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Dogs make waves at Pooch Plunge
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By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
Nine years ago, Douglas County, one of the most Democratic-voting counties in the state, got sliced by a Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature and governor and placed in two congressional districts. Now, even stronger GOP majorities will be cutting up the state’s political boundaries during the once-a-decade redistricting process. Will Douglas County stay as it is — generally the western part is in the 2nd U.S. House district and the eastern part in the 3rd — get diced up in another way, or be reunited and put into the same district? The Lawrence City Commission will talk about what it would like to see happen today at City Hall as a precursor to Cromwell a public hearing of the Legislature’s Special Committee on Redistricting that will be held from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 2 at the Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University. “We have to decide whether to weigh in,” said Lawrence Mayor Aron Cromwell. Every 10 years, the Legislature redraws district boundaries in state House, Senate, congressional and State Board of Education districts to bring districts into balance population-wise based on the updated census. Legislators will redraw the districts during the 2012 legislative session, which starts in January. Kansas has grown by 6.1 percent since 2000 with most of the growth occurring in northeast Kansas and around Wichita in south-central Kansas, while much of western Kansas continued to lose population. Seventy-seven counties lost population, while 28 counties gained. The 1st District has lost population while the 3rd has gained. So the 1st must take in more counties, and the 3rd will lose some area. This shifting may put Please see REDISTRICTING, page 4A
By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
They have been called everything from “Community Improvement Districts” to “sneaky taxes.” Whatever you call them, they’ll be making an appearance again at City Hall today. City commissioners at their weekly meeting are expected to have their most significant discussion yet about whether they want to offer financial CITY incentives to COMMISSION attract retailers to Lawrence. “I do have some concerns about whether we should be using these types of incentives right now,” said City Commissioner Mike Amyx. “If these are something we really don’t want to use, we should let the community know up front so we don’t create any false expectations.” The incentive drawing the most questions from commissioners is one that creates a special taxing district called a Community Improvement District. The districts allow for up to an extra 2 percent sales tax to be charged on all goods sold in the district. The money from the extra sales tax can be used to pay for public improvements — such as roads and sidewalks — or for private improvements — such as store expansions or special marketing. The idea of the special taxing districts was a hotbutton issue during April’s City Commission election. Candidate Bob Schumm, who went on to take the top spot in the election, branded the districts a sneaky tax because he’s convinced many shoppers aren’t aware of the higher rates. But whether city commissioners will outright ban the use of such districts in Lawrence is uncertain. “I think we may want to take some steps to discourage providing incentives for
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
SAVANNAH PEARCE PLAYS WITH A BOXER NAMED SABALIA at the Pooch Plunge on Monday at Lawrence’s Outdoor Aquatic Center, 727 Ky. The pool plays host to the dog-swimming event every year before the pool closes for the season. See video from the event at LJWorld.com, and see more photos on page 4A.
Please see CITY, page 2A
Twitter users monitoring police, fire and emergency service activities By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
Michael Mikkelsen, a 29-year-old political activist from Kansas City, Mo., doesn’t support drunken driving. But he’s strongly against police DUI checkpoints, which he says violate
drivers’ constitutional rights. Mikkelson’s taken his mission to Twitter, tweeting out checkpoint locations and getting tips from other Twitter users about checkpoint spots. Sometimes he tweets out the link to a live stream he sets up to monitor checkpoints. Mikkelsen, who has more
gency dispatch scanners; everything from auto accidents to fires to police chases. “It keeps the community informed,” said Mike Frizzell, known in the Twitter sphere as @Operation100. Frizzell, 25, has been listening to police scanners since he was 13. “I’ve always been fascinat-
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than 400 followers, is one of several local Twitter users monitoring police, fire and emergency service activities online. Other local Twitter users, such as @KansasScanner and @Operation100, send out frequent Twitter updates from what they overhear on emer-
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ed by it,” said Frizzell, who has more than 1,500 followers. At his home in Shawnee, Frizzell has six scanners, which he uses to monitor several area counties. The hobby has also turned into a fulltime job, as he contracts with several news organizations,
including the Journal-World, providing information about accidents, fires and crime incidents overnight. Twitter users such as Frizzell can fill the gaps between what happens on the street and what ends up on Please see TWITTER, page 2A
COMING WEDNESDAY School reorganization has created a few traffic woes in the district.
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