Activists target coffee shop

Carrying signs reading “Support Local Coffee Shops” and “The Buck Stops Here,” about 20 protesters gathered Saturday afternoon near Starbucks coffee shop, 647 Mass.

“We’re getting a lot of support,” said Laura Adams, 18, a Kansas University student from Topeka, who helped organize the protest.

Motorists honked and waved at the protesters, who were stationed on three corners at Seventh and Massachusetts streets.

Three Lawrence organizations were protesting the coffee chain store’s use of genetically engineered ingredients such as bovine growth hormone. They also were showing support for local coffee shops not owned by corporate giants, they said.

The protesters belong to KU Greens, Lawrence Fair Trade Coffee Commission and KU’s Delta Force.

Starbucks would not comment on the event.

Disturbance: Fireworks cause fire at Jayhawker Towers

Fireworks set off inside a bedroom caused a fire early Saturday in a Jayhawker Towers apartment, 1603 W. 15th St.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical and Kansas University Public Safety officers responded about 4:20 a.m to D tower. Officials evacuated the building, and no one was injured, KU Lt. Schuyler Bailey said.

The fire started in a sixth-floor apartment. That unit and an apartment below it on the fifth floor had a total of about $10,000 damage, Bailey said. Most of the damage was from smoke and water, he said.

Police made no arrests, but information about the incident will be sent to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for review, Bailey said.

Legislature: Prisoners would build homes under state senator’s plan

Topeka State Rep. Bonnie Sharp, D-Kansas City, Kan., says Kansas has a lot of men in prison who could work and a lot of senior citizens who need specialized homes.

She put the two thoughts together and came up with a bill that would allow inmates to build efficiency homes at the state prison.

The 800-square-foot homes, equipped with grab bars in bathrooms and wider hallways, would then be purchased by senior citizens and transported to their communities.

Similar programs are in operation in South Dakota and Oklahoma, and Kansas prison officials endorsed Sharp’s plan, saying they had checked into a similar program earlier, but abandoned it because of a lack of funding.

But Sharp said the $1 million start-up cost would pay off in the long run.

The homes would cost about $27,000 and would benefit seniors who need living arrangements more suited to their limited mobility, she said.

The proposal is House Bill 2965.