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TUESDAY • MAY 24 • 2011
Reading instructor can’t duck the Bobs’ By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
ONLINE: See the video at LJWorld.com
Renee Babin, a Title I reading interventionist at Schwegler School, is the winner of the 2011 Bobs’ Award, an honor given annually to an outstanding educator in the Lawrence school district. Babin picked up the award, and the $10,000 prize that goes with it, as her second year at Schwegler and
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I’m ecstatic. I’m surprised. I’m mortified. People are going to expect a lot. It will inspire me to try even harder.” — Renee Babin her third in the district overall. “I’m ecstatic. I’m surprised. I’m mortif ied,” Babin said Monday, after receiving the check and congratulations from administrators, colleagues
Strong storms
High: 83
Low: 64
Today’s forecast, page 8A
INSIDE
and students during a special assemble in the school gym. “People are going to expect a lot. It will inspire me to try even harder.” The award is financed through the Lawrence Schools Foundation, thanks
RENEE BABIN, RIGHT, Schwegler School reading teacher, tries to disappear behind her colleagues Monday as she realizes she has been chosen for this year’s Bobs’ Award. Colleagues from left are Amanda Gibb and Jennifer Day.
to the generosity of 17 benefactors who share at least two things: the first name Bob and a collective desire to otherwise remain anonymous. At Schwegler, Babin works with students to meet their reading needs, while supporting other teachers and staffers in developing plans for improving students’ reading instruction. She started work in the district in 2008, Please see READING, page 2A
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
Residents lend a hand to tornado-ravaged towns
Moran keen on spending cuts Sen. Jerry Moran talked with about 80 residents Monday at the Lawrence Public Library and expressed his concerns that the federal government must get its spending under control. Page 3A CONGRESS
By Jane Stevens
Six has hearings on new court post today
jstevens@ljworld.com
Former Douglas County District Judge and Kansas Attorney General Steve Six will have a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today on his nomination to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Page 5A
“
QUOTABLE
We’ve been progressive in this area for a while. And now it shows.” — Margaret Tran, who is the coordinator for Take Charge Challenge in Lawrence. Lawrence recently overtook Manhattan in the energy efficiency contest. Page 3A
COMING WEDNESDAY Bill James is a numbers guy. A baseball numbers guy. But he's also a true crime junkie. We'll tell you about his new book.
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INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Puzzles Sports Television Vol.153/No.144
6A 1C-6C 8C 2A 8A, 2B 7C 5A 7A 7C 1B-8B 5A, 2B, 7C 24 pages
Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org
State’s dental checkup shows no gains
Charlie Riedel/AP Photo
RESIDENTS SALVAGE ITEMS from their home that was severely damaged by a tornado in Joplin, Mo., as a thunderstorm passes overhead Monday. The tornado that hit Sunday was the deadliest in nearly 60 years and destroyed a large part of the city of 50,000 in southwest Missouri.
Emergency personnel, Westar crews head to Reading; Red Cross collects for Joplin Staff Reports
A handful of Douglas County residents already have deployed to help with recovery in Reading, devastated by a tornado Saturday night. Teri Smith, Douglas County Emergency Management director, said two Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical division chiefs, Bill Stark and Sean Coffey, have been sent to Reading as part of the Northeast Kansas incident management team. Stark is the team’s incident commander, and Coffey is the planning chief. Smith said both men have been deployed several times to help in emergencies,
Inside ● The latest updates on Joplin, Mo.,
and Reading. Page 6A ● Former Jayhawk Jeff Boschee is an assistant basketball coach at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. Page 1B ● Several area residents have ties to Joplin. Page 6A including with the 2007 Greensburg tornado. Smith said the incident management team is assisting Lyon County’s emergency management director in helping the community in its recovery efforts. Please see RESPONSE, page 6A
HOW TO HELP If you’d like to help victims of last weekend’s tornadoes, the American Red Cross is accepting donations. Jane Blocher, executive director of the Douglas County chapter, emphasizes that money is the best answer — not “stuff.” She said donations other than money actually impede disaster relief efforts. Blocher says this is how to help: ● Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. A charge will appear on your cellphone bill the following month. ● Make an online donation at redcross.org ● Call the local office with credit card donations. The number is 843-3550. ● Mail checks to the local office earmarked Joplin Tornado or Reading Tornado. The address is 2518 Ridge Court, Lawrence, KS 66046. Trained Red Cross volunteers from Douglas County are on standby for deployment to Reading and to Joplin, Mo.
Twenty-two states improved their grades in dental care for children over last year, but Kansas wasn’t one of them. For the second year, the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Children’s Dental Campaign rated all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and found that 27 states earned an “A” or “B”, but 23 states had a C or lower. Kansas’ “C” grade remained unchanged. “I know our grade didn’t change,” Kathy Weno, the director of the Bureau of Oral Health in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Monday. She’d been informed of the state’s grade last week. Rated on eight benchmarks, Kansas met the standards on four: 1. Allowing a hygienist to apply sealants on kids’ teeth without a dentist doing an exam first. 2. Exceeding the 2007 national average of 38 percent of Medicaid-enrolled children receiving dental services. In Kansas, it was 45 percent. 3. Reimbursing providers through the state Medicaid program for preventive dental health services. 4. Tracking data on children’s dental health. But it failed on four others: 1. Dental sealant programs in at least 25 percent of high-risk schools. (Sealants prevent 60 to 70 percent of cavities.) 2. At least 75 percent of the state’s residents on community water systems with fluoridated water. Kansas dropped from 65 to 45 percent. Lawrence fluoridates its water. Wichita is the Please see DENTAL, page 2A
At unexpected time, place, triplets arrive Delivery is first of its kind at LMH in at least 25 years By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
When you’re the mother of three babies, you had better get used to changing plans. Johanna Thomas found that out from the very beginning. The plan all along had been for Thomas to deliver her triplets at the Kansas University Hospital, which is one of the area hospitals specially equipped to deal with triplet births. But then she woke up early Monday morning with labor pains. She called her nurse at KU Med, who said it would be best to get a quick checkup at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital emergency room before trying to travel to Kansas City.
The LMH diagnosis was clear. “They said we were going to have a lot of babies in a little bit of time,” Thomas recalled from her hospital room Monday afternoon. Thomas arrived at LMH at 1:30 a.m. and by 4:30 a.m. had been prepped and taken to a Caserean section operating room. All three babies were brought into the world before 4:40 a.m. With them came a little bit of LMH history. The delivery marked the first time in at least 25 years that the hospital had delivered triplets, Belinda Rehmer, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said. Thomas said it was quite a scene from her vantage point as well. She Please see TRIPLETS, page 2A
Richard Gwin/ Journal-World Photos
JASON WHITEWATER AND JOHANNA THOMAS on Monday welcomed triplets into their family. At left are their baby boy, top, and two girls.