School facilities forum tonight

Lawrence residents tonight can join the debate about the public school district’s facilities study.

Supt. Randy Weseman will play host to the first of six two-hour sessions on the board’s development of a 20-year facility master plan and a $50 million to $60 million bond issue to improve buildings.

The tentative plan includes possible consolidation of elementary schools and construction of a new alternative high school and a junior high school.

The meeting is 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

Staff from DLR Group, an Overland Park consulting firm, will be on hand to explain technical aspects of the facility study. School board members also will be on hand to answer questions.

A majority of the meeting will be devoted to gathering public comment.

The next forum is 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Central Junior High School, 1400 Mass.

Turnpike driver faces federal drug charges

Kansas City, Kan. A man whose sport utility vehicle was found containing several bundles of cocaine while it was parked on Interstate 70 near Lawrence now faces federal drug charges.

Eliseo Cruz-Garcia, 30, of Mexico, was charged Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., with one count of possession with intent to sell 11 pounds or more of cocaine.

Garcia is being held at a federal detention center until a detention hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday.

On Sunday, a Highway Patrol trooper at the Lawrence service area of the Kansas Turnpike became suspicious of a Nissan Pathfinder with fresh tool marks around the fuel tank and driveshaft, U.S. Atty. Eric Melgren said.

The trooper received permission to search the vehicle and found 13 bundles containing about 14 pounds of cocaine in a metal box inside the fuel tank, Melgren said.

If convicted, Garcia faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison without parole.

Speeder sought by police

An eastern Lawrence neighborhood was searched Tuesday afternoon by police and Douglas County Sheriff’s officers who were looking for a man wanted for speeding.

About 3 p.m., witnesses in the area saw several officers searching a six- block area around the 1400 block of Connecticut Street.

No arrests were made. No other details about the search were available late Tuesday from the law enforcement agencies.

Sports psychologist to lecture in Lawrence

A motivational speaker who works with the San Antonio Spurs will lecture twice this week in Lawrence on sports psychology.

David Cook, president of Mental Edge in San Antonio, is a former director of the applied sport and performance psychology program at Kansas University.

During his 12 years at KU, he counseled more than 1,500 athletes and coaches.

Cook will deliver a luncheon talk on “Psychology of Tournament Golf” from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Thursday at Lawrence Country Club, 400 Country Club Terrace. There is a fee for the lunch and the afternoon golf outing, which begins at 1:30 p.m.

He will give a free lecture on “Mindset of a Champion” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday in the gymnasium of Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive.

Cook’s appearances are sponsored by Aletheia Forum, a local organization that promotes education and enrichment activities with a Christian perspective.

For more information, contact Mike Everett at (785) 760-3189.

Free language screenings offered for children

Free speech and language screenings for children will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the East Lawrence Recreation Center, 1245 E. 15th St.

The screenings are sponsored by the Lawrence Sertoma Club and the Schiefelbusch Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic with a grant from Sertoma International.

For more information, call 864-4690.

Bishop marks celebration at Seabury Academy

The Rev. William Smalley, Episcopal bishop of Kansas, will visit Bishop Seabury Academy during the 8:10 a.m. chapel service today as part of the annual celebration of Episcopal Schools Week.

Smalley will give the homily and formally install the Rev. Grant Clowers as the school chaplain. Clowers has been leading weekly chapel services and providing pastoral assistance since the school year began.

The National Association of Episcopal Schools has made “Forward with Faith and Reason” the theme for this year’s celebration.

Bishop Seabury Academy, 1411 E. 1850 Road, is an NAES-member school with 106 students enrolled in seventh through 12th grades.

Police investigate Haskell bomb threat

Lawrence Police were called Monday night to a dormitory at Haskell Indian Nations University after a report of a bomb threat.

Police say a call came into the dispatch center just before 11 p.m. The caller claimed there was a bomb inside a room in Winona Hall. Police searched the building but found that particular room number did not exist.

No device was found and the dorm did not have to evacuate.