Lawrence Journal-World 09-30-16

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LOSING STREAK

Keegan: But this road loss has a ‘different feel.’ 1D

CONTINUES

Hoboken train lacked automatic brakes. 1B

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Friday • September 30 • 2016

Kobach, ACLU strike deal on votes

PUBLISHED SINCE 1891

‘WORTH THE JOURNEY’

Judge cancels contempt hearing By Roxana Hegeman Associated Press

Wichita — Thousands of prospective voters who did not provide citizenship documents will be able to cast traditional ballots in the November election in Kansas, rather than being forced to use provisional ones, under a deal brokered Thursday that halted contempt proceedings against the state’s top election official. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson canceled a contempt hearing scheduled for Friday after Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach agreed to concessions that will fully register and clearly notify people who registered at motor vehicle offices without providing proof of citizenship that they can vote. Their names would be listed as registered on the state’s website and in separate poll books kept at election sites. Robinson on Monday ordered Kobach to show why he should not be held in contempt for allegedly violating her May injunction. That temporary injunction required Kobach to add to voter rolls people who register when they get their driver’s licenses. The deal between Kobach and the American Civil Liberties Union would allow roughly 20,000 people who have registered so far without citizenship documents to cast a regular ballot, instead of a provisional one — a number the state expects to grow to 50,000 voters by election time. The ACLU said the agreement would also apply to people who registered using a federal form. The use of provisional ballots during Kansas’ August primary for those covered by Robinson’s injunction and other court decisions had raised concerns about ballot secrecy. Provisional ballots are placed in envelopes that show

John Young/Journal-World Photo

JABARI ASIM, AUTHOR AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE CRISIS MAGAZINE, SITTING AT RIGHT next to Professor Clarence Lang, speaks to a packed auditorium on Thursday at Budig Hall. Asim presented the fall keynote lecture for the University of Kansas’ Common Book program.

KU Common Book lecture ‘investigates’ the black experience By Sara Shepherd sshepherd@ljworld.com

T

a-Nehisi Coates is among black writers who pursue questioning as ritual as opposed to questioning for certainty — a pursuit fellow black writer Jabari Asim said he shares. “The investigation itself is worth the journey,” Asim said. That kind of investigation is part of how black

literature and efforts such as the Black Lives Matter movement can help people — including AfricanAmericans themselves — understand the black experience, Asim said Thursday at the University of Kansas, where he gave the keynote lecture for KU’s 2015-16 Common Book events series. This year’s Common Book, being used by faculty in more than 150 class sections, is Coates’

“Between the World and Me.” Described as a profound letter to his adolescent son, the book is “an honest and courageous response to the realities of race, legacy and inequality in America,” according to KU’s summary. Asim is a celebrated author and editor-in-chief of The Crisis magazine, chosen to give the lecture because his work engages

> ASIM, 2A

Local chapter of Black Lives Matter calls for action By Rochelle Valverde rvalverde@ljworld.com

At their first community meeting, members of the Lawrence chapter of Black Lives Matter laid out a plan for local activism that aims

to address topics such as policing, education and political action. The BLM members spoke to a diverse crowd of about 150 people — a range of ages and races — who had gathered at Dad Perry

Park, inviting them to join in the efforts regardless of their background. “We’ve tried it over and over again — black and white unity,” Lawrence BLM member Tai Amri Spann-Wilson told

meeting attendees Thursday evening. “Since slavery, we’ve been trying it and they have been trying to break us apart, and we’re saying no more. So I

> ACTION, 2A

> CONTEMPT, 2A

Pro-business think tank not impressed with Kansas income tax cuts the board and eliminated income taxes entirely for more than 330,000 business owners. In its latest ranking of state business tax climates, the Tax Foundation, one of the nation’s oldest nonpartisan think tanks, said Kansas has only the 22nd most competitive tax code in the nation, and its individual income tax structure

By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com

Topeka — A conservative, pro-business think tank in Washington, D.C., said this week that Kansas did little to improve its competitive business climate by enacting sweeping tax cuts in 2012 that lowered tax rates across

Pleasant

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ranks only 18th. The overall ranking was down one notch from the 21st position that Kansas received in the group’s last two annual surveys. “Broadly speaking, good tax structure involves broad bases and low rates,” said Jared Walczak, a policy analyst at the foundation and a coauthor of the report.

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“Kansas departed from the idea of a broad base in this pass-through exemption where you have some individuals who are able to escape income taxes entirely.” The pass-through exemption refers to certain kinds of business structures in which the income of the business is, in fact, the personal income of the

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owners. That includes everything from the person who runs a cottage industry out of his or her home to large law firms and medical practices that are owned by the lawyers or doctors in those firms. It also applies to most farming operations. In 2012, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback championed sweeping

changes to the Kansas income tax code that included significant cuts in individual income tax rates, and a complete Brownback

> TAX CUTS, 2A

Forecast, 6A

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