Cokie Roberts to accept: William Allen White prize

ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts will speak Wednesday at Kansas University.

Roberts will be in Lawrence to receive the William Allen White Foundation’s national citation. She will deliver a public lecture at 1:30 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union.

Roberts has been chief congressional analyst for ABC News since 1998, contributing to World News Tonight and other news programs. She also is co-anchor of “This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts” and is a news analyst for National Public Radio.

Roberts also will attend a foundation luncheon and meet with students and faculty in the KU School of Journalism on Wednesday.

The citation has been presented annually since 1950 to journalists who exemplify the ideals of William Allen White, the Emporia newspaper editor and publisher.

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Severe weather: City’s power fully restored after devastating ice storm

All power has been restored in the Lawrence area in the wake of last week’s ice storm, but about 13,000 Westar Energy customers remain without electricity, Westar reported Sunday afternoon.

“As far as we’re aware, everywhere in the Lawrence area is restored,” said Cynthia McCarvel, spokeswoman for Westar Energy.

If anyone is still without power, they should contact Westar at (800) LIGHTKS to report the outage.

More than 1,000 crew members from Westar and from Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, Oklahoma and Midwest Energy of Kansas have worked round-the-clock since Tuesday to restore power, McCarvel said.

The crews will continue working until all power is restored.

Here are the major outages, and number of customers affected, as of 3 p.m. Sunday:

Emporia/Eureka: 1,900

Olathe and Shawnee Mission: 4,500

Pittsburg/Ft. Scott: 600

Arkansas City: 3,700

Independence: 1,000

El Dorado: 1,000

Other scattered outages: 300

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Brain teaser: Hughes quiz, Day 5

This is one in a series of questions to test your knowledge on Langston Hughes as part of the celebration of his 100th birthday. A new question will appear each day through Feb. 14.

Each day’s answer will be posted at langstonhughes.ljworld.com.

5) What famous Langston Hughes poem is based on a racial incident at a Lawrence park?

Answer to Sunday’s question: Langston Hughes’ grandfather Charles Henry Langston.

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Project funds: Cost for dam repairs may increase after hole detected

Lawrence city commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting will be urged to spend an additional $105,000 to repair a previously undetected hole in the Bowersock Dam.

Construction crews currently working on the dam, which spans the Kansas River near Sixth and Massachusetts streets, found a 22-foot-wide hole that goes approximately half-way through the dam.

The city’s engineers believe the 22-by-15-by-13-foot hole creates enough of a structural concern that commissioners should approve the extra money and instruct crews to repair the hole before this year’s spring rains, if possible.

The addition would increase the total cost of the project to nearly $2 million, which is about $400,000 more than city officials originally estimated.