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Colder
High: 31
Bad news, Bears: Jayhawks too powerful on home turf
Low: 9
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE Reptile expert Joe Collins dies Joe Collins, a renowned expert on reptiles and amphibians, died Saturday in Florida after suffering a heart attack. He was 72. Page 4A
Supporters say arts scene can draw tourists, business
The owner of MagnaGro Corp. has denied a Eudora woman’s claims in a lawsuit over a 2010 industrial accident at the business. Page 3A
GOP candidates gang up on Romney Under heavy debate pressure from his rivals, Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney defended his record as a venture capitalist, insisted he bears no responsibility for attack ads aired by his allies and grudgingly said in campaign debate Monday night he might release his income tax returns this spring. Page 6A
QUOTABLE
This has been quite a faith-testing year. We have seen the greatest attack on voting rights since segregation.” — Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, on state voter ID laws. The NAACP argues that such laws make it harder for many minorities to participate in elections. Page 7A
COMING WEDNESDAY The City Commission will be deciding a weighty topic: Can pot-bellied pigs be kept as pets in Lawrence?
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
KANSAS UNIVERSITY FRESHMEN Therese Castrogiovanni, Chicago, left, Angela Gargaro, Chicago, and Emily Phillbin, Omaha, go wild in the student section as the Jayhawks widen their lead against Baylor during the second half on Monday at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks gave the Baylor Bears their first loss of the season on Monday, and now KU is the only team in the Big 12 that has not lost a conference game. See more in Sports, page 1B.
LEGISLATURE
TOPEKA (AP) — Some Kansas liquor store owners are hoping the Legislature makes it legal for them to hold tastings in which customers can sample certain products before buying them. A measure introduced in the state Senate by several liquor marketing associations is the result of a controversy that emerged after retailers started arranging tastings near their liquor stores. The Topeka CapitalJournal reported that because state law blocked consumption of alcoholic beverages inside stores, proprietors staged events
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The issue of big boarding houses and the future of the Oread neighborhood will return to Lawrence City Hall tonight. City commissioners at their weekly meeting will consider revising regulations that several homeowners in Oread say would allow too many boarding houses to be built in the neighborhood. A boarding house is a type of structure that is exempt from the requirement that no more than four unrelated people can live in a
clawhorn@ljworld.com
Final Fridays may just be the beginning. Organizers of the year-anda-half-old monthly arts event in downtown Lawrence are now envisioning a new full-time city position that would promote the arts and work to bring “creative industries” to The results the city. “The rehave been sults have more positive been more than even positive than we expected. even we expected,” said Our recomEric Kirkenmendations dall, an orgagoing forward nizer of the Final Fridays really are event, and a focused on co-author of the city con- a study that attempts to sidering the cultural arts quantify the economic and creativimpact of the ity as a major event. “Our recommenpart of their dations goeconomic ing forward development really are focused on the strategy.” city consid— Eric Kirkendall, an ering the cultural arts and organizer of the Final creativity as Fridays event a major part of their economic development strategy.” The study included results from a survey that attempted to quantify the economic impacts from November’s Final Fridays event, which featured various gallery shows and performances. Among the findings were:
A team of volunteers counted about 2,700 visitors who attended various art venues as part of the Final Fridays event.
A random survey of 191 people found that visitors planned to spend about $31 per person as part of the event, with the bulk of the spending on souvenirs/gifts and meals and refreshments.
Using the survey results, the study estimates that the November event generated about $80,000 in spending for the community.
