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FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 4 • 2011
Proposed amendment against health law advances By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — A House committee on Thursday approved a proposed constitutional amendment that its supporters said would allow Kansans to ignore the federal health reform law.
Landwehr
Stay bundled up
High: 26
Low: 19
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE Selby making aggressive plays Kansas University basketball player Josh Selby, the 6foot-2 guard from Baltimore, has started to become more assertive on offense, taking the ball to the rim instead of settling for jumpers. It’s worked. And KU coach Bill Self has noticed. Page 1B CITY
Zoning board OKs Dillons project Lawrence’s Board of Zoning Appeals approved two variances sought for a new, larger Dillons grocery proposed to be built on the site of the current store, 1740 Mass. Page 3A
“
QUOTABLE
She almost broke my eardrums.” — Cloud County Historical Society Museum worker Jim Whitesell, describing the shriek from co-administrator Marilyn Johnston when she realized she had found a letter written by Martha Washington, wife of the first U.S. president, in storage at the Concordia museum. Page 2A
COMING SATURDAY The city will spend abut $1.2 million moving water and sewer lines under the East 23rd Street bridge that's slated for replacement later this year.
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INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Poll Puzzles Sports Television Vol.153/No.35
6A 6B-8B 9A 2A 10A 9B 5A 8A 2A 9B 1B-5B, 10B 5A, 9B 28 pages
Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org
“States have rights, states have sovereignty,” said Health and Human Services Committee Chair Brenda Landwehr, RWichita, who pushed for the amendment. “If we did not, we would be under a dictatorship,” she said. But opponents said the meas-
ure was inaccurate and deceiving to voters because it would lead them to believe that a state constitutional amendment could trump federal law. “States don’t have the right to nullify federal law through their own constitutions,” said Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield. “States
can no more nullify this law than they have in any situation, including civil rights.” HCR 5007 states that any person, employer or provider cannot be forced to participate in any health care system or purchase health insurance. Under the federal Patient Protection
‘Definitely extremely cold’ ... and maybe even a record
Another guilty plea to be made
bhawley@ljworld.com
It was cold — extremely cold — overnight Wednesday. But did Lawrence set a record? Well, maybe. Brian Barjenbruch, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said the automated sensor at Lawrence Municipal Airport registered minus 15 degrees overnight Wednesday. That sensor has only been in place since 2005, and the coldest temperature measured before this week was minus 6. On the Kansas University campus, data has been recorded for more than 100 years. The record low was minus 13, set in 1905. Barjenbruch couldn’t conf irm Lawrence set a record at that station, but he said it was close. “It was def initely extremely cold,” he said. “It is infrequent to get this cold.”
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Kirtland will be seventh to admit role By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
ONLINE: Read about the other defendants and see timelines at LJWorld.com
Please see COLD, page 2A
HOW COLD IS IT?
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
ELEMENTARY STUDENTS just out of school are quick to form snowballs as they head home from Prairie Park School on Thursday on a sidewalk still covered with snow. TOP PHOTO: City crews deliver truckloads of snow to a city lot behind Johnny’s Tavern in North Lawrence. Workers spent Thursday moving snow out of the middle of downtown streets.
Afghan army trainers relate tough mission “
By George Diepenbrock
For what we did for them I think they did very well. They’re not at the first step anymore, but they’re not at the top of the stairs either.”
gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
American military training leaders said Thursday that the Afghanistan National Army made strides in 2010 and that it was a big step forward for the country. “There was an advancement of skills, of competence and of confidence just in their own ability to do the job well,” said Lt. Col. Michael Loos, commander of the Army’s 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Infantry Regiment for the 10th Mountain Division. Loos and Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Mio Franceschi spoke about their 12-month training mission to about 60 people Thursday afternoon at the Dole Institute of Politics on Kansas University’s West Campus. They said it was a tough transition as the battalion was preparing for combat in Iraq before commanders were told just months before they left that they
Please see AMENDMENT, page 2A
KU TICKET SCAM
By Brenna Hawley
Lawrence hasn’t seen temperatures this cold all winter, and the Lawrence Municipal Airport registered minus 15 degrees overnight. Journal-World reporter Brenna Hawley channeled her inner Bill Nye the Science Guy to test an idea: Would boiling water turn to vapor when it hit the cold air? Visit LJWorld.com to see a video and whether she was successful.
and Affordable Care Act, most people must have insurance by 2014 or face fines. The proposal was approved by the committee on a voice vote with only Democrats opposed. Rep. Peggy Mast, R-Emporia,
— Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Mio Franceschi on Afghan soldiers his unit trained
Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo
LT. COL. MICHAEL LOOS, left, and Cmd. Sgt. Major Mio Franceschi share their experiences and insights from Afghanistan Thursday at the Dole Institute. The military training leaders are with the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. would be given a training mission instead. They spent grueling days overseeing a training center in Kabul and 19 regional training sites across the country’s rough terrain. The battalion was among the first to enter Afghanistan early in 2010 as part of a troop
surge President Barack Obama ordered. Still, Loos, in his fourth Afghanistan deployment, said he saw more progress last year especially with basic recruits and officers as his battalion trained more than 60,000 Afghan soldiers.
“I feel that individually and organizationally as a battalion that we made a huge difference tactically, person-to-person, and strategically,” Loos said. Franceschi said he could see a difference in 12 months, for example, in the way the Afghan soldiers marched. “It was ugly” at first, he said. Then toward the end Americans would more often stand back and make spot corrections as the Afghans took the lead. Please see AFGHAN, page 2A
The onetime leader of fundraising for Kansas Athletics Inc. plans to plead guilty later this month in federal court for his role in a tickets scam that cost the department millions of dollars. Ben Kirtland, former associate athletics director for development, is scheduled to enter his guilty plea during a hearing at 10 a.m. Feb. 24 in U.S. District Court in Wichita. Kirtland would become the seventh and Kirtland f inal former athletics employee or consultant charged in the case to plead guilty. The case has led to changes in how tickets are distributed and preceded the accelerated retirement of Lew Perkins as athletic director. Kirtland had been scheduled to stand trial beginning March 8 on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown has agreed to schedule a change-of-plea hearing, at Kirtland’s request. Already having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud: ● Charlette Blubaugh, former head of the athletics ticket office. ● Tom Blubaugh, her husband and a former consultant. ● Kassie Liebsch, a former systems analyst who had taken over for Charlette Blubaugh running the tickets office. ● Rodney Jones, former assistant athletic director in charge of Williams Fund. Each of the co-conspirators face up to 20 years in prison, fines of up to $250,000 and are on the hook for a monetary judgment of $2 million — a total ordered to be paid by convicted co-conspirators. Two other former co-workers — Jason Jeffries and Brandon Simmons — earlier had pleaded guilty to failing to notify authorities about the scam. Prosecutors allege that the coconspirators stole thousands of tickets from 2005 to 2010, then funneled those tickets through brokers and others to generate more than $2 million in illegal proceeds. — Schools reporter Mark Fagan can be reached at 832-7188.