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2010: the year online
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE Which bowl games are worth watching Of the dozen football teams in the Big 12 Conference, eight of them received bowl invitations this season. Our Big 12 bowl guide will help you determine what conference games are worth your time. The Big 12 bowl slate starts at 9 tonight, when Missouri takes on Iowa in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz. Page 1B
10 iPad vs. Kindle
9,8
7 KU professor Janet Hamburg dies
As I am making the quilt, I love imagining in my mind some darling child hugging it and feeling like someone cares.”
Notre Dame, Arkansas to join the Big 12?
2 The Big Ten wants Texas
— Marla Welch of Lawrence, who along with a handful of recruits established a local children’s quilting organization last April, called Pieces that makes blankets for children at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Page 3A
COMING WEDNESDAY Intoxicated revelers who forgot to assign their designated drivers will have another option this New Year’s Eve: Tipsy Taxi will be back again.
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INDEX Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion Poll Puzzles Sports Television Vol.152/No.362
7A 6B-10B 9A 2A, 5A 10A 10B 7A 8A 2A 10B 1B-5B 2B, 10B 20 pages
Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org
4 Winter weather closes schools in January
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McCollum gun scare
The synthetic drug K2
10 most-clicked-on stories run the gamut By Whitney Mathews wmathews@ljworld.com
Tens of thousands of users log on to LJWorld.com everyday and click on thousands of links. As an online editor, I analyze what stories, videos and photos on LJWorld.com readers find interesting. At the end of each year, we look at the most clicked-on stories of the year and share them with you. Here are LJWorld.com’s Top Stories of 2010:
10. iPad vs. Kindle The iPad made its debut this year, and a story we
posted by The Associated Press crept into our top 10 because of good headline writing. Unlike many of the other stories in the top 10, which had one or two days of glory before they faded away, iPad vs. Kindle saw consistent web traffic over a long period thanks to Google. Our headline matched the key words many people used when looking to compare Apple’s new gadget and Amazon’s Kindle. If you Google “iPad vs. Kindle” our story is the eighth result on the first page, and Google still sends visitors to this story on a daily basis. iPad vs. Kindle was looked at 22,219 times.
LJWorld.com stats Online statistics for 2010: Total comments: 280,385 Total stories: 23,386 Total blogs: 1,944 Total videos: 5,285
9 & 8. Raid at property east of Lawrence leads to meth trafficking charges On Feb. 17, Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office investigators and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spent two days raiding a farmhouse and sur-
Associated Press Writer
Please see LAWRENCE, page 5A
Mario Little arrested, suspended indefinitely
QUOTABLE
By John Hanna
Please see TOP STORIES, page 7A
5 6
Lawrence to figure largely in boundary discussion
7. KU professor Janet Hamburg dies On Sept. 4, popular Kansas University dance professor Janet Hamburg died in New York City. Hamburg, a professor at
GOP sweep Kansas’ top 2010 news story Sunflower State Republicans swept to easy wins Nov. 2, sending both fiscal and social conservatives to the governor’s chair, the U.S. Senate, Congress and a host of statewide offices. The results proved to be the state’s biggest story of 2010, according to a survey of Associated Press member newspaper and broadcast editors. The Kansas University ticket scandal also made the top 10. Page 7A
ANALYSIS
TOPEKA — Congressional redistricting debates among Kansas legislators are likely to focus on the northeast part of the state, and Democrats drubbed in this year’s elections hold out some hope that new lines will improve their chances of capturing a U.S. House seat in two years. U.S. Census Bureau figures released last week confirmed that Kansas won’t lose any of its four House seats, a result expected by the state’s political leaders. But those same leaders anticipate that future census data will show significant shifts in population from rural areas to urban and suburban ones. They expect the already sprawling and rural 1st District of western and central Kansas to grow because most of its counties have lost population, some signif icantly. The 3rd District, centered on the state’s portion The most likely of the Kansas result is that City metropoli- some tan area, is Democratic expected to areas will move shrink, because Johnson Coun- into the 2nd ty has seen the District, state’s most represented by robust popula- Republican Lynn tion growth. Jenkins, making What that really means is her district a that legislators little more have to figure competitive for out what to do Democrats. with Lawrence and Kansas City, Kan., two of the handful of Kansas communities where Democrats are strong. Lawrence is divided between the 3rd and the 2nd District of northeast Kansas, while all of Kansas City, Kan., is in the 3rd. The most likely result is that some Democratic areas of either county will move into the 2nd District, represented by twoterm Republican Lynn Jenkins, making her district at least a little more competitive for Democrats. The state has an all-GOP congressional delegation, and Republicans hold all statewide offices and huge majorities in both legislative chambers — but that actually might make the next congressional redistricting trickier.
Raid at property east of Lawrence leads to meth trafficking charges
STATE
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LJWorld.com
TUESDAY • DECEMBER 28 • 2010
rounding buildings at 1706 North 1500 Road, home to All Seasons Tree Service. The raid resulted in the arrest and indictment of Donald Milton Steele and Randy J. Dyke, both 50, and Anthony Wayne Sims, 57, on meth traff icking charges. The raid story had 25,656 page views, and the arrest story had 22,265 page views.
Redesign, money, achievement to be major issues for schools By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
Fifth-graders will be the oldest students in elementary schools. Sixth- through eighthgraders will be in middle school, following new schedules designed to help ease the transition into secondary education. And freshmen? They’ll actually be attending classes on high school campuses, instead of seeing their grades simply recorded on high school transcripts. For Chelsea Sandy, a junior at Lawrence High School, the Lawrence school district’s coming changes for 2011-12 lead to an easy conclusion.
“It’s going to be crowded,” and in the planning stages for months. she said. Every school in the district Sandy may be talking about the hallways, the lock- will see operational changes: No more sixthers and the cafetegraders in elemenria, but she could tary schools, no have just as easily more ninth-graders been referring to in junior highs, and the district’s ongono longer a threeing list of issues, year duration for the changes and finanon-campus portion cial challenges to be of a four-year high addressed. Part 4 in a series: school education. Here’s a look at SCHOOLS The high schools some of the major will go from six periitems for the district, as the calendar turns to ods per day to seven periods per day, and their campuses 2011: could see some physical modifications — additional Redesign moves forward The district is still refining lockers, kitchen remodeling, plans for its major redesign acoustical changes to some and reconfiguration, in the rooms — by the time classes works for more than a year begin in August.
2011
A look ahead
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
GABBY RAMOS, LEFT, AND KYLE BERKLEY, both South Junior High eighth-graders, play their trombones during band rehearsals Dec. 16. All district eighth-graders will move into high school next year as freshmen become part of the high school campuses and junior highs change into middle schools. Until then, of course, officials will continue planning: developing curriculum, devising schedules, determining personnel shifts.
“We’ll see how that all fits together,” said Frank Harwood, the district’s chief operations officer. Please see SCHOOLS, page 5A