Police suggest preparing home for absence

Leaving home for the holidays?

There are a few things you can do before you leave to make sure your home and your personal belongings are still there when you return, according to the Lawrence Police Department.

If you’re going to be gone, make sure nobody can tell just by looking at your house that there’s nobody home. If you subscribe to a newspaper, ask that delivery be stopped on the days you are gone, or have a friend pick them up, Sgt. Mike Pattrick said.

The same recommendation goes for mail delivery, he said.

It also is a good idea to get timing devices for lights inside your home, Pattrick said. Set the timers so that the lights turn off at your bedtime and turn on during the next day.

Police: Wheelchair missing from Lawrence home

Lawrence Police are investigating the theft of a wheelchair from outside a mobile home at Harper Woods, 2200 Harper St.

A 40-year-old man told police that about 7 a.m. Monday, he put the wheelchair, which belongs to his 7-year-old daughter, outside only for a few minutes.

He had returned inside his home and was carrying his daughter to the wheelchair when they discovered it was missing.

Police searched the mobile home park but did not find the wheelchair, valued at $1,500, abandoned anywhere in the area.

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the Douglas County Crime Stoppers tips line at 843-TIPS.

Community service: Blood Center sounds call for donations

An unusually high number of local surgeries this month and lagging levels of blood donations have prompted officials of the Community Blood Center to issue an alert for donations of B positive and O negative blood.

Michelle Wilson, manager of donor recruitment, says the blood center has only a one-day supply of those types of blood.

“We need 1,000 units of B positive and O negative blood over the next few days to avoid a serious shortfall,” she said.

Community Blood Center supplies blood to 73 hospitals in Kansas and Missouri, including Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

The Community Blood Center’s Lawrence office is in the Orchard Corners Shopping Center, 15th Street and Kasold Drive. Call 843-5383 to make an appointment.

Donors also can stop in from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. today at Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s Jayhawk Auditorium, where a blood drive will be conducted.

‘River city weekly’: Show features traditions of native thanksgivings

Dan Wildcat, professor of American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University, joins host Greg Hurd on a special holiday encore of “River City Weekly” this week on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6.

Wildcat, a Euchee member of the Muscogee Nation, shares his understanding of the native and immigrant thanksgiving traditions. “Giving thanks is the preeminent feature of American Indian traditions,” Wildcat said.

Then Wildcat discusses his book, co-authored with Vine Deloria Jr., “Power and Place: Indian Education in America.” “Power and Place” addresses philosophical similarities and differences between Western and native educational methods and charts a course for the future of Indian American education.

“River City Weekly” airs at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays with encore showings at 7:30 weeknights and 9 a.m. Saturdays.