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L A W R E N C E

JOURNAL-WORLD

®

$1.25

Thunderstorms

High: 76

Saying the right words

Low: 43

Today’s forecast, page 12A

INSIDE

Coupon value in today’s Journal-World: Over $100

mfagan@ljworld.com

A Eudora resident has turned his garage into a sporting club, of sorts. Friends come over to punch, kick and wrestle each other, all in the name of mixed martial arts. Anywhere from six to 15 people meet in the garage, which has padded walls and floors, a few times a week to practice techniques and work out. Page 3A KU FOOTBALL

Transfer LB ready to make an impact Kansas University linebacker Darius Willis, who didn’t play last year after transferring from Buffalo, made a name for himself before even getting to play in a game. In a survey last season, many of his teammates said he’d be a great leader. Page 1B

QUOTABLE

This is kind of our swan song. It’s the final performance for the company. We’re also the last professional modern dance company remaining in Kansas, so it’s kind of grim times for the state.” — Susan Rieger, artistic director for the 940 Dance Company, which will give its final performances this week. Page 1C

COMING MONDAY It’s too late to take advantage of any of 2010’s green tax breaks, but there are plenty to choose from for 2011.

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INDEX Arts & Entertainment 1C-6C Books 3C Classified 7B-12B Deaths 2A Events listings 12A, 2B Horoscope 11B Movies 5A Opinion 11A Puzzles 11B, 4C Sports 1B-6B, 12B Television 5A, 2B, 11B Vol.153/No.100 52 pages

Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo

JAMES CALDERÓN, RIGHT, TRANSLATES to a defendant during a court hearing April 7. Calderón is a judicial and medical Spanish interpreter.

Interpreter makes living by helping people understand By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com

James Calderón sits patiently in a chair in the front row of the gallery of a Douglas County courtroom waiting for the parties and District Judge Kay Huff to start the hearing. He’s wearing a dark jacket and tie, and he’s carrying a black leather bag that includes his worn out Wiley’s English-Spanish and Spanish-English Legal Dictionary. The book’s binding is held together with several pieces of clear packaging tape, but the Spanish interpreter says the dictionary is invaluable, especially if he comes across a legal term he needs to look up as he interprets for clients. Assistant Douglas County District Attorney Catherine Decena Skinner

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than a whisper in the background. Calderón with his hands in his pockets stands next to the defendant, Porfirio Pascual Secundino. He’s detailing every word that’s said in court in Spanish directly into Secundino’s ear. Defense attorney Jason Billam is careful to speak a few words or a sentence at a time with pauses built in. His voice also carries. And, as promised, Skinner is speaking more slowly than she was a week earlier. Calderón says he often looks at the floor or something on the wall as a way to focus on what he’s hearing. If things go smoothly, he’s usually only a few seconds behind what’s being said in English. Please see INTERPRETER, page 2A

Please see SCHOOLS, page 6A

By Karrey Britt kbritt@ljworld.com

Rape survivor Meghan Oberzan helped get a new law passed in North Carolina that took effect Feb. 1. The new law allows police to take DNA samples from people who are arrested on felony charges, rather than waiting until they are convicted. If that law had existed before Sept. 25, 2005, it’s possible the 31-year-old Lawrence native would not have had to experience the most horrific event of her life. Oberzan, who now lives in the Kansas City area, grew up in Lawrence and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1998. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and psychology at Kansas University in 2004. In January 2005, she and a friend moved to Charlotte, N.C., to “just live the good life,” Oberzan said. She worked in a coffee shop in a nice area known as Dilworth neighborhood.