Businesses were mixed on
The prospects are very good, but being a liquor bill, I’m cautiously optimistic.” — Lobbyist R.E. “Tuck” Duncan nearby. That stopped after representatives of the Kansas Department of Revenue issued a policy memorandum in August declaring that the agency’s interpretation of state law prohibited samplings, whether free or not, “in, on, or about the licensed premises.” The Senate measure would allow retailers to
host in-store tastings for people interested in trying unfamiliar beers, wines or distilled spirits. “We’ve talked about it,” said Shawn McKeever, a liquor store clerk at Fleming Place Wine and Spirits in Topeka. “We sell a lot of craft beer.” Regulators concluded no tastings would be authorized for party or smoke shops, parking lots, sidewalks or alleys adjacent to liquor store property. R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, a Statehouse lobbyist working with organizations seeking to get the bill passed, said the intent was to es-
tablish in state law the opportunity for liquor stores to host tastings similar to those well known to wine country enthusiasts. A Senate hearing on the bill is likely in a few weeks, and Duncan said the measure hasn’t sparked an outpouring of criticism. “The prospects are very good, but being a liquor bill, I’m cautiously optimistic,” Duncan said. Individual portions for tastings would be limited to one-half ounce for distilled spirits, one ounce for wine and two ounces for beer or Please see LIQUOR, page 5A
multifamily zoned property. Instead, the number of people who can live in CITY COMMISSION a boarding house is governed, in part, by the amount of off-street parking each house can provide. Previously, the parking standard was .75 parking space per one bedroom. But the new regulations allow boarding houses to use a calculation of .5 parking space per bedroom. But in order to qualify for the
reduced parking rate, the house must be at least 3,500 square feet in size. City planning staff members have said unfinished basements and attics should be counted in figuring the total square footage of a house, with the idea that those spaces could be made livable at some point. But research by the city has now confirmed that 89 homes, or about 20 percent of all homes in the Oread neighborhood, would be eligible for the reduced parking standards. Several Oread residents have said such a large increase in the number of
boarding houses would worsen parking and other congestion problems in the neighborhood. Some landlords, though, have said the city does need to encourage the conversion of large homes into boarding houses as a way of preserving the structures. If the large homes can’t be used as boarding houses, some landlords have argued, the old houses will be more likely to be torn down. Commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. today at City Hall. — City reporter Chad Lawhorn can be reached at 832-6362. Follow him at Twitter.com/clawhorn_ljw.
Please see ARTS, page 2A
Schools task force to forward proposals to consultants By Christine Metz cmetz@ljworld.com
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Parking concerns drive boarding house debate clawhorn@ljworld.com
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A school consolidation advisory group picked what members believe are the five best scenarios for closing two to three elementary schools in Lawrence over the next couple of years. After spending nearly three hours Monday night debating the pros and cons of the proposals, the Central and East Lawrence Elementary School Consolidation Working Group selected the options they wanted to send to consultants RSP & Asso-
ciates Inc. for further study. A group of about 30 members has been working since early September to come up with a plan that would reduce a list of six elementary schools — Cordley, Hillcrest, Kennedy, New York, Pinckney and Sunset Hill — down to either three or four within two years, as directed by the school board. The most comprehensive proposal being sent to RSP & Associates is a multi-layered approach that involves consolidating Kennedy and New York at a site on 15th Street and Haskell Avenue, close
to the former East Heights School site, or at Kennedy. Hillcrest and Sunset Hill would also be consolidated at an expanded Sunset Hill site. And, Pinckney would be expanded and Prairie Park would take more students who speak English as a second language. The group also offered a scaled-down version of that proposal, which would simply combine Kennedy and New York at the 15th Street and Haskell Avenue site and bring Hillcrest students to Sunset Hill. Another option would be
to combine Hillcrest and Pinckney, which would require shutting down one of those schools and keeping the other one open. And, the final two proposals would combine Cordley and New York, either by expanding and upgrading the Cordley site or by expanding the New York site. With those proposals, the group wants the consultants to consider among other things class size, enrollment numbers in five years, how many of the students would be within a mile or half a mile walking distance, the
socio-economic mix of the students, how many students would be displaced, the effect on students who speak English as a second language and the change on traffic patterns. The group also ruled out some proposals. For example, they decided that children shouldn’t have to travel over the Kansas River to attend Woodlawn. They also took several proposals off the table. They were:
To combine New York and Cordley at the East Please see SCHOOLS, page 5A