Local briefs

 Audubon field trip sets sights on prairie chickens

Hoping to find greater prairie chickens in Douglas County, the Jayhawk Audubon Society has scheduled a field trip Saturday to a privately owned site where the birds have been sighted in recent years.

The trip also will include stops at Lone Star Lake and a riparian area in search of pileated woodpeckers, a Louisiana waterthrush and parula warblers. Though likely, these sightings are potential, not guaranteed, organizers said.

The trip is open to the public. The group will meet at 6:30 a.m. at the northwest corner of the Lawrence High School parking lot near 19th and Louisiana streets.

Trip leader Alexis Powell expects the group to return by 11 a.m. For more details, contact Powell in the evening at 749-4461.

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 Higher education: Business, universities team to lobby for more funding

Wichita  Business leaders will join today with state university officials to lobby the Legislature for higher education funding.

The event, at the Exploration Place museum, includes presidents of the six Kansas Regents universities and current and former members of the Board of Regents.

It also includes leaders from such businesses and organizations as Boeing, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Kansas Health Foundation.

A news release issued by the universities said the leaders will “call on the Legislature to hold higher education harmless and include revenue enhancements in the 2003 state budget.”

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 Books: KU conference to focus on African literature

African literature will be the topic of a weekend conference at Kansas University.

The Africana Library Conference, organized by the KU Libraries, runs Friday and Saturday at various campus locations. Presenters include Walter Bgoya, a KU student in the 1960s who now is a publisher. He’ll present “Africa’s Best Books of the 20th Century” at 1:15 p.m. Friday in the Frontier Room of the Burge Union.

A panel of KU faculty members will discuss instructional resources for learning Islam at 3:45 p.m. Friday in the Clarke Instruction Center of Watson Library.

The free events are open to the public. For more information, contact Ken Lohrentz at 864-4593.

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 Schools: Junior high to cook up fast-food fund-raiser

Teachers and staff at South Junior High School plan to cook up a fund-raiser today at a local fast-food restaurant.

To raise money for South, they’ll take orders from customers, draw drinks, cook fries and clean the lobby from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the McDonald’s at 901 W. 23rd St. The restaurant will donate 20 percent of sales during that period to the school.

“It’s really a fun night for the faculty and students,” said Marilyn Dobski, who owns an operates the McDonald’s with her husband, Tom, and has similar partnerships with Southwest Junior High School in Lawrence and Atchison Middle School.

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 Gasoline prices: Pump Patrol seeks best deal

The Journal-World has found a Lawrence-area gasoline price as low as $1.32 at the Conoco at Sixth Street and Crestline Drive and the Citgo stations at Ninth and Iowa streets and at 920 N. Second St.

If you find a lower price, please call us at 832-7154. Be prepared to leave the name and address of the business and the price. Or go to www.ljworld.com/section/gasoline to join our Pump Patrol board.