‘Pleaded for my life’ On Sept. 25, 2005, she went jogging in the neighborhood. It was a Sunday morning. “It was a real popular jogging route, and it was along a busy street. I must have passed a dozen joggers that morning on my route. Lots of people out and about, lots of cars passing by,” Oberzan said. But there was a moment when nobody was around, and that’s when a man jumped out from a bush and grabbed Oberzan from behind. He had what appeared to be a knife and threatened her. He dragged her from the sidewalk to behind an office building, where he raped her. “I pleaded for my life. I begged for my life. Please see SURVIVOR, page 2A

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

LAWRENCE NATIVE MEGHAN OBERZAN plays with Maximus at Next Level Sports Performance, 644 Locust St. Oberzan was a victim of a serial rapist in North Carolina. She returned to Lawrence and started running with Maximus to help her feel comfortable exercising outside after her attack.

KU alumni compile ‘honks’ from 1970s Twitter predecessor ahyland@ljworld.com

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walks in and sees Calderón. “I’ll try not to talk so fast this time,” she says. In the middle of a hearing a week earlier in the same domestic battery case, Calderón had to raise his hand to ask Huff to have Skinner slow down when she was speaking so he could more easily translate the exact words to the defendant. Calderón smiles and cordially says thank you to Skinner. “It’s OK. I had coffee before I came here,” Calderón says as they laugh. Minutes later the defense attorney and Huff enter. The judge calls the case and reminds Calderón that he’s still under oath, and the parties begin the hearing. It’s mostly the attorneys and judge talking over matters, but you can hear a soft sound, slightly louder

Lane Eisenhart is a realist when it comes to the future of her neighborhood’s beloved elementary, New York School. She’d like to see it remain open, or perhaps even expanded, as the Lawrence school district weighs options for consolidating schools — moves intended to help grapple with declining state revenue while improving efficiency and preserving or even improving student achieveSCHOOLS ment. She knows New York is in the crosshairs and considers it understandable. “I can see the need for consolidation — the budget cuts and all that,” said Eisenhart, mother of a current fourth-grader and an incoming kindergartner. “I realize it’s a very small school and not very efficient. “I see consolidation as a reality, and I say it will happen. But I could be happiest in the outcome if I could be part of the process.” Just what role folks like Eisenhart might play in consolidation decisions will start taking shape Monday night, as members of the Lawrence school board meet at 7 p.m. at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive. Board members already have embraced an appointed task force’s recommendation that six elementaries — Cordley, Hillcrest, Kennedy, New York, Pinckney and Sunset Hill schools — should be considered for consolidation. Within three to five years, the task force said, the list of remaining schools should be reduced to three or four, using expected proceeds from a bond issue to finance necessary additions, expansions or new construction. Now it’s time for board mem-

Rape survivor helps change N.C. DNA testing law

By Andy Hyland Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org

District to plan school mergers By Mark Fagan

Fighters train in padded garage

LJWorld.com

SUNDAY • APRIL 10 • 2011

First, it’s probably best that you picture the scene and the people who came up with this. It’s 1976 in the computer center at Kansas University’s Summerfield Hall. The computer was one of the few on campus, and it’s a pretty big computer — a Honeywell 635 mainframe computer, in fact. It used punch cards. It took up a whole corner of Summerfield Hall in the basement, but it

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES; IT WAS THE PITS.” — Honk from 1976, No. 88 didn’t have as much computing power as most of today’s smartphones. It was used for administrative and academic functions of the university, but some students and other young people had access to it, too. Two of them, Alexander Barket

and John Borak, wrote a program in 1976 that served as something like today’s social media platforms. The program was called “Honk,” and it allowed users of the mainframe to post anonymous electronic messages that could be read by other users. “Everybody who wanted to know anything about programming hung out at the Comp Center,” said Barket, who still lives in Lawrence and works as a research analyst for KU’s School of Social Welfare and other agencies.

Borak, an undergraduate student looking for a project, came to Barket, who had worked for the School of Business, but now was just sort of hanging around the center and buying computer time for his projects. Barket suggested they build a program that served as a sort of bulletin board for the programming community. Today, Borak works in Bluetooth software engineering for Continental Tire and lives in Cary, Ill. Please see HONK, page 2A


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