Commission meetings canceled during holidays

The Lawrence City Commission will not have its regular Tuesday meeting the next two weeks, because Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on Tuesdays this year.

A year-end wrap-up session will be 3 p.m. Dec. 30 at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets. The commission will have its next regular meeting at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Courts: Kansas to get its share of Ford Motor settlement

Kansas will get a share of a $51.5 million nationwide settlement with Ford Motor Co. in a case involving allegations of deceptive sales and advertising for sport-utility vehicles, Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall announced.

Kansas will receive $300,000 from the nationwide settlement with Ford. In the lawsuit the states alleged, among other things, that Ford knew about safety problems with tire failures but didn’t tell consumers. Ford denied wrongdoing.

Under terms of the agreement, Ford will pay $30 million for a nationwide consumer-education campaign about SUV safety. Each state, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, will receive $300,000. Another $6.5 million will be used to pay the costs of the states’ investigation.

Stovall didn’t announce what Kansas would do with its share of the settlement.

State: Population growth in line with Midwest

Kansas’ population grew by 13,000 residents during the year ending July 1, but the state’s rate of growth was slower than the national average.

According to estimates released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau, the state grew from 2.702 million residents on July 1, 2001, to 2.715 million residents a year later, a growth rate of 0.5 percent.

That was in keeping with the Midwest’s growth rate of 0.5 percent, but less than the national average of 1.1 percent.

Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Georgia were the five fastest-growing states, according to the bureau’s estimates. California, with 35 million people, remained the nation’s most populous state.

Education: Manhattan senator to lead commission

Topeka — State Sen. Lana Oleen, R-Manhattan, has been named chair of a commission that promotes regional cooperation in higher education.

Oleen, who is the Senate majority leader, was recently elected to lead the Midwestern Higher Education Commission.

The commission serves Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin.