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TUESDAY • DECEMBER 23 • 2014
Motorists flocking for cheap gas
Homicide suspect says death was an assisted suicide By Caitlin Doornbos Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
DON NELSON, WHO WORKS FOR GROENDYKE TRANSPORT, of Kansas City, Mo., unloads 7,000 gallons of gasoline Monday morning at the Kwik Shop at 1611 E. 23rd St. Gas prices fell below $2 a gallon for regular unleaded at many stations across Lawrence.
Fuel price dips below $2 a gallon By Caitlin Doornbos Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
Gas prices have dropped below $2 a gallon at many Lawrence filling stations, and customers and businesses couldn’t be happier. According to AAA’s fuel gauge report for Monday, Kansas has the fourth-lowest average gas prices in the nation,
behind only Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Since this time last month, gas prices have dropped nearly 54 cents per gallon in Kansas. Lifelong Lawrence resident Doug Landon, whose dual-tank truck can hold about 34 gallons of gas, said the $1.99 per gallon fuel he purchased was the lowest he’s seen in years.
“It used to take me about $100 to fill up,” Landon said. “When I started driving in 1979, gas was 25 cents a gallon,” Landon said. On Monday, Landon spent $15 on 7.5 gallons of gas. He said the cheaper fuel might encourage him to travel for the Christmas holiday this week. “I’m more apt to travel,” Landon said. “I’ll try
to. I’m more likely now than before.” But Landon doesn’t have high hopes for the future; he, like most drivers, has been burned by the gas price roller coaster before. “You know one day we’re going to wake up and it’s going to take a dollar hike,” Landon said. Please see GAS, page 2A
Suspect arrested after 3-hour armed standoff By Caitlin Doornbos Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
Lawrence police took a man into custody after a nearly three-hour armed standoff Monday at Village Square Apartments, in the 1500 block of West Eighth Terrace. The standoff began at noon Monday and ended just before 3 p.m. No one was injured. The man, whose name does not yet appear on the Douglas County Jail’s booking log, was taken first to speak with investigators at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., after his capture, Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley said. He will likely soon be arrested for his actions, McKinley said. The man is believed to have been tied to an incident involving a gun and a vehicle that occurred Monday morning at Cedarwood
Apartments, near 24th Street in central Lawrence, Lawrence police Capt. Anthony Brixius said. During that incident, officers were dispatched around 11:30 a.m. to the 2400 block of Cedarwood Avenue after a caller reported a man had borrowed a vehicle and refused to return it, according to Douglas County dispatchers. The person reported that the man showed the caller a “nine-millimeter handgun” and told the caller that “he knows how to use it,” dispatchers said over the police scanner. Lawrence polices spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley said the man allegedly pointed the gun at the caller. Two cars that were “believed to be involved” with the Cedarwood incident were parked outside of Village Square Apartments, Brixius said.
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Roberts says Obama’s Cuba move more PR than substance Senator says Congress should have been consulted By John Hanna Associated Press
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INSIDE Business Classified Comics Deaths
Please see HOMICIDE, page 2A
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OFFICERS STAND BY their patrol cars Monday outside Village Square Apartments in the 1500 block of West Eighth Terrace. Officers were involved for several hours in an armed standoff that ended with the suspect being taken into Please see STANDOFF, page 2A custody.
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Lawrence’s latest homicide arrest occurred after the suspect, Ronald Eugene Heskett, 48, told investigators he helped victim Vance “Van” Moulton kill himself with a bath towel, according to an affidavit released by the court Friday. Heskett, of Eudora, Heskett worked as a home health care attendant to Lawrence resident Moulton, 65, who had cerebral palsy, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office confirmed last month. Moulton was found dead of asphyxiation Sept. 12 at his residence at Prairie Ridge Place Apart- Moulton ments, 2424 Melrose Lane, the affidavit said. Moulton had been found in bed with a towel around his head. Douglas County Coroner Erik Mitchell said that the asphyxiation had been caused by a “consistent area of compression surrounding his entire neck.” Heskett told investigators that Moulton
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Topeka — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts is skeptical of President Barack Obama’s decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba, labelling it as nothing more than a shift in public relations. The Republican senator said the Democratic president should consult Roberts Congress on changing U.S. policy and questioned whether Obama can unilaterally normalize relations with communist Cuba through executive action. “I don’t know how he can do that,” Roberts said during an Associated Press Please see ROBERTS, page 2A l Cuba showing no signs of extraditing
U.S. fugitive. Page 8A
Keeping tabs DoubleTake columnists weigh in on advisability of keeping track of people with various phone apps. WellCommons, Page 1B
Vol.156/No.357 24 pages