhorn’s Lawrence
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
T
he plan was to use the cardboard beer flats like a shield from the shards of glass, stone and other debris that would be hurtling through the air at more than 100 mph. Yes, it kind of sounds like a plan devised by folks who had spent several hours emptying those cardboard beer flats, if you know what I mean. But that wasn’t the case. When you and five other people are inside a
convenience store walkin cooler, hiding from an approaching tornado, you are forced to come up with some outside-the-box plans. “Everybody was asking, ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to do?’ and that is what we came up with,” said Collin Hermreck, who was a store clerk at Lawrence’s Commerce Plaza convenience store near 31st and Iowa. Across the street at the Kmart store, the Moffitt
family was buying clothes for their 4-year-old niece who was staying with them for a few days. Philip Moffitt’s wife, 2-year-old son and the niece had just gotten out of the small closet-like changing room when everyone in the store realized that a tornado was bearing down. Philip said he nearly instructed his family to get back into the changing
Special sessions are a routine matter for some state legislatures, but not so in Kansas, which has only had 22 of them in its entire history. The one scheduled to start Thursday will be the 23rd such session and the second one to deal with a state Supreme Court order on school finance. The last special session dealing with school finance was in 2005. Just like today, battle lines were be- LEGISLATURE ing drawn between the Legislature and the Supreme Court over which branch of government had authority to decide how schools would be funded. Also then, like now, the court had threatened to close public schools if lawmakers refused to comply with its order, and a strong contingent of conservative Republicans, especially in the House, refused to bow to the court’s authority.
Please see TORNADO, page 2A
Please see LEGISLATURE, page 8A
From India to Strong Hall: An interview with KU’s new provost By Sara Shepherd Twitter: @saramarieshep
One of the things that makes Kansas University special, according to incoming provost Neeli Bendapudi, is that the university “takes chances.” Years ago, Bendapudi believes she was an example. She and her husband, both natives of India — brown-skinned with foreign accents, she said — had come to the United States to pursue doctoral degrees at KU. After living in a mostly furnished
apartment at Stouffer Place that at the time seemed practically palatial, they were chosen by thenChancellor Gene Budig to be the university host couple. A competitive position because it came with free housing and a stipend, students serving as the host couple lived in the University Guest House by the chancellor’s residence and helped welcome the distinguished university visitors who stayed there. In that role, the Bendapudis — her husband, Venkat Bendapudi, is now a senior lecturer in KU’s School of
KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS DEAN NEELI BENDAPUDI will take over as provost of the university on July 1 She is pictured inside the main atrium of the new Capitol Federal Hall, a project she helped push through while serving as dean of the School of Business.
Please see PROVOST, page 7A
INSIDE
Sunny and humid
Arts&Entertainment 1D-6D Horoscope Classified 1E-8E Opinion Deaths 2A Puzzles Events listings 2D Sports
High: 92
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
Business — met and welcomed to KU people such as musicians, a CIA director, a movie crew and an ambassador to Korea, she said. “We got to learn about every aspect of KU,” Bendapudi said. From sports to art, she said, they shared the story of the university. Bendapudi, who has been KU’s School of Business dean the past five years, formally begins her job as provost and executive vice chancellor on July 1.
Low: 69
Coming ‘Clean’
4D Television 9A USA Today 4D, 5D 1C-5C
6C, 4D 1B-8B
A preview of ceramist Christy Wittmer’s upcoming exhibition “Clean Spaces” at the Lawrence Arts Center A&E, 1D
Join us at Facebook.com/LJWorld and Twitter.com/LJWorld
Today’s forecast, page 6C
1234 Kentucky St. Lawrence, KS Free Admission
Friday June 24th & Saturday June 25th 6:00pm-11:30pm
St. John’s 36th annual
MexicanFiesta
GRUPO PICANTE & as well as LAS ESTRELLAS Mariachi Mexico, Mariachi Girasol and St. John’s Fiesta Dancers Sponsored by 6p - 10p Authentic Mexican Food 5:00p Mariachi Girasol
Vol.158/No.171 40 pages
Friday June 24th
6:30p - 7:30p St. John’s Fiesta Dancers 8p - 11:30p Grupo Picante w/ DJ Ritmo & friends
Saturday June 25th
6p - 10p Authentic Mexican Food 4:30p Mass w/ Mariachis 5:30p Mariachi Mexico
Carnival games on Saturday, bounce house both nights No outside food or beverages allowed
6:30p-7:30p St. John’s Fiesta Dancers 8p - 11:30p Las Estrellas w/ DJ Ritmo & friends
StJohnsFiesta.com Lawrence, KS • June 24 - 25 2016
Peterson, Krische, Van Horn DDS BA Green Construction Blue Collar Press Northwestern Mutual - Joe & Nancy Jones Lawrence Automotive Diagnostics Boston Financial Data Service
La Parrilla Ray Stoneback Appliance Laird Noller Automotive Ranjbar Orthodontics Dobbins & Letourneau Eye Care Warren McElwain Mortuary All Points Surveying
Golf Course Superintendents of America RD Johnson Excavating CEK Insurance Cottin’s Hardware & Rental Checkers Ritmo Productions