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SATURDAY • JUNE 11 • 2011
Outage affects thousands
LAWRENCE POLICE OFFICER JASON NOVOTNY directs traffic at Ninth and Mississippi streets about 3 p.m. Friday as a power outage caused about 5,000 Westar Energy customers to be without power. Many traffic lights in the area were not working.
By Casey Miles and Andy Hyland cmiles@ljworld.com, ahyland@ljworld.com
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
Cooling off
High: 80
Power failures in Old West Lawrence on Friday afternoon affected thousands of residents and several businesses while knocking out traffic signals. Westar Energy reported 5,228 cus-
tomers were without power at the height of the outage, which lasted more than two hours Friday. The affected zone included areas west of Massachusetts Street, south to 15th Street and north of Sixth Street. Power was restored around 5 p.m. According to a Westar official at the substation at Sixth and Kentucky
streets, a switch failed there about 2:30 p.m. The problem was not related to work that Westar recently undertook at the station in hopes of halting failures that had been occurring in downtown Lawrence, the official said.
‘It seems like everyone’s been touched’
Low: 63
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE Tornado survivors develop rare infection Some people injured in the Joplin tornado have developed a rare fungal infection so aggressive that it turned their tissue black and caused mold to grow inside their wounds. In some cases, injuries that had been stitched up had to be reopened to clean out the contamination. Page 6A KU FOOTBALL
Jayhawks defense goes through changes Former Kansas University defensive coordinator Carl Torbush said in no uncertain terms as he announced his retirement that the defense was a unit on the rise, and the Jayhawks appear to be headed toward a slight change in the way they play defense. Page 1B
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We act as a community ... that’s an example of what community should be. Neighbors helping neighbors.”
Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photos
LUMINARIA BAGS LINED THE TRACK Friday during the Relay for Life at Free State High School. Almost 600 people participated in the all-night event that raises money for the American Cancer Society.
Relay for Life draws hundreds supporting cancer research, victims By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
— Jennie Washburn, board member for the local charitable group 100 Good Women. For the past 16 years, the loose network of philanthropy-minded Lawrencians have pitched in on a variety of projects when someone in the group hears about a need in the community. Page 3A
COMING SUNDAY What major Kansas city should you live in if you want to pay the least amount of local taxes? We’ll give you some insights into that question.
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The 593 participants at the Douglas County Relay for Life walked on Friday for Donald, for Betty, for Jeff, Jessica and Jayden, for Uncle Timmy and for Mrs. Rollison. And many more, too. The annual fundraising event for the American Cancer Society brought together 64 fundraising teams for the all-night relay around the track at Free State High School. Barb Gorman, one of the co-chairs of the Relay for Life committee, said she and her mother had both battled cancer. “The more people you talk to, it just seems like everyone’s been touched,” she said. “WE RELAY FOR HOPE,” read a sign created on the fence surrounding the track.
It was a sentiment echoed by many at the Free State High School track Friday evening as they walked. As the 241 registered cancer survivors walked around the track for the relay’s initial lap, the other teams lined the sides and applauded them as they went by. Tim Wedan, who walked with the Intrust Bank team, was witnessing it for the first time. “Touching” was the word he used to best describe it. “You’re kind of sad at first,” he said. “But then you kind of feel almost proud.” Dot Johnson was walking around the track wearing her purple survivor shirt and linked arms with her daughter, Robin Jacobsen. Johnson is actually twice a survivor, she said, being diagnosed with uterine cancer 13 years ago, and lymphoma three JOHN KRUZEL, Lawrence, pushes his wife, Kriss Miller-Kruzel, Friday years ago. during the Relay for Life at Free Please see RELAY, page 2A State High School.
City seeks removal from Frederick lawsuit By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
Attorneys for the city of Lawrence are asking a judge to remove the city from a lawsuit involving the 2009 death of former Kansas University Athletic Director Bob Frederick. City attorneys say depositions in the case have proved the city wasn’t responsible for a pothole that caused Frederick’s accident. Plaintiff ’s attorneys representing Frederick’s family say they are largely not opposed to a judge removing the city from the suit as long as any of the three co-defendants is not alleging the city was at fault. A judge’s consideration of the city’s request for summary judgment comes nearly two years to the day since Frederick, 69, died, June 12, 2009, one day after he suffered injuries after his bicycle struck a hole near Sixth Street and Kasold Drive. The Frederick family alleges in the suit that Black Hills Energy, the city and subcontractors were negligent in completing repair work on pavement at the intersection. According to the
suit, Black Hills was working in the area weeks before the accident and had received a permit form the city for the work. Two other subcontractors — Concrete Inc. of Lawrence and Frederick Underground Systems Construction Inc. — were added as defendants later. Jerry Cooley, an attorney representing the city, in past court motions argued that a franchise agreement with Black Hills saved the city from any liability under a claim. Both the city and Black Hills have denied any negligence. Attorneys Lynn Johnson and David Morantz filed the suit in Douglas County District Court in 2010, and, aside from a few hearings, attorneys representing all sides have spent their time taking depositions of people involved. Cooley wrote in his motion for summary judgment that evidence discovered in the case supports several fac-
tors that should remove the city from the plaintiff’s claims. For one, the city was accused of failing to repair the pothole, but Cooley said there is no evidence the city knew about the pothole and had reasonable time to repair it. The city alleges the hole was created May 20, 2009, during work by Black Hills and subcontractors in the area and that work was not yet completed at the site even one day after Frederick’s accident. “Finally, there is no evidence that anyone reported the ‘pothole’ to defendant city or that it was of such a nature that defendant city should have known of it,” Cooley wrote. The city also argues it cannot be sued for failing to inspect work at the site because it alleges other co-defendants were negligent and caused the pothole. Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild is expected to conduct a hearing on the city’s motion to be removed from the case later this summer. — Reporter George Diepenbrock can be reached at 8327144. Follow him at Twitter.com/gdiepenbrock.
Please see OUTAGE, page 2A
When asked about Kansas’ position as the only state to de-fund the arts, Linda Browning Weis, chairwoman of the Arts Commission and the Arts Foundation, said, “Kansas has always been a leader.”
Kansas’ stance on art concerns officials By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
Public arts officials from the Midwest are wondering whether Gov. Sam Brownback’s elimination of taxpayer-supported arts funding in Kansas is a sign of things to come, or an outlier that other states will reject. “We cannot be caught by surprise,” said Terry Ferguson, chairman of the Mid-America Arts Alliance. “We need to think about the situation that all of our states face.” Ferguson, of Omaha, Neb., was among 40 Mid-America board members who met Friday at the Eldridge Hotel. Last month, Brownback, Brownback saying he wanted to save money and focus on core functions of government, vetoed the Legislature’s $689,000 funding of the Kansas Arts Commission. He then appointed a new Arts Commission chairwoman who is also the leader of the private fundraising group formed by Brownback that he says will be able to fund the arts in Kansas. Brownback’s actions make Kansas the only state that has ended public funding of the arts. Members of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works with art agencies in Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, said the situation in Kansas has left funding of arts up in the air in the Sunflower State.
Art programs crucial The arts are as crucial as any public service in improving lives, helping people learn about others and connecting with each other, Ferguson said. But, he said, many people do not see it that way. “The world we are used to, it may not be the world we have to deal with,” he said. “The situation in Kansas is one in which the governor was determined that public support of the arts was unacceptable and he chose another course. The exact implication of that is unfolding.” He said it is unknown how the National Endowment for the Arts will work with Kansas and whether it will provide grants to Please see ARTS, page 2A