State enjoys warm weather

Temperatures topped out at 64 degrees in Lawrence on Monday, and the rest of the state experienced varied temperatures in the high 50s to low 60s. With her head wrapped in her long-sleeve shirt to keep the wind at bay, Butler County Community College freshman Sallye Dye sacrifices warmth for practicality during team practice on the El Dorado campus. “I forgot my visor and ear muffs,” she said, “and my hair’s so long I had to compromise.”

Arts: Filmmakers to speak at KU

Two Oscar-nominated documentary filmmakers will speak Thursday at Kansas University.

Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffmann will speak at 7:30 p.m. at Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union.

Their film, “Long Night’s Journey into Day: South Africa’s Search for Truth and Reconciliation” was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for best feature documentary. It also won best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film features four cases brought before South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee, which addresses human rights violations that occurred during apartheid.

The lecture is part of the 2001-2002 Humanities Lecture Series and is sponsored by the Sosland Foundation and the Hall Center for the Humanities.

Kansas University: Author to discuss work about survivors of Holocaust

An author best known for her book on the psychological aftermath of Holocaust survivors’ children will speak Feb. 28.

Helen Epstein, who wrote “Children of the Holocaust,” will speak at 7:30 p.m. at the ballroom of SpringHill Suites by Marriott.

The book, which is widely used in university courses and by therapists, deals with second-generation and post-traumatic stress syndrome in children of Holocaust survivors.

The free event, which is open to the public, is sponsored by Kansas University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the department of English, the Hall Center for the Humanities, KU Hillel and the Lawrence Jewish Community Center.

Crime: FBI seeking occupants of car seen near dead child’s home

Kansas City, Mo. Â The FBI is looking for the occupants of a car spotted in front of the home of a Boonville girl found dead last week.

Eight-year-old Alyssa Owen was found dead last Tuesday along a gravel road about 8 miles north of Boonville. She had last been seen on Monday getting off a school bus at her home.

The FBI has also been seeking Alyssa’s mother, Janice Marie Owen, 43, since last Tuesday. Agents interviewed a man in Texas, but FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said Monday that agents have no suspects in the girl’s death.

Lanza said witnesses twice saw a white or light-colored small car in front of the house Monday afternoon. The first time, around 3:15 p.m., the car was seen with a man and woman in it; the woman is not believed to be Owen, Lanza said.

Neighbors spotted a similar car at the house around 5:45 p.m. Monday. That time, the car had two men in it.

Lanza called finding the mother “the key to solving this case.”

Fatality: Two die in highway wreck

Fredonia  A Fredonia couple died when the van they were riding in collided with a truck pulling a cattle trailer, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

Lee Whinery, 79, and Helen Whinery, 76, died at a hospital after the crash Saturday afternoon at an intersection of two Wilson County roads.

The patrol said the van entered the intersection and was struck by the pickup and trailer, ejecting Lee Whinery.

Two other people in the van were injured.