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2 police officers suspected of fixing tickets Favors allegedly exchanged for KU basketball tickets
By Chad Lawhorn and George Diepenbrock clawhorn@ljworld.com, gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
City leaders have confirmed two Lawrence police officers were suspended following an investigation conducted by the FBI related to traffic tickets be-
Sunny
High: 54
ing fixed in exchange for Kansas University basketball tickets. City Manager David Corliss said Thursday afternoon the person whose traffic tickets were fixed is serving time in a federal prison related to the broader KU
ticket scandal. A federal judge last year sentenced four former Kansas Athletics Inc. employees — Ben Kirtland, Rodney Jones, Charlette Blubaugh and Kassie Liebsch — and one department consultant, Tom Blubaugh, to
federal prison after their guilty pleas in the cash-for-tickets scam from 2005 to 2010 that rocked the university and cost it more than $2 million in football Please see POLICE, page 5A
Power plant gaining steam
Low: 23
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE Redistricting plan puts county in 1st
By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
KU baseball makes pitching switch
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I wouldn’t say that we’re being played more than anybody else. They’re looking at everything.”
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
WORK CONTINUES ON THE NEW BOWERSOCK MILLS & POWER CO. hydroelectric power plant on the north bank of the Kansas River. Construction is expected to be complete sometime in 2013. The plant will operate in conjunction with the 1800s-era plant that Bowersock owns on the south bank of the river. The new plant is expected to produce enough electricity to power about 3,300 homes per year.
Lawsuit filed over tenure denial By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
— Gov. Sam Brownback, commenting on the federal government’s decision not to allocate any funds for a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, in response to a question about whether Washington was “playing Kansas” by threatening to cancel the project in effort to extract additional financial support from the state. Page 4A
COMING SATURDAY A Mardi Gras march is on the docket for downtown Lawrence. We’ll give you the details.
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INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Puzzles Sports Television Vol.154/No.48
7A 5B-10B 9A 2A 10A, 2B 9B 4A 8A 9B 1B-4B, 10B 4A, 2B, 9B 36 pages
Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org
9th and N.H. project rejected City Commission likely to take up development plan
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All of Douglas County would be in the 1st U.S. House District under a congressional redistricting plan filed by Rep. Anthony Brown, R-Eudora. The proposal, dubbed the “I-70 District” would go from Lawrence to the Kansas-Colorado border. Page 3A
In an effort to turn around his team’s fortune late in games, Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price has changed closers heading into the 2012 season. Tanner Poppe will now be the closer, and Frank Duncan will be a starter. Page 1B
Corliss
University says prof’s research record is inadequate; he says he can’t exclude his sexuality as a motive
A Kansas University ments relating to the mechanical engineer- tenure application have ing professor is asking a become public record, a Douglas County District rarity in tenure review Court judge to overturn cases. the university’s decision A website in support of to deny him tenure. Kromes’ tenure applicaAccording to court tion, kualumni4romkes. documents, Albert org, contains sevRomkes alleges eral arguments that, though two and documents in university commitsupport of his potees recommended sition. to approve his tenThe site states ure application, KANSAS that Romkes was the university de- UNIVERSITY the only openly nied his applicagay professor in tion after several appeals the school. Romkes that eventually reached said — as far as he knew the chancellor’s desk. — he was one of the Because of the court first openly gay faculty filing, many of the docu- members in the school.
He added that while he had never experienced open acts of discrimination while working at the school, he felt he couldn’t rule out the fact that he was gay was used against him in the tenure process. “I can’t exclude it,” he said. A KU spokeswoman responded to the filing in a written statement. “As is clear from Assistant Professor Romkes’ court filings, the department chair, dean, University Promotion & Tenure Committee and provost all recommended against
tenure because his research record did not meet the university’s standard,” said Jill Jess, the spokeswoman. “There are no allegations of discrimination in Romkes’ court filings because the university does not discriminate.” Two promotion and review committees — one at the department level and another at the school level — did, however, recommend he be approved for tenure. In a letter denying his tenure application, KU School of Engineering Dean Stuart Bell wrote Please see TENURE, page 2A
Highway interests try to halt GOP tax plan By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Contractors, cities and counties on Thursday tried to slam the brakes on a proposal by House Republican leaders that would divert $350 million in highway funds to pay for a cut in the state income tax. “Now is not the time to take more money from transportation funding,” said Charlie Sedlock, representing the highway building company Hamm Inc. “Right now, construction prices are low and the state is getting an outstanding value for each dollar spent on highway projects, and thus it is not the right time to cut highway
funding for some type keeps in the place the of income tax savings,” credits and deductions he said in testimony and allows the sales tax to the House Taxation to decrease. Committee. But to make up the The committee has revenue to buy down been taking comment the income tax cut, it on the plan that would divert $350 would reduce inmillion from the come tax rates. state’s compreHouse GOP leadhensive transporers touted it as tation program. an alternative to “This plan alGov. Sam Brownlows Kansas to back’s proposal LEGISLATURE continue to invest to reduce income in quality roads taxes. while putting money Brownback’s plan back into the pockets of would also eliminate hardworking Kansans,” many tax credits and a statement for House deductions and keep Republican leaders said. in place the 6.3 perBut the proposal has cent state sales tax rate, produced road rage. which under current “The bill will delay law is set to decrease to economic development 5.7 percent next year. and job creation at a The House Repub- time when Kansas deslican leadership plan perately needs both,”
said Julie Lorenz, chief executive of Economic Lifelines, a coalition of transportation groups. A promise to restore the diverted funds over seven years was met with skepticism by advocates, who noted that transportation funds have been used in the past to balance the state budget, including $200 million last year. Another part of the House GOP plan was also criticized. It would cut in half the Earned Income Tax Credit, which helps low-income Kansans. Brownback’s plan eliminated it altogether. Kansas Action for Children said eliminating or reducing the EITC would hurt working families.
Still too tall. The city’s Historic Resources Commission unanimously rejected plans for a multi-story hotel/apartment building at the southeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets, likely putting the fate of the project in the hands of Lawrence city commissioners. Historic resources commissioners were told the building — which varies in height from six to three stories — would damage a historic district of homes along Rhode Island Street, Compton which is just east of the proposed project. “The building would loom like the clumsy giant who has moved next door, blocking sunlight and wondering why it never gets invited to potlucks,” said K.T. Walsh, a board member for the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association. Members of the development team — which is led by Lawrence businessmen Doug Compton and Mike Treanor — had made several changes to the building in an attempt to address neighborhood concerns. But an attorney for the neighbors said there was only so much that could be done. “It is an elephant,” said attorney Ron Schneider. “They’ve said let’s clean up the elephant. Let’s wash it. Let’s clip its nails, maybe clip its tail even. But it is still an elephant in a backyard.” Compton said after the meeting that he was not planning to make any more changes to the building’s height in an effort to win HRC approval. Instead, he said he would appeal the decision to the Lawrence City Commission, which likely will hear the project in the next several weeks. “We believe it is still a good project, and we’re excited to move forward on it,” Compton said. Historic resources commissioners had little debate about rejecting the project. The commission did not provide any specific guidance on how the project would need to change in order win approval from the board. Previously, though, the commission had indicated the building needed to be more similar in size to the adjacent Lawrence Arts Center. That would require the new building to be no taller than three stories. Earlier this month, architects for the project reduced Please see PROJECT, page 2A